The Smith Family has moved in to a wonderful suburban home in Willow Creek. Richard has begun working at the local hospital and has moved up quickly to the position of Assistant Nurse. As Izzie was still young, Elizabeth had decided to stay at home in order to care for the youngster. She enjoyed the quality time she is able to spend with her daughter, as well as her other two children, even if William can be a bit of a handful at times.
Once Izzie entered school, Elizabeth found it hard to be at home all day alone, and decided to begin a career. She found out she loved painting while on a date with her husband, and that became her career. [more...]
Emilie spent much of her time recording videos and posting them for the world to see just to get her name out there. She even employed her sister as her editor. Of course, employed is an apt word, and Izzie began to feel under-appreciated, and not just by her sister. After a fight with her mother, Izzie ran away from home. Fortunately she only went to her brother's apartment, and eventually she came back. It did teach her family not to take advantage of her though. They would go on to try and include her more. [more...]
After graduating high school Izzie got a job in the tech field. She didn't enjoy being employed, despite being employed doing what she had been doing on her own. Nevertheless, she had one goal in mind. She wanted even more freedom, but more than that, she wanted to be with the love of her life. Fortunately, she would eventually become and project manager and be able to finally move out and marry Marisol! [more...]
Warning! If you don't have StrangerVille or haven't played it yet I do not advise you to read this part of Izzie's story. This will detail the entire StrangerVille story. If you don't want major spoilers feel free to skip this part, or read about different branch.
With house prices on the rise in Willow Creek, it was simply not feasible for Izzie to simply move across the street from her childhood home. Besides her brother had moved to the city when he left home, and Emilie had moved to Newcrest. Izzie thought she shouldn't be too different, but also didn't want to move anywhere her siblings had lived, at least no yet. She, therefore, thought StrangerVille made an excellent option. Besides the houses were pretty cheap out there.
The house was old, the wallpaper was tacky and the furnishings looked like they came straight from the flea market, but this was home! In truth it really didn't matter what the house looked like inside or out, all that mattered was it wasn't the same house as Izzie's or Marisol's parents and that the two of them were together.
It didn't take Izzie long to figure out both why this place was so cheap and why the place they had just moved to was called StrangerVille. Just as the couple was beginning to settle in to their new home and the sun began to set under the red rocks strange noises reverberated through the thing walls of the house. This wasn't the creaking or banging one would hear in a horror movie that was easily written off as the old house settling or the old pipes doing what old pipes do. No these noises were truly other worldly and like nothing Izzie had ever heard. Marisol, perhaps to focused on Izzie, didn't seem to bothered by the noises though.
Izzie would eventually shrug them off. They were strange, but this was StrangerVille, and it wasn't like there was anything threatening about them. So Izzie would just enjoy her first night with Marisol and try not to worry.
When Izzie awoke just before dawn the next day, she noticed the noises had stopped, for the most part. There was still this odd rattle on occasion. Izzie decided to take a look around her house to see if maybe these noises were something on the property, or maybe someone was playing a cruel joke on the new neighbors.
If they were, it certainly wasn't very fun! It hadn't taken Izzie long to notice the odd purple plant with an even weirder pink glow sitting in her lawn. Only she was pretty sure the plant wasn't there when they toured the house, or the night before. It was here now though and it wasn't alone.
Marisol was still asleep so Izzie decided to take a look around her neighborhood. It didn't take her long to see that just about ever house had at least one of these plants jotting out of the lawn. Izzie had no idea what they could be, but she decided to keep her distance and snap a photo of one. Maybe she could show it to her father, or something. The news van speeding by just as she snapped her picture was a bit disconcerting, but Izzie figured she wasn't doing anything wrong.
Izzie wandered back home. She would warn Marisol about the plant outside, but it was time for her to go to work, so she wouldn't really be able to say much about it. She didn't really know much else yet anyway, so she would just have to trust that Marisol would stay away from the thing.
While on her way back to her home Izzie stumbled across someone who looked like they were just kind of staggering or like they were a puppet being controlled. When Izzie approached them they just moved oddly about with an odd grin on their face.
Not sure exactly how to react, Izzie decided to try and snap the person out of whatever trance they were in by slapping them. Honestly, she didn't really think it would work. The person seemed completely out of their mind. It seemed pretty apparent they needed more than just a slap, but, apparently that is exactly what the woman needed.
Even though the woman was now conscious enough to speak, she didn't really say much. She did tell Izzie of a shop near a trailer park that might be able to help her identify the plant she had a photo of, but there wasn't much else of use there. Izzie let the woman go and headed for the shop. The trailer park wasn't far from Izzie home, so the shop was pretty close to.
The shop carried all sorts of strange things, but, at this point, it really wasn't what the shop carried that mattered. It was the information the shop had. Izzie told the shop keeper about the woman who had mentioned the shop and how odd she had been acting, she also showed him the picture she had snapped. In a hush tone the man warned Izzie to stay away from the plant. Nothing good ever came from one of those things. When Izzie asked if the man knew where the plant came from he only said that there were some strange experiments going on in a lab out in the desert. After that, he just started into a sales pitch about some of his items. Izzie decided her next step should be to find this lab, but that would wait for another day, she needed to make sure her and Marisol had food before the couple headed to bed.
It turned out the lab the Curio Shop owner had spoke about wasn't all that hard to find. It wasn't just in the middle of the desert, it in a crater in the middle of the desert. For a secret lab, it was also very lax on security and even had a large hole in a back fence that made it easy for new-comers to StrangerVille, such as Izzie, to just hop in and take a look. No climbing required!
Of course looks can be deceiving, and this lab was no exception to that rule. Heading inside, Izzie discovered the place empty with documents scattered about, but no people. Not even a single scientist. What she did find was a very large door. The door was locked and seemed to require some sort of keycard. If Izzie wanted to really figure out what was going on, she'd have to get a hold of one of those cards. Of course, there wasn't anyone around here to ask, and she hadn't even met anyone in town yet that might have one, in fact, the only people she had met were the Curio Shop owner and a very strange lady.
Of course, there were all these document boxes and computer just laying about. Maybe she could get lucky and find the keycard in there, or, at the very least, figure out what they might have been doing in this lab.
Izzie searched and searched, but really didn't find anything useful, at least nothing that appeared useful yet. She even tried to hack the computers, being that she was a project manager and tech firm, she figured she would have the skills, but the computer's encryption turned out to be too much for her. The sun was now raising and Izzie would have work soon, so she had to end her investigation here for the day, but she was far from done with this place.
Izzie couldn't say she hated her job, but it was getting even more apparent that having to go to work every morning was just going to get in the way. She decided to quit her job and go freelance! This would give her far more time to uncover what was going on around StrangerVille and, bonus, she would be able to work from home and not be tied to a desk.
With that squared a way, Izzie returned to the lab. Marisol didn't seem to mind Izzie just up and disappearing, so there really wasn't anything to stop her. Unfortunately, she didn't really get much more from the files or computers at the lab then she had the previous day.
Izzie decided to go to a local bar not far from her house. She had told Marisol they were going to pick up something for dinner, and that wasn't entirely untrue, but Izzie had more than just food on her mind.
Before the couple even sat down, Izzie was already out talking to whomever should could about the giant door and the secret lab. It wasn't long before a soldier from the local military base showed up. Izzie was worried they would take her to some other secret location for asking too many questions. She had seen abandoned military vehicles at the lab, so she knew the base was connected. Fortunately, the soldier was more than pleasant and even confirmed that Izzie would need a key card in order to open the door. Sadly, the soldier also said they were next to impossible to come by.
After finally grabbing a bite to eat with Marisol, Izzie sent her girl home, and headed to the Curio shop. Marisol only let her go this time because the shop wasn't far and Izzie promised it wouldn't take long. She certainly wasn't wrong. Izzie showed the owner what she had gathered so far from the lab, he said it wasn't quite enough to convince anyone to give her a key card. Of course, if she could get more, that would change things. Fortunately, Izzie would have plenty of time to do just that now that she worked from home.
Having exhausted everything she could get her hands on at the lab, Izzie decided to head for the town library. It was a long shot, but perhaps, just maybe, there was something there that could help her figure out what was going on, or, at least enough information to get convince someone to get her a keycard to look for more.
The library was small, but no smaller than the one she had in Willowcreek growing up. There was far more here than there though. Each tall bookcase was filled to the brim with old volumes, much of which detailed the history of the town. Maybe there was something in one of those books that would help Izzie with her investigation. She grab anything she could on StrangerVille and found a quite corner to look them over.
While the history of the town certainly was fascinating, there was nothing in the books about what had been happening recently. In fact the secret lab was not even mentioned yet. Sometimes though, it isn't the words of the book that matter, but what is inside the book that counts. There seemed to be a blurry photo of some kind stuffed between the pages of one. Izzie couldn't really make out what it was, but it had to have something to do with the lab or the weird plants.
Just as Izzie took the daunting task of re-shelving the books she had gathered, she discovered someone in a white coat, a lab coat. She politely introduced herself and soon learned the man was a scientist and he worked at the lab. Her first question was to ask if the man had a keycard to let her passed the giant doors. The man merely said that the door was sealed for a reason. Izzie showed the man the things she had gathered and asked if any of those were the reason the doors were sealed. The man grew stone-faced and just walked out of the library. Izzie was getting somewhere, she just didn't know where. Fortunately, she had another avenue to pursue.
Izzie spent the rest of the day asking anyone she could for any evidence they may have gathered in regards to the lab or the weird plants. Being polite and courteous apparently got Izzie everywhere. Most of the people she talked to had something to give her. Not of it made any sense by itself, but things seem to be coming together with every piece of evidence she gathered.
With evidence, as shaky and disjointed as it seemed, mounting Izzie was able to put together quite a dossier of what she thought might be going, or had been going on, at the secret lab in the crater. She wasn't really sure what to do with it at first. She could have shown it to the Curio Shop owner, one of the scientists she met, a military officer, or leaked it online, but she knew there wasn't much there and she needed more. She needed to understand what was really happening here.
With the files in hand she just headed to the local bar. She planned on just brooding over the files with a glass of something juicy, but then someone who carried themselves with great import and wore a much more decorated uniform wondered in to the bar. The person turned out to be a sergeant major at the military base.
Izzie began a conversation with the soldier. At first she didn't even mention her investigation, just that she had just moved to StrangerVille. She was warned, yet again, to stay away from the strange plants growing all over the place. Izzie began showing the officer what she had gathered so far and asked if any of this was connected to the plants. The woman grabbed a table with Izzie and, in hushed tones, confirmed everything. She offered no additional evidence, but looked around the room. The conversation suddenly ended. The officer left the bar, but, before doing so, she had touched Izzie's knee under the table. Izzie knew this wasn't some sort of advance as there was something left on her knee when the officer stood up. Izzie quickly pocketed the item, finished her drink, waited a few more minutes and vacated the bar herself.
Once out of the bar, Izzie fingered the item in her pocket. It certainly felt like some kind of ID card or something of that nature. She decided to head straight for the lab, after making sure no one had followed her out of the bar.
Once back at the lab, Izzie headed straight for the giant door and pulled out the card in her pocket. She looked it over. It seemed to have some kind of chip or something inside it. She held the card up to a reader near the door and the door slid open. The motion was far from smooth and weird spores of some kind scattered into the air from behind the door, but now Izzie could see what the door was hiding. It was a simple staircase.
The staircase led down to a basement area of the lab. There was a bunch of equipment Izzie didn't quite recognize, but there were also a few containment vessels near a far wall. One showed the plant that she had seen outside, both near the lab, and near her home, but the other two showed something a bit different. The looked like they could be the same plant, just in another state of growth. Maybe the first plant was immature and the others were more mature. Izzie couldn't tell from what she could see around her or the evidence she had gathered thus far, but she could simply asked the scientist she had met about the room. She decided to leave thing as they were for the day and ask more questions before heading back in later.
On her way out of the room, Izzie noticed in odd fog or smoke coming from a hallway. She decided to take a look, but the air was thick and ominous. She decided she should probably find some way of protecting herself before she continued down that hallway, and returned to the stairs.
Once outside, Izzie couldn't help but notice the strange rattling sounds had gotten louder. The weird spores that she had seen exiting the doors seemed to be everywhere now, but, what was perhaps worse, was that the plants around the lab now resembled those larger ones she had seen inside. This confirmed her theory that the larger plants were just more mature than the smaller ones, but Izzie didn't really know what that meant. She could tell that it didn't mean anything good though.
Izzie ran from the lab and headed straight home. The entire time she hadn't noticed the sky. When she did notice the odd orange and purple hues in the sky, she was already home, and far more worried. She had released something from the lab, and it had caused the sky to turn weird, the weather to turn weird, and the plants to grow. Izzie needed to figure out what she had done, and try and fix it before it was too late.
Turns out the weird wasn't just limited outside Izzie's home either. Creepy vines suddenly grew out of the toilet just after Izzie tried to flush it. That was quite an uncomfortable though, but Izzie just had to try and clear them before Marisol saw. Hopefully she would never have to worry about vines coming up again, but the only sure-fire way to be sure was to find out what exactly Izzie had unleashed on StrangerVille. To do that she needed to get passed the eerie hallway.
Unfortunately, she had a deadline for a freelance project that she had to worry about, so this would limit her time for investigation a bit. Fortunately, the projects pay out would be enough to keep the couple fed and lights on for at least another week or so.
With project completed, and payout received, before the deadline too, Izzie was able to spend some time asking around about the spores in the lab. Her first stop was the Curio Shop. She was pretty sure the owner or one of the other shopkeepers would be able to help her with something that could get passed that weird blue fog.
Izzie was only half right. The shop happened to stock a number of hazardous material suits that would keep her mostly connected, but they had no way of filtering the spores out of the air Izzie breathed, and that, it turns out, could be just as dangerous. The shopkeeper was able to confirm that the scientists that hung out at the library might have a filter, or, at least, the designs for one.
Izzie's next trip was out to the library. It was getting late, but she felt that time might be running a little thin, so she would hazard the trip. Besides, it really wasn't even dark yet. Unfortunately, the scientists hanging out at the library weren't as much help as Izzie hoped. Turns out they could make a filter, but they needed to know more about the spores. They had left the lab in such a hurry that they hadn't had time to analyze them, so they couldn't complete the designs for the filter. On top of all that any viable samples were invisible to the naked eye. Izzie would need a special scanner to reveal the location of the samples before she could collect and analyze them. A scanner only the military personnel had. Time for another trip to the bar.
Before even setting foot in the bar, Izzie found one of the military officers. She introduced herself, asked about the spores in the lab and tried to hint at knowing about the scanner. The officer actually confirmed the military had a scanner that could detect things the naked eye couldn't see and that scanner could probably detect these so-called spores, if the exist, but she wasn't going to hand it over to anyone.
Izzie thought a show of might, might convince the officer she was qualified only she forgot that she was more of a computer geek the military jock and her "show of strength" wasn't very impressive. In the end it took a bribe, but she did get her hands on the scanner. After all that though, it was now too late for her to do anything with it.
With scanner now in hand, and plenty of time in the day, Izzie returned to the lab. To be honest, Izzie wasn't sure how Marisol felt about her spending so much time away from home. Marisol did work, but she worked late at night and Izzie mostly left home first thing in the morning. Izzie never asked about Marisol's feelings on the subject either. She knew more about what was happening the Marisol and didn't want to worry her, but she knew time was not on her side. For Marisol's part, she never voiced any concerns either.
At the lab, Izzie began scanning whatever and where ever she could. She was surprised just how many invisible spores there were on the ground. She thought about seeing how many of these spores had actually escaped the lab, but there wasn't much time for that.
Besides, Izzie had more than enough samples just lying around the lab to complete the kind of analysis she needed in order for the scientists to do their thing and the equipment she needed to use to make the analysis was already in the lab, so it seemed best just to stay there until she was finished.
Once she finished her analysis she could tell that the spores seemed to contain some sort of agent that affected anyone they came in direct contact with. She was worried about the safety of Marisol and the other townies in StrangerVille, but she would need more samples and more data in order to figure out just what the agent was an come up with some kind of vaccine or cure. To get those samples Izzie would need to get into the deepest parts of the lab, and, for that, she would need a fully functional haz-mat suit.
By now most of the scientists were aware of what Izzie was trying to do. They all actually hoped she would be able to undo their mistakes. This was great for Izzie, all she needed was a quick polite introduction with any scientist she had yet to meet and a quick update on her investigation and they'd probably bend of backward for her, even without the spore-born decease.
One such scientist took a look at the data she had gathered from her analysis at the lab and almost instantly promised to send her a filter for her haz-mat suit that would filter out the spores from the air so she can go deeper into the lab. He only hoped she would be able to come up with the vaccine they had failed to create.
The scientist worked quickly, and so did the post office, the filter was in Izzie's mailbox before she even returned home. This was good, as Izzie wanted to get back to the lab as quickly as she could, but first, at little lunch.
Izzie had never cooked, but, fortunately, Marisol was there to try and make some grilled cheese sandwiches for the couple. Unfortunately, Marisol hadn't done much more cooking than Izzie, and soon a fire had broken out. If Izzie didn't know better she would assume this was some kind of intervention to prevent her from learning what was going on in the StrangerVille. Either way this would put a hitch in the plan, and, to top everything off, the sandwiches were terrible!
Izzie did get money from her home owner's insurance, but it wasn't even enough to replace he burnt out stove. She would have to take one another job to replace everything else. The lab would just have to wait. She wouldn't be any good to anyone if she starved to death.
Izzie took on a job to ensure the couple would be cared for while she continued her investigation. She just finished chatting with her client and working on one of the webpages they had requested so she decided to sit down for a bit of lunch. Fortunately, Marisol had just made a fresh batch of grilled cheese that she didn't manage to burn, or set the kitchen on fire with. Unfortunately, Marisol had just finished her own sandwich and had something on her mind.
As soon as Izzie sat down to enjoy her lunch and a break from working, Marisol laid right into her. She yelled at her for not spending more time at home, or helping with the cooking or the cleaning. Izzie pointed out that she had been busy, but Marisol wasn't buying it. She knew Izzie worked at home now, so where could she possibly be going and what could she possibly be doing that was so important?
Izzie wanted to say she had been trying to save the town, and she had cleaned the toilet and sink plenty of times, clearing away odd vines that grew up the plumbing, but she didn't want to worry Marisol, she she mostly kept quiet. She only occasionally butted in to remind her wife that they were married, but that doesn't mean Marisol got to control her.
Izzie had finished her haz-mat suit, and saw no reason to continued listening to Marisol's insults. Still in her night shirt, Izzie donned her Haz-Mat suit and headed back to the lab. Maybe she could apologize to Marisol when she got back, maybe her wife will have calmed down by then.
Once in the lab, Izzie had down the hallway that was filled with the weird blue-purple fog only to come across another door. Fortunately, the key card she got earlier worked here too. She headed down a few more flights of stairs and deeper into the lab.
Apparently the upper floor was just where the scientist made observations on the maturation of the strange plants. The real experimentation happened down here. There were many more samples in many more containment units, and even a piece of a plant hooked up to some sort of battery, perhaps testing for any sort of reflex reaction that would not be normal in a plant. Though Izzie did feel safer in her suit, she didn't want to wait around here just to see all the scientists were working on.
To her right, Izzie noticed a lot more vines than she had seen anywhere in the lab. With a bit of trepidation she headed down another hallway covered in vines only to come across yet another large, locked door. Well, her key card had worked on two other door in the lab, so, it would probably work here.
Not sure what she was about to walk into, Izzie took a deep breath of filtered air and pull out her key card. She felt as if everything she had learned about the strange plants, the infection, everything around StrangerVille was about to revealed right in front of her. All her work, the fight she just had with Marisol, it was all about to pay off. You'd think that'd make her happy, but she was also afraid and worried. She was worried about Marisol's safety and about her own, not to mention the rest of the town. Nevertheless, she had caused this, and she would find a way to end it. With that, she held the key card to the door, and it slowly opened.
Beyond the final door was a large plant similar to the other strange plants scattered around StrangerVille. It was easy to conclude that this was the source, the mother as it were, of all the other plants and the infection that plagued the town. Izzie's first impulse was to attempt to communicate with it, but it didn't seem all that interested in talking.
Her next impulse was to try and find away to free the townies from its grasp. She used what she learned from the mother, her spores, and the strange fruit her offspring produced to whip up a cure. Only the scientists hadn't even made it this far, how can she be sure it would work? Izzie had to leave the lab and head back into the field to find people she could test her little cure on.
It didn't take much searching for Izzie to find someone who appeared possessed. The town was practically crawling with them by now. She only hoped the cure did something, anything. She didn't know how the mother plant, or her victims would react to having some sort of strange liquid thrown at the face of a possessed. Fortunately, the sim just passed out. Maybe the mother wouldn't know what Izzie had done just yet.
Izzie didn't have to foresight to make more than one batch of her experimental vaccine, so she had to return to the lab to make another couple of batches for further testing. After she made two more batches she found two additional victims to throw them at and observed the reaction. Once the tests were done, Izzie was confident that, though she was a programmer and not a scientist, she had enough data to tweak the cure to remove the parasites or spores or whatever without the victim passing out. This would be good for Izzie, she needed these people conscious so she could ask for their help in defeating the mother plant. Izzie returned to the lab to make her adjustments.
With a few batches of a working cure now in hand Izzie returned to town to locate more possessed sims. Again, this didn't take too long. After throwing her cure in three faces and introducing herself as their savior, Izzie asked them if they could help her defeat the mother plant. They would be using a version of her vaccine and pumping in through essentially a glorified water gun, so anyone could do it, but no one was too keen on facing the plant at first.
It took a bit of social manipulation and luck, but Izzie finally managed to get three people to agree to head over to the lab. All Izzie had to do was get down to the mother plant and call, they'd come running.
After a bit of a dinner and a long nap, Izzie returned to the lab and called her new allies to help. The mother plant wasn't going down without a fight. Izzie hadn't gotten to every citizen of StrangerVille, with her cure, that would have been impossible, but the mother had gotten to most of them, and didn't have any problem sending them after Izzie and her allies.
For her part, Izzie command her party well. They went all out whenever they could and took breaks just at the right time. Her allies managed to avoid becoming infected like those they were fighting off while still doing major damage to the mother plant. It all seemed just like the strategy games that Izzie used to play in her child and teen years.
In the end the mother plant lay defeated in the depth of the lab and Izzie and her party went home. Izzie took a moment to take in the sight of the sky and the landscape around her home before heading inside. StrangerVille would always be strange, but at least now it was a little less strange and no one would have to worry about becoming infected again, unless someone revived the mother plant, but who would do that?
With the mother plant defeated, Izzie felt like she could finally fill Marisol in on what she had been doing. Once she did Marisol felt bad for yelling and arguing with her. Izzie said that she wanted to tell her, but didn't want her to worry. Marisol, for her part, said that it was up to her to worry and Izzie should have just said something.
In the end though the two of them set aside their petty arguments, vowed to do better, and celebrated Izzie's victory over the mother plant in the best possible way. Izzie was just happy that StrangerVille was safe, for the moment.