Bad Influence: The Brianna Files - Chapter 4.

[tigeranne]

Hiiiii Peepserz! I, Raelynn the Narrator, is back with another chapter of Brianna's redemption arc. No, she doesn't have a past as a villain. In fact, she's redeeming herself from being a skinny blonde with nothing unusual or interesting about her, from being insufferably boring.

The autocorrect thinks I spelt "insufferably" wrong, and says the correct spelling is insuffeboardsbly. (That's not a word, I googled it.) I would have taken a screenshot if I had any image editing tool on my laptop. You just have to trust me when I say that it really was their suggested spelling. ô.õ




In the previous chapter, Brianna adopted this cute little cat. She's a Lykoi Wolfcat named Dixie. Brianna has started running an animal shelter where stray cats and dogs can find food, rest and love. It's probably the first time in her life she's made a difference.

Let's have a quick recap of what's happened: Brianna's hopped dimensions, and has moved into a tiny house in the desert town of Oasis Springs. She works in the culinary career, and has a cooking channel on YT. Her friend Maegan works in computer tech, and is constantly depressed because she can't stop gardening, which she hatessss. Also, her boyfriend was squoshed to deth by a vending machine, and her brother died in a sinkhole around the same time, so Maegan's had it tough. Now she's having a dysfunctional relationship with a hairy bald guy named Farhan, who also has many problems. At least she has an emotional support dog.

Brianna also found out that her cousins Nerniya and T'anamika are around.


Brianna thought Dixie needed a friend of her own kind, and Brenda looked like such a cute and floofy option.


It was Brianna's day off work, and she spent the morning at the gym building gardening muscle. That pick doesn't swing itself. Actually, that sounds dangerous, LOL!


Gym Trainer: Streeeeetch your thighs! Use those deep muscles!


Gym Trainer: Pecs will make your bewbs look bigger!

Brianna: >:(


Brant wasn't skipping leg-day.


Morgan saw things she was too young to understand.


Dude: I'm on a list now! x(


Brent Hecking: Gosh darn, we need a men-only bathroom!


Dixie wanted to watch Brianna work, because she's a curious little cat, but it was very scary.


Brianna: Thumbnail. :)


The cats got a little set-up in the shade, with a couple of places to sleep and a scratching post. Dixie felt bliss.


There was another cat tree on the front porch. That ginger guy is Zip.


Brianna: What do you want me to paint?

Morgan: A dog and a cat! And they're ladies in old dresses. With hats.


Brianna: I'm not the best painter, I'm afraid.

Morgan: It's perfect!


Tanner isn't as angy as he pretends. He's just a little doggo who wants to be petted.


Brianna hadn't seen or heard from Georgia for months. Just to be sure Georgia still existed, and hadn't slipped into another timeline, she went over to check.


Georgia: So you're my new neighbour! I think I've seen you before. OH! You're the cooking channel girl!

OH MY GOSH THE IMGUR AI STILL THINKS SHE'S NAKED.


Brianna: Georgia, we know each other in real life! We used to be friends until we had an argument about something and I told you to go home and cool your head.

Georgia: What? You're joking now, right? It's for a video, right? I've never met you before.

Brianna: Oh, nice. It's me who's been Berenstained.


Well, that was awkward. Back home Maegan was not gardening, and that was better.


Later she went for a walk down the road with Blue, and met this girl who looked like both Beverly and her aunt Madeline. They had to be related.

(Technically they're not. I think they're all randomly generated. But I'm going to make them related, so just treat it as canon that Madeline is Beverly's aunt, and this girl could be a cousin.)


Girl whose name I think is Iris: Aww, what a cute dog. She reminds me of Eeyore. You should put a little pink bow on her tail!


Brianna: Cleaning the grease and stuck bits of things off the BBQ regularly is very important. The grease can catch fire. My step-grandfather - one of them, my gran's been married a few - died from Spontaneous Human Combustion. It wasn't a grill that killed him, though. He was a vampire with a heavy drinking problem who walked out into the sun. A greasy grill is a bit similar.

RIP Garrett.


This was supposed to be a "short walk," but Maegan never seemed to be done with it. Their neighbourhood looks so nice at night, though!


Brianna had to exercise when it was cool enough, which wasn't often!


NOOOOOOO!


Brianna comforted herself by petting Tobie. She had decided he was going to be her dog.


Morgan: I got some colour inside the lines. :D


IT'S NOT ME MAKING YOU DO THE GARDENING, MAEGAN!!!!1!


Oh goody, Dixie's home.


Brianna: Never do that again! Stay here with us.

Spoilers: Dixie runs away at least once a week. She's a roaming sort of cat, I guess.


Poor little Pippa had splinters in her paws. Brianna didn't know that she could buy special medicine treats at the vet's office. She does now, but poor Pippa.


Brianna: What have you been crawling through? The drain below the butcher's shop?


Because Dixie is the princess on the pea, and has the Spoiled trait, she required a self-cleaning litter box.


Maegan was so happy that Farhan valued her opinions. I, personally, don't think your SO should have too much influence over who your friends are, though. You know, as long as they're not a murder cult. I wish I could say that I once dumped a guy because he tried to make me platonically break up with my best friend, but it was actually him who dumped me because I refused. This paragraph is dedicated to Logan, who still sucks!


Georgia came over right as Brianna had to run to work, but Brianna told her she could hang around and bond with the animals. She should have a pet companion or two.


She even cleaned the litter box. :) Brianna needs to keep her this time.


Awwwwww! 😻 💖


Brianna: I hope they'll like you too!


Dixie actually seemed to like Garrus. They played paw tennis in the garden.


Maybe if she didn't go straight to the plants the moment she's on free will?!


Brianna had heard that exercise can have a positive effect on depression, or the person who's suffering from it.

Maegan: Am I happy and fulfilled yet?


And from now on, all the animals will have lovely eyes! My defaults are called Dolce V2, in case you want them yourself. They're by Wrixie. I think the human default eyes I have are by her too.


Maegan had already achieved part of her dreams. Now she needed to get programming on an app.


Brianna left it entirely up to her to play "bad cop" for all the children, independent of numbers of legs.


Maegan was behaving badly on the internet again.


Tanner is up for adoption, just saying.


Aw, look at Teddy, curled up in the shade of a sage shrub.


Maegan entered a game tournament, so she could kill many fictional people.


Suddenly Brianna was in England! :O

Agatha Crumplebottom (the nice sister of Agnes) suddenly sent Brianna a message, asking her to come and visit Henford-on-Bagley. Just pretend that since Brianna's from a time-travelling family that can move between timelines and other things, they have a network of teleporting gates. I don't know why peeps from other neighbourhoods are suddenly there, though. Maybe that kind of tech is common in this AU.

(Please excuse the light, I forgot to put the Sunblind modded lighting in for HoB.)


Brianna went to talk to Agatha in her little garden booth. She didn't really have a lot of money, but she bought some seeds for her garden.


Then she visited the famous pub The Gnomes Arms. In Brianna's timeline it's not owned by the Scott family, but by this lady named Jade Melton and her husband, Goopy Melton. Yes for real. Goopy.

(I may have let Neighbourhood Stories run for too long.)


She met an older lady who looked right out of Midsomer Murders.

Brianna: What's the crime rate like around here? Do you have village festivals?


Pink Lady: We have no crime, and festivals every Saturday!


Brianna: Cool. Does the police inspector's wife usually attend?

Pink Lady: No, only the pie contests. She brings the worst pies since Sweeney Todd, but don't tell anyone I said that.


Brianna: Cool trick. I'm impressed.


Brianna: Wow, hot flash! It's not time for Auntie Flo now?


Curiosity brought her to the village green, to see if anyone was going to die from poisoning, or have the world's largest pot of jam roll over them.


Braided Woman: No, we've never had fatal accidents. Why are you asking?

Blonde Girl: Only food poisoning once when there was a pie contest.


Braidy Lady: This is our mayor, Juliette Welsh. She judges all the contests at 9pm.


Brianna: Do people fight if they don't think the best entry won?

Mayor Juliette Welsh: That only happens when the Neighbourhood Brawl is on a Saturday.


Brianna talks to her followers: I'm at a real English village fair! How cool is that?!


This little dog is called Annie. She's a Bichon Frisé. I wonder who she'd make a good pet for, and who would make a good home for her. Maybe some older people?


Maegan had a day off, and went to the park to play chess and mingle with people smarter than Brianna. She was probably not even hoping that Farhan would be there or anything.


Oh.


Farhan: It's so good to see you.

Maegan: I've been thinking about you all the time!


So I read up on the Spencer-Kim-Lewis family, and they only have one canon child. That is Olivia, who's the girl in the striped dress. Sigrid (in pink dress) must be adopted, because when I gave them make-overs later I discovered that she's Vivian Lewis' daughter. Vivian is Olivia's grandmother, who's an elder.


The guy with the awfully red hair kept poking into Maegan's space while she was trying to have some time alone with Farhan. His last name is Neuman, and I can't remember his first because I have memory loss for names. :C


Let's call him Red: I read an article that says being too clean too often makes your natural BO worse. I haven't showered for two weeks, and I'm as fresh as a daisy!


Farhan: Microbiology, dude. READ IT. To your crabs.


Beverly: What is that smell?

Maegan: You just missed him.


Oh no, he came back for seconds.

Red: Ewwww, this place stinks! I told you washing too much does this. No offense, but I can't eat next to you.


Aren't they such a cute pair of puppers?


Maegan finally got to make an important life choice. Life of a gamer it was!


Nice work outfit....


Georgia came over, and all three of them played video games.


It made Brianna feel a bit homicidal.


On Tuesday she brought Maegan to the gym with her.


Maegan got up on a treadmill.


While Morgan was Brianna's personal cheer leader.


Brant cheered for Brent, and that one guy broke down sobbing.


Morgan: Go go go go go go go!

Maegan: I went!


Brianna was doing muscle day.


Maegan: Oh nice, a werewolf movie!


Maegan: Morgan, this movie is too scary for you. Go pester Brianna.


Maybe Maegan wanted to go home. Or something.


Maegan: 😠 😠 😠 😠 😖


Brianna planted the seasonal summer plants. I'm a bit disappointed that strawberries are spring only, because in RL they're definitely a summer thing too, but there's a mod. And CC plants. Yeh, I'm already at the point where I have to turn TS4 too into FarmVille!


There are two kinds of seeds in TS4, regular and crops. The crop ones can be fertilised to be humongous, but Brianna forgot to do that so she only got normal-sized eggplants.


It was the anniversary of the day Maegan's brother Mason died. A very sad day.


WHAT? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!


I think I spy the potential dad. :( They can't give away the kittens, if she has any. Maybe only to Brianna's family and close friends.


Maegan: This is old already.


It wasn't a friend, it was Arabella Tolman, the crazy lady who came over and screamed in Maegan's face, kicked the trash over twice, and helped herself in Morgan's toybox. Or maybe Maegan felt bad about getting someone else to talk smack about Arabella, because she's their friend?


Farhan finally got a grip and asked Maegan on a date. They went to The Gnome's Arms. The pub sign is a gnome with incredibly beefy arms. I should take a picture of it!


Suddenly Maegan whipped out a sprig of mistletoe, in the middle of the summer.


And as such they had their first smooch. Yeh, no. I don't like Farhan that much, but he makes Maegan happy. Sometimes.


The convo got hot, and it wasn't just because they were in England in July.


Maegan: Hi, it's Maegan. I can't come to work today, because I'm on a date with a sexy guy.

Girlboss: Go you!

BTW, that's Goopy Melton, the pub owner's husband.


Insert tango here!


Maegan Spaulding has updated her status to In A Relationship.


They were already on the backrub stage.


I see people who need makeovers. And Maegan met that same lady who Brianna talked to.


Wait, is that a chav?


He seemed like a really nice fella, though. Maegan talked to him and discovered that he was an animal lover. Why couldn't she have met him before she got with Farhan?


BTW, Briana got promoted.


Maegan got home and noticed that the trainer from the gym was visiting, and Jillian "Pat" the nanny was using their computer to set up a Tinder.


Morgan thought it was really cool that they both had monster jammies.

Maegan: How would you like it if Farhan was your uncle? I don't mean like Uncle Matthew who's my brother, but as a cool guy who's part of our family.

Morgan: Okay.


Darion: I'm here to look after you tonight, because Pat's on a date.

Morgan: Oh no, bedtime?


Brianna was learning gourmet cooking, with asparagus and stuff. Teddy followed his nose and belly to the kitchen door.

It's kind of weird that there isn't harvestable asparagus in TS4, when there's a recipe that needs it.


Brianna got a bit of hate for having cats in her cooking videos, but a lot more people thought it was really cute and loved all the kittehs in the kitchen.


Brianna: Three recipes in one day. :( I'm knackered. But it's three videos, so....


Brianna: Okay, putty tat. We gotta look alive. After this we can call it an afternoon.


Brianna: For this recipe you'll want to use extra virgin olive oil. It just adds that little pzingg to the flavour.


Brianna: Tradition says that instead of stirring, the chef needs to roll the bowl across their back and arms, from hand to hand. It takes a lot of practice. I only managed it with a bowl of water a few days ago.


Brianna: Liftoff!


Brianna: Touchdown!


Dixie appreciated that Darion emptied the litter box like a good servant.


They love each other. >:(


It was Prank Day, and to avoid the disappointment of a bad holiday for Maegan, the girls went out to prank people. Brianna told Casandra Dickson? Dickinson? a Preposterous Rumour about someone who had used nail polish on their eyelids.

Brianna: So she couldn't blink anymore, right? Her lids became completely stiff. They had to remove them at the hospital, and take skin grafts to make new ones. But her new eyelids didn't have all those little blinking muscles that contract and stuff. The doctors put some strings in them, and connected those to her jaw. So when she opens her mouth, her eyes open too.

I don't know what Meagan did, but she offended Dennis Kim.


Pippa was healthy again! Poor girl having to wear that sweater in the summer heat, though.


Maegan: We're moving to a new house! I'm so happy!


She loves mischief because she's a Geek, but hates it because she's Gloomy?


Morgan: I love adventures in the jungle!


BTW, that's the chav guy Maegan met at the pub. He's kind of cute, but she's glued to Farhan now.


BRENDA! Be nice to Cleo!


Promotion.


Maegan: My head! Pain!

Beverly: Yeh, I get a headache when I play games for too long.


It had better not be Maegan or Brianna he's crushing on. And whoever it is, he had BETTER not be discussing it with the two-year-old.


One day Brianna got abducted by aliens. She couldn't move her arms and legs, and a tractor beam pulled her through the wall and out of the house, across the yard, and into the rocks outside.


Then a time-slip happened (I went to the Manage Worlds screen), and she was suddenly running on the treadmill in the backyard.

That's the thinnest Brianna can get now, because I edited her in CAS to have a bigger skinniest size. Bigger skeleton, IDK. She's supposed to be skinny, because she's always been a beanstalk, but not like almost 2D the way she was. Have you seen those dolls called "Fashion Baes" that are flat with sticker clothes and a regular fashion doll head? That was Brianna!


Sometimes Brianna has a want to listen to certain music. Maegan doesn't like the same music as Brianna, and she becomes really mad when she has to listen to music she doesn't enjoy.

I have friends who are like that too. They make me listen to their weird favourites, but they totally nope when I put on something I like. It just has to be that way, because I'm not advanced enough in the brain to understand their music, so it's my own fault. And my music is just objectively bad, and I like it because I'm uncultured and have no taste, and that's my own fault. I can't expect intelligent people to dig that. Oh well.


Maybe I identify more with Brianna than with Maegan, sometimes. I like flowers and plants too, it's just I keep killing them. :C I even killed a cactus, like how do you DO that?! (By watering it, basically, but rhetorically I mean.)


Yay?


Maegan kept on keeping on Maeganing.


Brianna was wholesome and happy.


And just for the record: Brianna and Maegan are NOT based on me and that one frienemy with the glasses and dyed hair. I guess Maegan kinda looks a tiny bit like T, just in passing. T is really long and skinny, though. And she's got pink hair. If you don't know who I'm talking about it's just as well.


What a strange gang. Yeh, that's Mortimer Goth in his sports wear LOL!


YOSS gold farmer!


Sometimes the animals just flop over sideways and pass out sleeping. I'm traumatised from playing Planet Zoo and having my darlings dying from old age, so I freaked out a bit the first time it happened. The animation looks a lot like the canine deaths in PZ.

I should just turn aging off.


Poor Morgan had to get used to another new nanny. This one is Bailey Nava, and she likes Instagram makeup.


She double-wields sharp blades.


And when she says "bedtime" it is.


Morgan was really happy when she woke up and Maegan was home.


Brianna had been watching old videos of Fanny Craddock on Youtube.

Brianna: You're supposed to pretend the dough is someone you don't like. Mine is my junior high English teacher. Who's yours? Tell me in the comments!

Maegan commenting: That new girl at work.


Brianna: Absolutely smother it in chili pepper.


Maegan: I kinda love The Posh and the Pretty. So many bad things happen to all the characters I hate.

NGL, I once read a terrible story one of my friends wrote, just because I loved all the drama and how much she made her Mary Sue character suffer. The writing was awful, LOL!


This is Maegan. Maegan is on a date with her love interest. Maegan is sad.


I know that to be one of the cool kids I have to compare TS4 negatively to TS2, but I kinda wish TS2 could handle height differences like this in animations.


Hey, cool! There's a rollerskating rink behind the thingy lot. And someone has fallen so it hurts!


Mrs. Crumplebottom: WERE YOU SNOGGING THAT GIRL JUST NOW?


Mrs. Crumplebottom: DISCUSTING!


Farhan: Maegan, help me!

Mrs. Crumplebottom: Go home and comb your back!

Maegan: Don't body-shame my partner.


Mrs. Crumplebottom: There could have been children here, exposed to your explicitly lustful behaviour!


Mrs. Crumplebottom: THERE COULD HAVE BEEN OLD PEOPLE HERE!


Maegan eventually managed to drag Farhan away and into the bar. The crowd wasn't all that great. The only people Maegan almost kind of knew were Britta and that old woman with the curlhawk who was there once before.


And Red. But waaaaait. Did they just break up?


Maegan vlogging: Maybe I never really loved him. I guess I hadn't known him long enough.


Maegan: Also, I still miss Dylan. He was the first boy I ever loved, and to lose him like that to a chips vending machine.... Oh, hi Farhan!


Maegan: Sooooo are you doing anything right now?


Farhan: I have a full-body crab infestation, and I have to go home and pick every single hair on my person out with tweezers. You also stood there and watched Mrs. Crumplebottom brain me with her handbag, before you dragged me into a cringe club. It wasn't a good experience, okay.

Maegan: I'm so sorry!


Maegan: Farhan isn't going to be your cool uncle.

Morgan: Okay.


Maegan: Let's practice expressing your needs and forget him.


Maegan: This is depression.


Maegan bought a telescope to stargaze with and grow her logical analytics. Brianna got to it first.


I don't really understand how looking at the stars makes you smart, to be honest. They're small glittering lights, kind of like you see when you go up on a hill behind your neighbourhood at night. And looking at lights from the hill is considered a very hayseed thing to do.


Farhan is the new gardening.


They're dumb. Look at the kittehs instead. Looook at little Zip and Brenda.


Georgia came over, and I don't know what was going on with Brianna there, but she's Brianna so you can't really tell.


This.


Maegan: Every day is Torture Maegan Day.

Yeh, Brianna made her come to the gym again.


That guy is Samuel Platt, and he looks like Captain America by that Liefield guy. When Samuel platt goes out and it's snowing, a wall of snow piles up on his chest and blocks his vision. That's why he lives in the desert.


Brianna: Hnnnnnnnrrrrgh!


Maegan: I want to go home and weed the garden.


Samuel: Push, Brianna. PUSH!


Okay.


Brianna gardening is the new Brianna cooking. I'm sorry.


Apparently Brianna didn't get enough exercise at the gym.

Brant: I like people who can't get enough punishment.

Brianna: Dude, have you seen the nose my grandpa passed down to my Mom and me? THAT is punishment.


Brianna fishing is the new Brianna gardening.


Andy Whatshisname: You young people probably use GPS and apps and stuff to catch fish.

Brianna: Maybe some people do, I don't.

Andy: Keeping it real. I like that.


Brianna: Hey, this is edible!


Andy: Gosh dang, there was that disc prolapse again.


Brianna: I didn't think these lived in rivers, at least not in our river.


Maegan got promoted. Anyway, the Imgur code for this picture is "elanxxy," which would be a good Dragon Cave name.


That little terrier is new here. She's called Gidget, and Brianna does find out how to liberate animals from stupid outfits bad owners put on them in the next chapter.


Yay!


I can't remember if you've seen Skull-Shirt Cat before. Brianna called her Dakota, and was considering her as a sister for Dixie.


We've made it to the end of this chapter. You see that house next to Georgia's, the one who wasn't there before? That's Brianna & Co's new place. I built it for them from a real floorplan, and gave it a split roof and those there windows, to fit into the style of the other houses. Next time you'll see them move in!

TTFN and Narrator outttttttt!