Matters of the Hartman: Part II

Welcome back, everybody! Hope nobody has lost any sleep waiting for the exciting "conclusion" to our Hartman disaster story. I don't really have anything witty and personal to say today besides the fact that I injured my foot the other day and it's killing me, but that certainly doesn't affect my ability to post here (it actually increases the number of posts, as the extended sitting makes for more simming and posting time). At any rate, let's get on with the show…I'll torture you no further with babble.

If you didn't read yesterday's post, well, read it. Done? Good. Anyway, perhaps you've been anticipating an explosive butt kicking match on the horizon. I'm sure there are some folks who like Tommy and wish he'd stay with Rinoa, and some folks who like him and wish he'd dump her and find someone else, then a couple of folks who actually like Leon and hope for the best for him, and some who hope to see him get beaten silly by Tommy. Well, you can't please everyone I guess.

At the very end of the last post, Tommy had just stopped over, unaware of the fact that Rinoa and Leon had officially hooked up. Tommy turned into a werewolf mere moments before Rinoa and Leon were about to break the big news to him, and suddenly, it didn't seem like such a good idea. Leon freaked and headed outside, but Tommy just followed him out. At that very moment, Alfred Witte came along on his evening constitutional, and Rinoa devised a brilliant plan to help get rid of Tommy. Well, it seemed brilliant in the planning phase…


Rinoa: "Oh, Alfred…I've never been so happy to see a vampire!"
Without first consulting Leon, Rinoa put into action her plan to help Leon overcome his 90lb wussiness. You see, she's apparently watched "Underworld" a couple times too many, and she determined that the only thing that can defeat a werewolf is a vampire. Obviously, coercing Alfred into giving Tommy a sound thrashing would never work, due to their past friendship, and it would only make enemies of the two of them. Instead, Rinoa influenced Alfred to put the bite on Leon to turn him into a bat-man instead.


Leon: "Oh, Alfred…and I thought we were just friends!"
It seemed as though the only thing left to do after Leon's transformation was reveal the truth to Tommy in a not-so-subtle way. Well, that's not true…first, Leon put on a cool suit, since that's what all the sim vampires seem to wear. THEN it was time for the not-so-subtle revelation. And so, after dressing befitting his new vampire status, Leon and Rinoa called Tommy back into the house and proceeded to pucker up for one another. Alfred sat nearby as the official "second" for the inevitable duel…


Alfred: "My money's still on the werewolf…heheh"
Well, everything happened rather quickly after that. Tommy's focus was on slapping Rinoa, but Leon quickly blocked his path while Rinoa put on her sweats and ran out to the obstacle course (knowing full well that only one sim could interact with it at a time…clever). Tommy was understandably pissed, and had no trouble redirecting his anger toward, Leon, which was more or less the goal all along for Leon and Rinoa. The battle that ensued was indeed epic and violent…I think two pictures sans caption from me will probably do it more justice than I could describing it…







Now, despite the flawless logic of this whole plan, it all rested on the belief that sim vampires somehow have an edge over sim werewolves, and that a sim with one or two body points granted vampirism somehow has a fighting edge over a werewolf sim with maxed out body points. Hmmm…it doesn't seem like such a logical plan now, does it? Well, whatever factors determined the outcome, in the end, there could be only one champion, and that champion was…


Leon: "Don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out..!"
It was not only a lucky victory for Leon and Rinoa's relationship, but a giant leap for vampirism over lycanthropy as well. Of course, the fact that Rinoa didn't get slapped by Tommy when he tried to do so meant that she didn't wind up hating him quite like she should have, but that was something the couple could deal with later. The important part was that Tommy was out and he knew he was out, and had no interest in either Leon or Rinoa aside from a strong desire to steal their newspaper and knock over their garbage can.


Alfred: "Way to go, man…I never doubted you for a second!"
Actually, Tommy was still skulking around outside the house for a bit, and even wound up using the hot tub, so Leon and Rinoa locked the doors to keep him from entering uninvited (I'm thinking any invites will be a long time in coming). After several hours, Tommy didn't seem like he was going anywhere, and Leon decided it might be time for a second butt kicking, in case the message of the first had partially eluded Tommy. He headed outside and followed after Tommy, who just seemed to be walking circles around the house for no reason (probably looking for a way in). Well, Leon apparently has a lot to learn about being a vampire, because he got a nasty surprise…


Leon: "Gah! Tommy, you treacherous, devious…butthead!"
I promptly ordered Leon to forget about Tommy and head indoors, since the sun appeared to be bad for his skin, but he didn't seem inclined to listen. It was actually Rinoa's fault that Leon wouldn't go inside, because she'd locked the doors behind him when he went out to confront Tommy, and nobody bothered to unlock them. Whoever's to blame (it's certainly not me), it wasn't long before Leon experienced a fate he'd probably never have imagined in his wildest dreams (not that I have any interest in knowing what Leon's wild dreams are about).


Leon: "But I never got to be a bat…*sniff*..."
Wow, suddenly, being a 90lb weakling doesn't seem so bad compared to the alternative of being a cupful of ashes. For a vampire, there's never a great time to die of exposure to the sun, but for Leon, if it had happened just a few minutes later, he would have been screwed. See, despite the eventful evening, Rinoa was on her way to work about the time Leon became just another pile of crap sitting around outside the house, and she managed to notice he was in trouble mere moments before getting in the hummer. She opted to risk being late, and dropped to her knees to plead with the reaper for her lost love. Notice Tommy standing around casually watching the whole thing.


Tommy: "Tommy's here to help with the grieving process, babe..."
I don't know if I've been spoiled or what, but up to this point, I'd never seen the reaper actually take a person away when someone plead with him. Maybe it's because I'm just really lucky, or maybe it has to do with the high relationship score of the person doing the pleading vs the dead person. Whatever the case, about a third of my prominently featured sims have died at one point or the other, been brought back, and gone on their merry way. I wasn't terribly surprised when the reaper granted Leon another shot at life (or what he liked to refer to as a life). Perhaps he'll actually do something with it this time besides hit on girls…


Rinoa: "Can we speed this up a bit? They're gonna' leave without me!"
Well, Leon did in fact come back from the dead, but it was kind of a raw deal. You see, resurrected sims only come back with a small portion of their needs met, and if you’re a vampire brought back to life in the sunlight, those poorly filled needs tend to shoot back down really quickly. Leon and Rinoa were wasting time hugging it out when Leon should have been hauling butt looking for an unlit room in the house or something. It was looking for a minute there like Leon might have the quickest back-to-back dates with the reaper known to sim kind.


Rinoa: "I love you too, even though you made me miss work!"
There was only one solution. Since there was hardly time to get Leon in the house, let alone enough time to get him in the house and get him in a coffin, Rinoa used the magic sim catalogue to instantly purchase a coffin right out in the yard, and promptly stuffed Leon inside. That kept what was left of him "fresh" for the time being. Not only that, but who doesn't want a coffin in their front yard? Rinoa kept a careful eye on it to make sure Leon didn't pop out to greet passing visitors or answer the phone, which some of my other vampires have a strange habit of doing...


Rinoa: "I've been meaning to get one of these for the yard anyway!"
Well, by this point, there was nothing Rinoa could really do, not until night time came along anyhow. Oh, and having missed work sort of freed up a bunch of time during the day she didn't know how to fill. She called up the gypsy matchmaker, bought a vampirism cure potion, and set it out for Leon to find when he "woke up". Ah, such a domestic, traditional couple already! Rinoa went to bed for a while, and when she awoke that evening, there was a new painting on her wall.


And yet, the painting of Leon Jackson remains untouched...
Well, there you have it. Perhaps they didn't go about things the best possible way, but love makes people (even simulated ones) do strange things. I'm sure having to suppress their feelings for so long didn't help the couple much. Whatever the case, Leon and Rinoa are together. That's one course of events I never personally predicted, but I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic myself. As for Tommy, well, don't feel too badly for him. He and Rinoa may have seemed like a good idea for a time, but from where I'm standing now (or sitting rather), he's got it pretty good. You'll just have to wait a while and see what that means.

Coming up next, we've seen ever so briefly Kitty and Marty Wilson's daughter, Katrina. In our next posts, we'll spend some time with Katrina, her friend Mia Kay (also of the original Monkeesim posts), and Kitty's brother, Antonio, as they head out on the town in search of their jollies. Sound like fun? Well, just wait and see…until then…