Back in the Game

Hey, everybody. I hope everyone had a nice long weekend. Mine was okay. Not nearly long enough, and man, it's freezing outside now. I think I've spent enough time playing the sims that I should be granted a real weather machine so I can turn off winter…or fall…or whatever this is supposed to be. It's cold and crappy, and that's all I know for sure.

If you'll all recall, we witnessed the end of the long running relationship between Tommy Wolf and Rinoa Hartman a few posts ago. Tommy really got the short end of the stick, not only losing Rinoa to Leon Hartman, but also getting his butt kicked by Leon in the process. I was really torn over the whole situation myself. See, I originally thought Tommy and Rinoa were meant to be together, but after the second time Rinoa and Leon tried to hook up with each other, I decided that poor Tommy deserved better. As of the beginning of today's posts, Tommy is out in his frozen, swampy front yard, using his telescope to spy on the castle of his former roommate, Alfred Witte.


Tommy: "What the…he's got a hot tub up there too?"
Yes, there was a fair share of partying taking place at castle Witte, and although Tommy was frequently invited, he had issues with their werewolf servant, Lucius Wolfenstein, and thus declined. Tommy's a pretty smart guy, though, and he realized that you don't need a three story gothic fortress to throw a good party (just think of the issues with finding a bathroom in such a place). Granted, his shack is the smallest place in town and has very little going for it in the atmosphere department, but Tommy was betting that if he threw a party, folks would show up for him, not his house. Well, thankfully, there are quite a few sims who like Tommy, and the place was soon packed (although that feat is more or less accomplished as soon as anyone besides Tommy is in the place).


Amy: "No, I'm just saying it looks like you have baseballs stuffed in your cheeks..."
Yes, the party was indeed a smashing success. At some point, the spirit of Walt Disney suddenly possessed the party goers, and the front door opened, and they began filing out onto the front lawn, singing and dancing all the way (there was some attempt at synchronization, but it was minimally successful). Now, since everything the sims say is in simlish, there was obviously no way to understand what they were actually singing, but I'm pretty intuitive, so allow me to indulge you with the song I think was being sung. It's called "Rinoa", sung to the tune of "Copacabana".


Her name's Rino-a
She is a hoe-yeah
And three times she's done me wrong
Which is why I sing this song!


We started dating
She kissed two Leons
Then two times she took me back
Then she tried to have me whacked!

We're riding horses
Against evil forces
And we know they can't be seen
But to say so would be mean!


We know you're thinking
That we've been drinking
But it's just espresso, dude
So there's no need to be rude!

Okay…I think I'm losing focus here…or my mind. One or the other. We haven't had a musical number since Cowboy Clint, so give me a break. Anyway, after everyone had thoroughly depleted their hygiene score with the (somewhat) synchronized dancing, they took the party back inside. Someone please explain to me why sims can dance solo for hours and not get the least bit dirty, but a few minutes of the Smustle, and they've got a cool green cloud trailing them. At any rate, Leon Hartman came by mere moments after the musical number was over, and started to hassle Tommy, presumably over the defamatory lyrics regarding his girlfriend, Rinoa. You can almost see some of what I just described in this picture, thanks to the great camera angle…

Amy: "Can you guys keep it down back there? We can't hear Conan O'Brien!"
You may recall the previous fight between Leon and Tommy, and how Leon was first transformed into a vampire to give him an "edge" over the much better built Tommy Wolf and his werewolf physique. As I said then, I'm not sure if vampires really have that much of an edge over werewolves, but the plan worked at the time. Well, Leon wasn't a vampire anymore, and Tommy hadn't transformed into a werewolf yet, so Leon must have figured he'd have a fighting chance, because a brawl ensued. The results this time were slightly different than last.


Tommy: "Not so tough without your fangs, eh, bro?"
By this point, Tommy was feeling pretty good about himself. The party ended up being a huge success (despite the less than huge accommodations), and he felt as though he'd repaid Leon to some degree for having stolen his girl (as if getting him killed afterward wasn't enough payback). However, that didn't fix the fact that Tommy still had no new girl to take Rinoa's place. It seemed only fitting that a werewolf like Tommy would wind up calling the gypsy matchmaker, since those old werewolf films almost always have gypsies in them. He offered her roughly $75 for her to make a match for him (out of a possible $5000 I think), and I was expecting Quasimodo to drop out of the sky, but instead, he got Fern Hartman…


Fern: "Wha…who dat? Who der…?"
You know, Fern was at Tommy's party like five minutes earlier, watching TV for the most part. If he'd just taken the time to mingle a little bit more, he could have met her for free and saved himself the $75. He probably just assumed, as many folks do, that plant sims are a little bit strange and antisocial, but that's not true. And they're great houseguests, because they never complain about needing to sleep, never clog your toilet, don't have to eat your food (but will do so anyway), and won't be turned off by a filthy house. Tommy wasn't privy to all this great info, but he didn't have any trouble finding something in common to discuss with Fern.


Tommy: "Wait a second…I love the sun too! What are the odds of that?!"
I'm still trying to figure out why the matchmaker thought this would be a bad match to punish Tommy with for his cheapness. Maybe it's the fact that she's a Hartman, and granddaughter to Rinoa, and if the whole thing became serious, Tommy would have to see Rinoa at family functions for years to come. Doubtful, though, because I don't remember the last time Rinoa came to the Hartman garden center, and usually only her daughter Iris bothers to visit Leon and Rinoa at home. The date went pretty well all in all. It wasn't what you'd call a dream date, but it definitely reminded Tommy that there were other females out there besides you-know-who.


That's a jumbo largemouth bass in that box...
Tommy managed to pass the evening without once looking through the telescope at Alfred's castle. Okay, so he did look at the exterminator van and a chair somewhere in the neighborhood, but it wasn't a chair from Alfred's castle, so that's progress. Now, Tommy looks pretty well rested and all here in this picture - you'd never guess that the night before, after his date, he hit like two or three hot spots around town and mingled all night long. Werewolves can do that and get away with it. Don't you wish you were one?


Tommy: "I should have checked if the grass was wet BEFORE I sat down…shee…"
I think it occurred to Tommy that while Fern was nice enough, he really didn't want to be related to Rinoa in even the most remote way. Thus, he'd kept his eyes open while hitting the local hot spots, looking for that special someone. He found a good prospect in the form of Allyn Thomason, which you might think is a guy by the name, but quit laughing, it's a girl, and I didn't name her. They had hit it off pretty well the previous night at "Da Tiki Hut", and Tommy had little double lightning bolts next to her face in his relationship panel, which I believe means very good chemistry. Ah, if it were just that easy in real life. The next day, while Tommy was buying love potions from his gypsy friend for undisclosed reasons, Allyn came by and just stood outside his house…hint…hint…


Tommy: "This better not just be strawberry Kool-Aid again..."
Well, Tommy was clearly interested (my first hint was the little puff of hearts over his head with Allyn's face in the bubble), and so the wooing process began in earnest. Now, it takes time to build a proper relationship, and nobody has more time on their hands than Tommy (with the exception of the PC generated sims, who have no life at all besides wandering around). Tommy downed a love potion just to be on the safe side, then stuck to his old standbys like appreciating and joking with Allyn over and over till she was sufficiently worn down, at which point, he took her inside and made her dinner. That Tommy is one smooth werewolf…


Tommy: "I'm making you my specialty…blackened swamp fish from my front yard!"
I have a lot of sims who have attempted relationships with other sims they had either no chemistry with, or even negative chemistry. Those are the interactions that make you want to pull your hair out. You might ask why I bother in those cases, but not everything in life that's worth getting is supposed to be easy. Well, Tommy and Allyn's relationship building was…maybe just a little too easy. They were building up relationship points without even trying, and they were already dumbstruck with "little red heart" love for each other by like her second visit to his shack.


Allyn: "…*sigh*…Oh, Tommy…I don't even care that your house looks like an indoor garbage dump..."
It seems as though Tommy's luck has changed in a big way from a few posts ago. However, there was one loose end that still needed to be resolved, and that was the fact that Rinoa still had a crush on Tommy. This was due to the fact that Leon had saved her from getting the slapping she deserved when Tommy witnessed Leon and Rinoa kissing, so her feelings for him never really changed. Tommy felt that is he could just make it clear to Rinoa somehow that he really had no interest in a future romantic relationship, maybe she'd feel the same way. And so, one night, after Allyn had left, Tommy called up Rinoa so they could "discuss some stuff"…


Rinoa: "Hey, I heard you wrote a song about me..."
Rinoa certainly is a trusting sort. When it comes to being "cheated on", even the most mild-mannered sims turn into crazed maniacs who will fight over and over with no further provocation. Well, Tommy was created to become a werewolf from the very beginning, so I didn't waste any niceness points on him since I knew they'd decay anyway. In other words, he's not always a terribly nice guy even to people who haven't done him wrong. Rinoa had thrice shunned him, knowing from their time together just what kind of guy Tommy is, and she still came when he called. I guess you could say she had it coming.


Rinoa: "You're not still mad about that whole kissing thing, are you?"
After a savage tumble on the front walk (not nearly as much fun as it sounds like, trust me), Rinoa was looking a little…furrier than usual. You'd have thought that that would have been enough to send her running, but I guess she figured that she'd either experienced the worst of what Tommy had to offer already, or felt they had something in common since they both looked like bipedal dogs. Tommy might have been having the very briefest second thoughts about kicking Rinoa to the curb once and for all (oddly, his relationship score toward her was still pretty high), but all it took was remembering that he'd found another woman, one who hadn't broken up with him three times.


Rinoa: "So, how much does this stupid werewolf cure cost, anyway?"
I'd just love to see the look on Leon's face the next time he puckers up for Rinoa at 8pm, but as funny as that would be, it wasn't Tommy's main concern at the moment. No, he had much bigger things in the works. After taking a bit to gussy up and downing a little of the foolproof strawberry Kool-Aid, he called Allyn up so he could set things in motion. The first step after her arrival was for Tommy to remind her just how nuts he was about her…and hopefully vice versa (sometimes the game has a sick sense of humor, and one sim will be totally in love with another sim who's barely halfway to being friends with them.)


Allyn: "Please just don't make me fall on that cactus back there!"
Really, what's a cactus even doing there? It doesn't match the rest of the landscape at all. Maybe I was drunk when I put it there. It hardly matters at this point, though. What is important is that Tommy had wasted enough time pining for Rinoa, thinking that all of his efforts to woo her were going to amount to something, and was ready to finally make a worthwhile investment in his future. And so, from out of nowhere, he pulled an engagement ring, dropped to one knee, and proposed to Allyn.


Tommy: "I know you hate this house, but we can get rid of the cacti"
I had a little doubt initially as to whether the proposal would be accepted or not, but I shouldn't have worried. I'm not sure what life is like for the PC generated sims when we don't see them out and around, but it must be pretty bad, because Allyn was pretty pumped about moving into Tommy's grimy shack. I'm sure it's not the digs she's excited about, though. The engagement lasted for a total of about 40 seconds before the couple decided to just close the deal and get married with some rings they happened to be carrying (talk about your well prepared sims). Ladies and gents, raise your glasses for Tommy and Allyn Wolf…


Tommy: "Oof…thank goodness for all those body points I've got!"
All's swell that ends well, I always say, and I'd say this is a great place to draw this post to an end. It's not the end of their story by a long shot, but it's enough for now. It's enough to know that Tommy isn't alone and miserable and spending nights with his telescope watching Alfred and Zondra hang out in their rooftop hot tub. Go, Tommy…you da' man! Coming up next, not every user created sim in town lives in a nice house with a traditional family. Heck, who needs that stuff? You'll find out who doesn't in our next post, "Keeping up with the Joneses".