The Garbage Tycoon

Well, I'm still not posting daily, and I'm willing to accept that won't happen. See, I used to sneak a few minutes here and there during the work day to work on these posts a little bit more, but now, I'm always actually working, meaning I only write these posts over my (very short) breaks. Not that it matters too much, I've always tried to shoot for quality over quantity, and the day I hammer out a post ultra fast just to slap something up here will probably be the day that this blog takes a downhill dive and really starts to blow chunks. By the way, since there are no other real forms of communication between me and my readers on this site, I'd like to add that if you leave a comment, I'll almost always comment back after I've read and approved it, so don't forget to check those previous posts if you wrote me something.

We haven't spent much time with our old pal Tommy Wolf lately, as he kind of dropped out of the spotlight after he gave up his life as a crazy single werewolf in favor of getting hitched and having a kid. Not saying that the life of married folks isn't interesting, although in Tommy's case, I think that would be a fair assessment. Tommy never really seemed like the type who craved a whole lot of excitement, though, it just seemed to come to him, especially while he was busy trying to make his relationship with Rinoa work and she was busy treating him like garbage. Thank goodness those days are past now (and Rinoa got a taste of her own medicine with Leon).


Tommy: "Life is so much better without that awful witch Rinoa!"
Despite all the changes he's made since the old days of partying all night long with former roommate and vampire, Alfred Witte, Tommy still couldn't bring himself to take that final step and get an actual job. It's not like werewolves can't hold normal jobs like with vampires, and Tommy had plenty of skill points that would have proven useful in just about any profession, but for some reason, the prospect of being tied down by a job schedule and the expectations that came from working for someone else just didn't appeal to Tommy. He did happen upon a previously undiscovered source of income though while rooting through the trash one day. For some reason, despite never having seen him throw away anything but food garbage, Tommy magically started to pull books, cups, and other "valuable" knick knacks out of the trash, which he instantly turned in to cash.


Tommy: "Wow! A perfectly good mouldy measuring cup!"
It was hard for Tommy to resist the temptation to just stand out at the trash all day pulling one "treasure" after the other out of the garbage can. He did wind up spending almost an entire day doing just that, and the payoff was pretty good in the end (not positive of this, but I think after the umpteenth time he sold junk from the trash can, he'd made about as much as he would have working a regular low paying job for a day). Eventually, Allyn was in need of a break from baby watching, and Tommy was forced to give up his refuse rummaging to lend a helping hand (or paw, or whatever). If there's one thing Tommy is all about, it's being responsible to his family, so off he went. It was weird and a little funny to watch him loping around as a werewolf, holding little Allen at impossible angles, but Allen didn't seem to care.


Allen: "Man, Pops really needs to learn to shave!"
Eventually, it came time for Allyn and Allen to hit the sack, and as usual, Tommy was still wide awake thanks to his werewolf energy boost. He began to get a little lonely, and realized that there wasn't any good reason not to invite his old pal Alfred over. It wasn't like Alfred was his single, rowdy drinking buddy or anything like that. After all, both Alfred and Tommy are married. Tommy picked up the phone and called the castle across the street, and before he knew it, Alfred came over, with his wife, Zondra, in tow. They said hello to Tommy, who greeted them in return, then Alfred and Zondra proceeded to hug one another repeatedly and shared some other interactions. Uh…they seemed to have forgotten why they were there in the first place.


Tommy: "Uh, hey, guys, remember me, the one who invited you over?"
Tommy was glad to see his old buddy back, even if he wasn't getting a lot of attention right from the get go. It didn't take long for Tommy and Alfred to start gabbing about the good old days though, like all the cool times they terrorized the locals by saying "bleh" or "grrrr" at them, and all the times they stayed up all night watching TV, and the time Alfred had to beg the reaper to spare Tommy's life after that weight bench accident. Yes, those were much simpler times for both of them, now Tommy has a wife and a kid and Alfred has a wife, a werewolf butler, mutant pets, and an enormous castle to manage. The days of them pulling their werewolf and vampire version of Beavis and Butthead on their couch seem so far away now.


Tommy: "Come on, man, let's do the 'Monster Mash'..."
There was definitely something a lot easier about managing a family that consisted of just a werewolf and a vampire in a house so small you could see the entire thing without have to scroll around. Alfred never really needed any attention, and most of the time back when they lived together was spent satisfying Tommy's outrageous appetite and making sure he wasn't killed by the weight bench. Of course, easier doesn't always mean more fun or more interesting, especially in this case. Anyway, after chewing the fat with Alfred for a little bit, Tommy made sure to give some attention to Zondra as well, just to show he was friends with her as well as Alfred. He expressed this sentiment by pelting her with water balloons, which I guess is a sign of friendship, though I have memories of bullies doing the same thing to me for entirely different reasons…


Tommy: "That gown's not 'dry clean only' or anything, is it?"
I'll just never get over how much sims love being pelted with water balloons without warning, no matter what the occasion or what they're wearing. Most people I know don't like that, but then again, most people I know are very unlike the weird sims of the Monkeesim neighborhood. Anyway, that kept Tommy and Zondra amused way longer than it should have, and both of them would have been thoroughly soaked if sims actually had to worry about stuff like that. Alfred decided to head indoors and see what the old digs were looking like, as he hadn't really paid a visit since Tommy remodeled when he got married. Not that there was really much there to work with or remodel.


Alfred: "I hope he got rid of that evil weight bench!"
Although Allyn had put Allen down for the night and had hit the sack herself, there was just too much excitement going on for her to stay asleep (or something like that), so she quickly changed back into her clothes and joined Alfred in the living room (I wouldn't really feel all that comfortable sleeping with a vampire wandering around in my living room either, but that's just me). Allyn was already very familiar with werewolves and all the quirks they were prone to (like leaving fur on the couch and choking on the occasional hairball) after having lived with Tommy for so long, but she was pretty new to the whole vampire thing. She decided to take advantage of the opportunity to chat with Alfred and learn a thing or two about the fanged folks of the neighborhood.


Allyn: "So, do your fangs get in the way when you kiss?"
Yeah, it was good to see Alfred and Tommy hanging around in the old place again, especially since Alfred's castle is so obnoxiously huge that it takes forever to get anywhere or do anything (though traveling as a bat helps a little bit in that department). Visiting Tommy gave Alfred a chance to watch TV again without having to visit a community lot since Castle Witte has no television (not because Alfred couldn’t afford one, it just didn't fit the creepy, haunted décor of the rest of the castle). Eventually, after visiting all night long, it came time for Alfred and Zondra to head home and beat the sun. Tommy and Allyn had their hands full with other things, though, as it turned out it was time to celebrate Allen's birthday and evolution into a toddler. They grow up so fast.


Allen: "They couldn't even have taken me to Chuck E. Cheese?"
Luckily for Allen, by this point in time I knew exactly what to do when it came time for someone's birthday, unlike when Aiden Andrews was a baby and I could NOT figure out how to turn him into a toddler when the time came. It's always a nerve wracking moment when sim babies become toddlers. I mean, I know there's no up-side-down clown head curse in TS2 like in the first game, but there is the curse of really ugly babies sometimes as the game mechanics try to meld the characteristics of both parents into a baby (remember our little pal Seth, and how much he looked like a miniature version of his dad). Luckily for Allen, he didn't bear much of a resemblance to either parent. Maybe Allyn to a very small extent, but he seemed to be free of any resemblance to Tommy (good thing, can you imagine that werewolf fur on a baby?)


Allen: "Don't I get a cool pair of shades of my own now?"
Well, how about that, Tommy lucks out again! First he finds a wife, then they have a baby, and when the baby becomes a toddler, it's not even an ugly toddler. It would appear that karma is making up for all the time he spent being miserable with Rinoa and getting treated like dirt. Heaven knows he's earned it. Despite all this good fortune, though, Tommy steadfastly refused to even consider getting cured of his lycanthropy (it was always very high on his "fears" list, so I'm assuming that meant he wanted to stay a werewolf). Oh, well…if he and Allyn are okay with the fur and fangs, who are we to argue? Now that we've seen how good things are going for Tommy, it's about time to drop in on Rinoa again and see what direction her life is heading since she kicked Leon out of the house. How is she adapting to the single life? Will she find love again? Will she become a plant sim again and populate the town with even more of her plant clones? As always, there's only one way to find out! Tune in soon!