Jammin' With the Daniels

I know there's never a need to apologize for long delays in posts here, after all, it's not a prime-time sitcom or anything with an exact schedule. However, I do like to let my readers know what's going on when one minute I'm posting every day or so and the next, no posts at all. So, here's the deal - I've been majorly ill for about a week AND trying to pack up every item in my house for an upcoming move, and I've had my hands full (literally most of the time). I'm just glad to be doing this here and now, because blogging her is a little bit of a release for me, and believe me, I need the release right now. And so, without further delay, here's the good stuff...

Well, the Daniels family has had a weird last couple of posts, even weirder than usual. To recap, the family took on Austyn Strange and Debbie Kearney as "boarders", Jack Daniels died, Debbie fell in love with Alex Kent, Regina activated a servo named Jack who fell in love with Regina and Debbie, and Jack wound up beating up Alex out of jealousy before being shut down by Regina. So much has changed since the earliest days of the Daniels clan, Regina is the only one who even has that last name anymore, the house has basically just become a boarding house for loonies. Luckily, with the exception of "robo Jack", all the loonies at least get along.


Austyn: "Seriously, you just haven't had chili until you've tried MY fabulous chili!"
Regina was nice enough to keep Jack deactivated almost all of the time, realizing that it would take a lot more than a robot wearing a tattered jacket to fill in for her late husband. Of course, this prevented her and robo Jack from fully realizing any potential for a relationship, but from my perspective, that's a VERY good thing (the whole kissing robots thing just makes me feel a little creepy, and I'm a huge sci-fi fan even). Her sacrifice wasn't for nothing, though, as it gave Alex the freedom he needed to further solidify his relationship with Debbie. Alex and Debbie had been an exclusive item for a while, with no recent trouble from Gia or robo Jack, and Alex felt it was time to take things to the next level.


Austyn: "I just find busts disturbing…they're like little armless, legless men made out of stone!"
Yes, Alex took the plunge and proposed to Debbie, and she gladly accepted. Perhaps she thought getting engaged and eventually married would mean actually moving into a home the couple could call their own, but that was not the case. It did, however, mean party time to celebrate the engagement, and there's no better place for a party in the Monkeesim neighborhood than Schroeder's Jam Land (you'd think with all the attention I've given the place in the last few posts that I was trying to promote an actual club). Schroeder's has been pretty magical lately, it's where Leon and Katrina found love (at Rinoa's expense, but we'll ignore that), and it's where Schroeder himself hooked up with Mia Kay. One can only imagine what wonders are in store for the Daniels clan.


Debbie: "Listen, you overgrown toaster, nobody invited you here!"
One of the main attractions of Jam Land (that never really gets used) is the big electric guitar right in the middle of the club. Schroeder had to work long and hard to even get it to put it in his club, forcing himself to actually get a job in the music career and work till he qualified for the reward. Things would have been a lot easier if I'd just had University installed when the club was constructed, as Schroeder could have had a whole band set in his club with no effort on his part at all, but that came later in the "alternate reality" version of Schroeder's (we'll get to that another time). Debbie decided if nobody else was "jamming", she might as well. Alex was quick to applaud, just like a good fiancé.


Every performance is "standing room only", since there aren't any chairs out on the dance floor...
Debbie actually wasn't all that bad on the guitar. I don't know if it was because she was really talented, or if it's one of those items anyone can pick up and be good at, I've never experimented with it all that much. Aside from Alex, though, everyone else pretty much ignored Debbie while she played, they were too busy crowding the bars, making desperate attempts to actually get the attention of the bartenders. Evenings at Schroeder's tend to feature a fair mix of unusual individuals from around town like vampires, werewolves, and other freaks. Austyn and Nicholas Everdark were busy chatting, discussing some of their mutual likes and dislikes. If there's one thing the Daniels family can learn from these trips out on the town, it's that they're not the strangest sims in town (close, but not quite).


Nicholas: "You don't look like you get much sun either, dude…"
On a side note, you'll notice almost every sim in these pictures is wearing their outerwear, for reasons I can't quite fathom. All my buildings have roofs on them, and door separating the inside from the outside, yet my sims have a weird habit of keeping their coats on even indoors, giving those who favor trench coats the appearance of flashers. Then, there are folks like Debbie and Rooster who seem to be dressed for the hottest months of summer amidst them. I don't know…weirdness. Anyway, while Austyn was busy having his chat with his new undead buddy, robot Jack was busy scoping the scene for robots, and Debbie and Alex took up position at the opposite side of the building from the others…and at opposite sides of the bar from each other. Now, that's love…


Debbie: "Ignore that bald headed bum, I had my hand up first!"
Left to her own devices, Debbie isn't what you would call the most flirty or affectionate sim. While she's never had a problem being open to affection from others (maybe a bit too much, given that whole Gia Fitch phase), she's never been prone to initiating a lot of PDA on her own, and while in public, she didn't really spend a whole lot of time with or around Alex. Funny, since the whole point of everyone hitting the town to begin with was to celebrate the couple's engagement. Like I told you, weirdoes. Austyn eventually got left alone by Nicholas Everdark, who went to talk to Eowyn Hartman, one of the local elves. He decided to express his displeasure at this development with a nice, bluesy number on the electric guitar, which was listened to by no one.


Vampires chatting with elves? This is starting to feel a lot more like "Everquest II" than "The Sims 2"!
Well, it's hard to tell if Austyn had a romantic interest in Nicholas, since nothing particularly romantic transpired between the two of them (Nicholas is engaged to Melyssa Everdark anyway, so it's for the best). Debbie noticed Nicholas was done talking to Eowyn, and decided to play the part of the social butterfly and chat him up a bit. It's just like the post-Leon Debbie to basically ignore poor Alex on the night of their engagement, yet have ample time to chat with a vampire she barely knows. She did have a more complex motive for this though, as she decided it might be funny to play a trick on Austyn with the help of Nicholas. Clearly, this can't be going anywhere good.


Nicholas: "My trench coat? Why thank you, it's one of a kind!"
Debbie's "brilliant" gag she decided to pull on Austyn was to have his new found friend, Nicholas, hypnotize him and turn him into a vampire. Yeah, that sure sounds like a funny gag. With friends like Debbie, who needs enemies? Little did Debbie know just how high a failure rate there is for the "influence to bite" command. For starters, folks seem to be immune to the hypnosis if they're not good friends with the vampire already, which seems to totally defeat the purpose of hypnotizing them in the first place (if you're good friends with someone, you should probably just ask if you can bite them, not hypnotize them). Also, if the sim you want bitten is doing anything else when you influence a vampire to bite them, chances are the vampire will get bored waiting to hypnotize them and just give up. Well, Austyn wasn't currently doing anything, so Nicholas did attempt to put him into a "bite trance"…


Austyn: "If you're trying to hit on me, this has got to be the worst pick up I've ever seen!"
As it happens, Austyn and Nicholas hadn't become good enough friends for Austyn to fall under Nick's spell, and thus, he remained a "normal" human, while Debbie's influence points went to waste (that will teach her, although probably not). Even though Debbie's plan didn't quite work out, watching the attempt was a lot more amusing than watching everyone try to jam on the guitar to an audience of no one. During all of this drama, Jack was off doing his own thing, and had finally spotted a "female" of his kind, Dot Matrix Andrews. While Dot was currently "involved" with C-3P0 Andrews, it was never really an exclusive relationship, and Jack's flirtatious advances seemed to be well received. Guess that works out well for Regina, who, by the way, seems to be the only one in the family sitting down, having a drink, and minding her own business through all of this.


Dot Matrix: "I don't usually come here that often. Usually I pretty much just sit in a corner at home collecting dust!"
Dot and Jack actually hit it off pretty well, although I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Dot was activated with the brain patterns (or however you put it) of Amy Andrews, while Jack was essentially a clone of Regina, and Amy and Regina were best friends for a long time while they lived together. Somehow, it makes sense to me that the robot "offspring" get along so well, although I feel there's a not-so-subtle element of creepiness buried somewhere in this situation as well (I'll leave it to you to pick it out). At any rate, Dot and Jack decided to go somewhere a little less crowded, namely, out back behind Schroeder's where Schroeder's trailer is located. Their privacy was interrupted by the presence of Debbie, who at this point was pelting Katrina Wilson with water balloons.


Debbie: "Maybe if I soak her enough, she'll take that silly coat off!"
If you look back at the "The Show Goes On" post (second picture down), you'll be reminded of the fact that at one point, Debbie had a not-so-innocent interest in Katrina, which we can only hope has gone the way of the dodo bird since Debbie started dating Alex and is now engaged (not to mention Katrina has a kid, is engaged to Leon Hartman, and has no interest in girls to speak of). It's always hard to tell what Debbie's motives are for doing anything, but they turned out to be innocent in this case, and she just threw balloons, and no little puffs of hearts appeared at any point in time. Maybe being with Alex really has made her a changed woman (and not the sort of changed woman breaking up with Leon Jackson made her). Morning came, and Debbie and Katrina were still tossing balloons, while Jack was still putting the moves on Dot, with continued success.


Jack: "I know you don't have any muscles, but if you did, believe me, you'd enjoy this!"
As for Regina, well, the entire night had passed, and she hadn't done a single thing worthy of us laughing and pointing the finger at her. Dang it all. The family has had plenty of drama in the recent past, though, so it's totally understandable Regina would want a break from that. All good things must come to an end sooner or later, and eventually, it was time for the family to head back home to the nut house for a break. It's time for a break for us for the moment as well. Now, most of my time in the coming weeks will be devoted to moving, so I won't have time to accumulate any new sim material, but the good news is I have two posts still ready to go, and I hope to put them up in the next few days. First, what ever became of Antonio Wilson and Aimee Andrews after they moved out of the old house? Then, we pay a brief visit to a strange, totally different neighborhood, where vampires, werewolves, and other "weird" sims aren't allowed…or are they? Stay tuned!