Miss Hartman on the Prowl

Hey, gang! Hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was not too shabby, so of course I wasn't ready for the work week to start again. Weird, because I always thought the purpose of weekends was for people to be rested and ready for the new week, but the crappier the weekend, the more ready I am for the work week. Don't ask. I still don't have internet at home, so no updates here during the weekend obviously. I doubt that will change before I move, but that's okay, I've gotten used to the current arrangement, and it's one less thing to distract me at home now.

We've spent a fair amount of time on this blog witnessing the romantic pursuits of Leon and Rinoa Hartman, and last time we checked in on Leon, he appeared to have settled down into something serious with Katrina Wilson (as of the last time I personally checked in on the couple, there had been no signs of trouble brewing). It seems a little ironic after all the trouble he and Rinoa went to to be free to date one another that they didn't end up together for good, but they just didn't get along with each other, and you just can't force these things. So Leon appears to have found his soul mate - but what of Rinoa? How's she been doing since she booted Leon out the door? Well, let's find out!


Rinoa: "I wish Leon were here…I'd make him do this!"
Hmmm…mopping the bathroom in the dark in her swimsuit, on a Friday night, no less. I'd say she answer to our "how is Rinoa doing" question would be "not so well". She'd spent a lot of time pursuing her military career with varying degrees of success, and it wasn't until Leon moved out that she realized almost all of the friends she was being credited with to advance her career were friends of Leon, not her. Thus, when he moved out, not only was she short the necessary number of friends needed for a promotion, but she didn't really know anyone to invite over to liven things up when she felt like taking a break. Who says having no job or motivation and spending all day socializing is a bad thing? Certainly not Leon. Rinoa wasn't ready to accept becoming a complete hermit, though. She grabbed the phone and started inviting over everyone she'd ever met until some people finally showed up.


Mail Man: "I'm not here for the party, just delivering the bills!"
Considering she had no strong relationship bonds with any of the folks who showed up at her house, Rinoa managed to get a pretty decent number of folks to hang around at the house. Not surprisingly, most of them were members of the "Jones" family, which, if you'll recall, consists of a bunch of unemployed nut jobs, none of whom have a whole lot going for them. Seated from left to right are Homie D. Klown, Jimmy Jones, and Peter Miller. I can't remember the name of the guy in the black shirt Rinoa is talking to, which bugs me, because he's a townie who's around all the time (he was a werewolf for a while after Tommy savaged him, maybe that's why Rinoa seemed interested in him).


Jimmy: "So, have you heard about the new two-button Nintendo controller?"
Well, Rinoa seemed to be hitting it off pretty well with bachelor number one, and the possibility of a further relationship didn't seem too far fetched, however, at some point, he just seemed to lose interest, and wandered off to do his own thing (seems to be the way it goes most of the time when I'm actually trying to get two sims to hook up). While Rinoa was a little disappointed, this was actually a good thing. While starting up a new romance was a possibility in her mind, the whole point of inviting everyone over to her house had been so she could make several friends, not just one, so she could advance in her career. Spending all her time batting her eyes at one guy certainly wasn't going to achieve that. She next targeted Jimmy Jones, mainly because at the time, he was the only one who hadn't piled into the hot tub.


Rinoa: "Hey, now, don't get cheeky! Ha ha!"
Despite Jimmy's extraordinary cheeks and obvious use of eye shadow, folks seem to get along with him pretty well, and Rinoa appeared to be no exception. As with the first guy, she wound up spending a great deal of time chatting with just him about such exciting topics as the government, recycling, and what appeared to be a dead mouse (don't ask, I just saw it in the little talk bubble). Rinoa didn't appear to be romantically interested in Jimmy, though, so she did at some point decide that she should make good use of her time with the visitors and move on to someone else. Socializing in the hot tub when it's full to capacity isn't a very effective way to build a strong relationship with an individual sim, so Rinoa decided to target Homie D. Klown, who'd gotten out by this point. Unfortunately, she was unable to locate Homie, as he was hiding out in the bathroom.


Homie: "I'm not coming out till she agrees to leave me alone!"
With Homie safely hidden in the bathroom, Rinoa was forced to wait for the next poor sucker to leave the safety of the hot tub so she could latch on to them and interact until a friendship was formed. The only ones she hadn't talked to much yet besides Homie were Peter Miller and Jean Trevolto. Both Peter and Jean seemed to be doing a fine job of staying put, until Peter finally weakened and had to make a bathroom run (surely unaware that Homie had laid claim to it). Well, Pete didn't make it too far, because as soon as he hopped out, Rinoa was right on top of him (in a figurative sense, of course). Normally, Pete is a pretty friendly fellow, if not a little on the shy side, but being pounced upon like that seemed to put him in a less than friendly mood.


Peter: "I might feel more like talking if you'd just let me pee first!"
Yes, Rinoa and Pete's relationship got off to a less than stellar beginning. Rinoa realized that Pete was probably the nicest and best looking guy in the bunch, and she wasn't prepared to leave him alone and accept that they might not get along. Thus, she started in on and endless string of interactions, trying to joke and chat her way into Pete's good graces, but he just wasn't having any of it. The harder she tried, the less interested he became in her (some folks don't like pushy, obsessive people, I don't know why). This is pretty amazing, considering the lack of women in Peter Miller's life, and Rinoa's not bad looking. You'd think he'd at least show a little interest in getting to know her, but if you did, you'd be wrong. At last, Rinoa was forced to resort to her surefire method of relationship building…


Peter: "*sputter* A balloon to the face?…Maybe I like you after all!"
At least Pete is wearing shorts and is dressed for the occasion of a water balloon fight, unlike most sims who get pelted out of the blue. The whole water balloon idea was Rinoa's, by the way, I had no part in her starting that up. I do have to say it's a little annoying how often sims resort to water balloons when you get a big group of them together. It sucks when you're trying to get them to do something together inside, and suddenly, a pair of them runs out of the house and out of sight to start soaking each other. Anyone who's ever played TS2 knows just what I mean. Anywho, with each passing balloon, Peter was growing more and more fond of Rinoa, and she of him, until she decided it was time to ease up on the soaking and take things to the next level - presents. By this point, Pete was more than happy to accept the gift, a good sign if I've ever seen one.


Rinoa: "Don't get too excited…it's just a bland tomato..."
Despite the fact that the gift WAS just a tomato, it scored further points with Pete, and his bond with Rinoa continued to grow. So much in fact that he no longer stuck his fingers in his ears when she tried to talk to him, or put his hands up in defense against her awful attempts at jokes (I'm sure they can't be that bad, Pete probably just doesn't get military humor). Things seemed to be getting pretty serious between the two, and at some point I found myself wondering if Rinoa realized what she was getting into. See, Leon was a slacker who stayed at home all day, worked on his art a little here and there, and didn't do too much else. Pete does basically the same things, minus the art part. Maybe it's the similarity between the two that she found attractive, whatever the case, the rest of the guys who came to visit were basically forgotten - especially Jean Trevolto, who'd been sitting in the hot tub for about eight hours straight.


Rinoa: "Will you go look in the hot tub and make sure he's not dead?
Everyone was glad to discover that Jean Trevolto was not just a bloated corpse floating in the hot tub (bloated perhaps, but not a corpse), though the news didn't increase Rinoa's desire to give Pete a break and form a relationship with Jean. She'd been a long time without any romance, even when Leon and her were officially dating still, and she wasn't about to let her new beau get away so easily (at least she saw him as a beau…not sure what Pete thought their relationship was, seeing as how Rinoa was his first romantic interest). Rinoa decided she had nothing to lose by trying to take things to the next level, since if a romantic advance damaged her and Pete's relationship, she could always pelt him with water balloons until he liked her again. Alas, no pelting was necessary, as he appeared to be open to the idea of a little lip action.


Pete: "This is even better than when I practiced kissing my hand!"
Rinoa used to be so quiet and timid, this aggressive approach to relationships can only be attributed to her time spent in the military, learning how to select a target, then command and conquer as efficiently as possible. Peter really didn't have much of a clue as to what was going on, and really didn't seem to care too much. We're talking about the same guy who was obsessed with an evil clown doll and dreamt of playing with it despite the cost of it destroying his family and friends - he's not exactly the brightest guy on the planet. Nice, but not bright. He was definitely being commanded and conquered, and it wasn't long at all before he'd fallen for Rinoa. For some strange reason, Pete's old pal Jimmy doesn't seem to be too pleased about this whole development.


Jimmy: "Don't do it! She'll just leave you for a guy named Leon!"
Jimmy did choose a weird time to start fuming about broken relationships, although he never had one with Rinoa. If you recall, he dated Kerrie Bradshaw ever so briefly, just long enough to get attached to her, then Leon Jackson swooped in and married her, thus his dislike for "Leons". Rinoa has already been romantically involved with both Leon Jackson and Leon Hartman, though, and the chances of her going back to either one of them seem slim. The time was approaching when the guests would begin leaving (unless they happened to sit in the hot tub all night, which seemed to be fairly common), and Rinoa decided she didn't want Pete to leave so quickly. Thus, she invited him to stay over, allowed him to finally go pee, and attempted to cook for the first time in ages (okay, so I guess Leon had actually done the cooking around the house, but big deal).


Rinoa: "Uh…is spaghetti supposed to glow like that?"
That is one advantage to all of the gardening Rinoa has done since she moved into the house, there are almost countless tomatoes in the fridge to enhance even the most mundane meals (despite her high gardening talent, Rinoa has only ever grown tomatoes for some weird reason). I don't personally know if there's any advantage to having the different kinds of vegetables in the sim fridge, they all seem to do the same thing as far as I can tell (I'm sure it has something to do with what grows best at what time of year, but I've almost always just used greenhouses, so again, it makes no difference to me). Anyhow, I'm getting off track here. Rinoa was putting a great deal of effort into wooing Pete and making sure she didn't screw things up like she did initially. Meanwhile, Pete had gone directly to bed after Rinoa invited him to stay (after making a stop to pee, of course).


Pete: "So glad she asked me to stay…my bed's not nearly this comfortable..."
I'm no expert, but usually, if someone asks you to stay over at their place, even with the most innocent of intentions, they at least expect the pleasure of your company in return. Anyone else think Pete just doesn't get it? Rinoa considered bugging him and forcing him to wake up and eat spaghetti, but in the end, her more compassionate side (yes, she has one) decided to let him rest while she worked on some of her work related skills. Much later into the evening, when she was thoroughly tired of talking to the mirror in her bedroom, Rinoa came back out into the living room to find Jean Trevolto eating spaghetti. He'd apparently stayed so late in the hot tub that he avoided whatever internal mechanism usually forces sims to go home, and pulled an all-nighter. From the looks of things, he also broke a stool.


Rinoa: "What do you mean, 'the dog did it'? There's no dog here…you're paying for that stool!"
Left with no other options, Rinoa did manage to chat for a bit with Jean, and while they didn't actually achieve friendship, they did come pretty close (which would amount to something I guess if they were playing horseshoes). It became obvious it would take more than just one visit from a group of yahoos to launch Rinoa to the top of her military career, but it was all good, she's got all kinds of time. If nothing else, she did form at least one or two friendships and one romantic relationship (and one of the latter is more than enough for anyone). We'll check in on Rinoa a little down the road and see what, if anything, comes of all of this. Next time, though, we'll visit one of our more oddball families, the Everdarks, as they attempt to make a little something more of their lives, despite the disadvantage of being bloodsuckers. Take care, and see you soon!