Sunday, June 12, 2011

Chapter 20: Roleplay Scenario

With the prom only a few days away, Darryl hurries to ask Joline Dodger to go with him before someone else asks her.

Joline accepts his offer, and agrees that they should be more than friends.

When prom night arrives, however, Joline is not so agreeable. "I said I'd go to the prom with you," she says to Darryl when he joins her in their rented limo, "I won't go back on my word. But you should know I've decided to go steady with Benjamin Drummond. After tonight, it's over between you and me."

Darryl is disappointed, but he didn't have enough emotion invested in Joline to be truly heartbroken by this news. And while the 'date' is uncomfortable at first, he and Joline end up having a good time and even sharing a kiss. Before the night is over, Joline offers to break up with Benjamin and go steady with Darryl instead. Darryl turns her down; she's obviously too flaky to be trusted.

Julia and Julian have just started high school and haven't had time to find dates, so they go solo. The twins end up being crowned king and queen of the prom. Julian had his first kiss with Kimberlee Blalock, and Julia got into a fight with another girl for checking out her date.

While the kids are out at the prom, Autumn and Darius are alone in the studio.

"Do you remember our prom?" Autumn asks.

"Of course," Darius replies, "I also remember I had to talk you into going."

Autumn smiles, wistful, nostalgic, "I'm glad you did. We have so many great memories together."

"Would you like to go make some more?" Darius offers. Autumn takes his hand and leads him out to the hot tub.

Gibson and Jasmin went out stargaze together at a secluded park not far from their house.

"It's nice to get away from the kids," Jasmin says, "We've never had much time to just be alone together, have we?"

"Maybe we should take a vacation together," Gibson suggests, "I've always wanted to see Twikkii Island. And now that our grandchildren are almost grown, Darius and Autumn don't need our help as much ."

Jasmin nods and leans her head on his shoulder, "That sounds wonderful."

The couple buy their cruise tickets the next morning, and sail away to Twikkii Island.

Julian invites Kimberlee Blalock over, hoping the kiss they shared at prom wasn't a one time deal. Kimberlee quickly agrees to go steady with him.

While carving a set of wooden sculptures for the Outstanding Citizen Warehouse Corp. Darius' muse inspires him to carve a wooden gnome. The commission is for large, hollowed out sculptures, so this small gnome won't be suitable, and Darius likes it too much to sell it, so he places in the yard.

Gibson and Jasmin's romantic cruise to Twikkii Island ends in tragedy as a sudden hurricane wipes out the hotel they were staying in, killing everyone inside. Darius is crushed when he learns of his father's death.

It isn't until she sees her mother's grave that her death really hits Autumn.

Darius is near inconsolable in his grief, but he wipes his tears and tries to get hold of himself when he sees his wife crying.

It's his turn to do the comforting.

The joy of Darryl's recital at school is marred by mourning.

Time eventually dulls the pain of loss, and the family's life goes on.

Julia finds herself attracted to a boy at school, Beau Loving. Being the kind of nerd she is, even Julia's flirting is bookish.

Whatever she said to him worked, and Julia has her first kiss at last.

She'll be graduating before she gets another chance to go to a prom, but there's nightclubs to make up for that. She'll have her romantic dance even without a prom.

Burglars mess with Autumn Enmity at considerable risk.

Autumn fiercely defends her home and property.

The burglar is defeated. But Autumn doesn't have any restraints on hand and they cannot stop the thief from running off into the night. But at least she didn't get anything for her trouble.

"You are my hero," Darius whispers, embracing his brave wife, "It was amazing to watch you take that criminal down."
Policeman Max Humble responds to the blaring burglar alarm, too late.

"So, you must need a shower after a fight like that," Darius says, "Maybe I can help wash the dust off you."

Officer Humble has patrolled the perimeter and found no sign of the burglar. "She must have got away," he says, "Unless that was a false alarm? Some kind of roleplay you two have going on? If so, perhaps you could use a cop for your scenario?"

"What do you think, Autumn?" Darius asks.

"Well, he does have handcuffs. And a taser," Autumn says, playing along.

"I uh, better get going now," Officer Humble says.



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Challenge Notes:
So as I mentioned in my last update's notes, I had a glitch with Gibson dying and being reset. I was hoping it was a one off glitch and the he would eventually die again, for real. But I soon noticed that Sims who encountered Gibson would go into mourning when they approached him, as though he were still in the process of dying.
So I figured there was a very good chance that he was never going to able to die properly. I also did not have the heart to just smite him with master controller while he was in my control. So, I had him and Jasmin move onto another lot, and as soon as she died naturally, I zapped Gibson from above. Interestingly, I got Jasmin's death notice the night after I moved them out. Maybe it's just a coincidence, or maybe the interrupted death sequence was messing up the ability for anyone to die in my house.
I guess I'll find out when when Darius or Autumn's time eventually comes. I hope I don't have to keep moving my elders out to die, but I will if I have to.
There was no trip to Twikkii Iskand (a reference to TS2 vacation location), that was contrived for the story.

Story Progression did make Joline go steady with Benjamin Drummond after Darryl had asked her to prom, but before the Prom happened. I wasn't sure if she would still even show up as his date after that, but she did. And during the prom, she did ask to go steady. And I didn't have any choice in the matter, the game made Darryl and Joline steady partners, while she's still steady with Benjamin. I used master controller to nix her forced relationship with Darryl. I was going to have Darryl break up with her in person, but she aged up before he had a chance (afterschool activities and stuff, no time to do it, lol). And I felt it would be weird to have a scene with a teen breaking up with an adult, so I just master controlled it and wrote it off in the prom scene.

Julia's romance started when she rolled a wish to kiss Beau Loving. I'm usually more proactive and pair off my teens quickly, so it was nice to leave it be and let them choose for themselves. Well, Prom scenario chose for Julian, lol, but good enough. Random is fun.

Darryl ages up in my next play session, and the twins a few days later.

I got a magic gnome of sculpting! I feel kind of bad, as Becky has been trying for one for ages now.

5 comments:

  1. *stares at sculpting gnome* It... it actually exists. *twitch*

    Grats! =D

    If I may ask, did you notice the sculpture as it was being made? Did it not look like anything until it was finished, or did it look like a different sculpture and then become a gnome when finished?

    Cop scene was fantastic with Darius' expression.

    I'm sorry about your elders glitch. =( I had something different but similar happen with Xue, after she moved out of the house. I had Yasu invite her over, but when she showed up Yasu had no interactions available with her sister except "Wake Up." (Would have been funnier if this had happened to Fischer). Clicking wake up had no affect, and Xue just stood around seeming to wonder why no one would interact with her. I added her back to my household, and Xue had options to interact with other sims... but when she approached them, the interaction would just go out of her queue and never happen. After a minute of being annoyed and failing with reset commands, I had Xue take a nap, and then woke her up. That fixed it. x.x

    It was as if she was awake and asleep at the same time, like Gibson was both alive and dead. O.o

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  2. I'm sorry I didn't notice the sculpture as it was being built.
    My original Mr. Mysterious has died and left a grave. No gnome ghost so far. The baby has become a teen.

    I'm glad you found a solution for the sleeping/waking glitch that didn't involve smiting anyone from above. I really hated killing Gibson. Though my difficulty was alleviated by the fact that he got a ton of extra days of life after his first 'death'.
    They re some weird glitches, that's for sure.

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  3. I forgot to mention that my two gnomes have spawned a baby gnome, and aged to elders. The baby quickly grew into a child gnome. No dead gnomes yet. I fear my next legacy will be littered with gnome graves though.

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  4. Wow, I was a little shocked at the sudden death of Gibson! Even though I knew it was coming.

    What I love about your storytelling is that you have such an ingenious way of working in the Free Will/Story Progression elements into your plot. Glitches be darned!

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  5. Thanks!
    My stories are very gameplay driven, so I do like to work in the events that happen outside my control.

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