Reluctantly Gavin took a seat behind the reception desk, wondering whether the incoming food delivery was maybe a ploy to coax him into doing this job. Gavin would certainly have tried something like that on Antony. But was the equipment officer capable of...
RING-RING!
“The clam chowder!” Gavin gasped in anticipation, then hit the button that would unlock the front door. The wings swang wide open and revealed... some food getting delivered, anyway. Only not the anticipated clam chowder.
Gavin: “Okay, I can spot the crime and you delivered the evidence. Any idea who the culprit might have been?”
Rupert: “Ey? What crime are you talking about? We’re here to gift you this fruitcake as a Thank You gesture from Urban Farms Detroit for all your hard work this year. It was made with choice ingredients from the Rooftop Farm.”
Gavin: “Okay, thanks, I guess. We’ll honor that gift of yours. Put it safely into a locked vitrine, like one does with prized possessions. It’ll go great next to the killer weapons in the evidence archive!”
Ah, the clam chowder and spaghetti finally came through.
Gavin: “I never in my life turned down free grub, but I’m beginning to see why people say that only things you paid for have any worth...”
(Gavin then used poor Rupert and Travis to finish his aspiration goals of 10 mischievious/mean interactions and being disliked by two sims.)
Antony didn’t feel like intruding into Gavin’s exchanging insults with the Urban Farms envoys. He slid into the reception hall, paid the delivery person, and slid out with the paperbag in hand.
A complication arose when the man opened the bag. Antony (or rather) I seemed to have forgotten to add the spaghetti to the shopping cart, so only the clam chowder had arrived. Antony now had the choice between eating Gavin’s shellfish soup or to make do with the fruitcake.
It was a non-choice, really.
A little later Gavin entered the cafeteria. The appetitzing smell of clam chowder was still in the air and the detective couldn’t wait to...
...find that it came from the empty bowl Antony had left on the table. Ever since the DPD had its own dedicated PL600 android, even those few officers who had used to do their own dishes had weaned themselves of that habit.
Gavin: “Antony, you little 🐸🐸🐸🐸!!! Didn’t even bother removing the evidence from the crime scene...”
By now the detective’s stomach was growling loudly. Waiting for another delivery wasn’t an option, the choice was now between an instant meal from the vending machine or the dreaded fruitcake. Come to think of it, maybe Urban Farms fruitcake would actually be edible? The company was famous for its fruit and veggies, after all!
Gavin: “Christmas is supposed to bring back warm childhood memories in people. But I really could have done without the one where I’d gladly eat anything, only to feel full for once.”
Expecting to bite into something dry, and the occasional candied red bullet assaulting his teeth, Gavin was surprised to find that what he actually bit into felt more like a sponge. Then he took another bite... the fruit were plump and moist, because the Urban Farms team had soaked them long enough that there was no need for them to suck the moisture out of the bread dough. There was a hint of scotch, dried Michigan cherries, apircot and nuts. It tasted...
In fact, it still tasted like nothing Gavin Reed would have preferred on his platter. But the detective realized that he was eating some real good, expensive 🐸🐸🐸🐸, and that experience made it worth to the man. The fact that you had to do this only once per year made it even better!
Tomorrow: Sometime I'll have to make them meet. Sigh.
And then they couldn’t procrastinate it any longer - the holiday shift officers had to meet, and make an effort at socializing. What wasn’t a bad thing per se. Except that they had to socialize with each other.
Seeing each other in their after hours sweaters after having worked together for six years certainly made things... different. It was an almost surrealistic sight.
Antony: “Look, Gavin, if you’re still mad about about the clam chowder, I can explain...”
Gavin: “Oh, stuff a sock in it, Tony! I had an insanely valuable fruitcake instead, handfed with dry scotch for what tasted like a week.”
Antony: “You make that sound like a good thing, so congrats?”
Gavin: “Thanks. But I still feel the craving for something nice. Let’s raid Daniel’s fridge! I know he keeps munchies for visitors.”
Antony: “Daniel’s fridge. That would be where Daniel lives. In the janitor’s flat downstairs.”
Gavin: “Yeah. I know it’s weird for an android to have an apartment of its own, but Daniel is our facility manager, so...”
Antony: “You mean the same Daniel whom you repeatedly insulted and I brawled with last week? The Daniel who definitely didn’t hand me the keys to its private space before leaving to spend the holidays with its previous owners? I had kinda banked on YOU having them.”
Gavin: “The Phillips family?”
Antony: “Nah. The keys.”
Gavin: “Nope.”
Antony: “Where are we keeping the folding cots again...?”
And so the officers put up camping beds in the police station -
Gavin in the briefing room...
...and Antony by the lockers.
While the humans slept, the patrol androids tirelessly walked the streets.
And then the sky let go, emptying a week’s worth of snow over the city as if it had held back on purpose all last week to gift Detroit with a White Christmas tonight.
Note about the cop passerby: It's a quirk of my Detroit save(s) that for such an allegedly chaotic city rife with crime there's always at least one cop spawning in any given neighborhood. My played sim count fluctuates between 180 and 200 sims, of which ca. twenty are in the detective career and about ten more working in related fields (like Susan, who is freelance programmer, but storywise employed at the police station, and the paranormal investigators). With cops making up one fifths of my population, it shouldn't be a surprise to see them everywhere.
It was Christmas morning and although the holiday shift officers had to spend the day at the police station, that didn’t stop them from running to the tree in their PJs.
“In my family we exchange gifts at Christmas Eve already”, Gavin chatted away. “Here, look, Tina sent a video of Jin playing with the mermaid playset I bought for him!”
Antony: ”Phew. For a moment I was afraid it would be another cat video... But that’s not a toddler you two have there, but an anthropomorphic water rat.”
Gavin: “Yeah, yeah, I know. He got the water part from his mom and the rat part from me. Now open your package! - Ew, no, not the robot building kit. The other one!”
Gavin: “What did you get? Oh, crap, a lousy postcard...”
Antony: “A postcard from Littlehaven, signed by a certain someone by hand. That is proof they are safe and that in turn is worth more than anything.”
Not their best haul. Antony got that postcard, and Gavin got nothing at all (not even a notification).
Gavin: “I have something for you, by the way!”
Antony: “You? No way! It’s a prank!”
Gavin: “Nope.”
Antony: “C’mon!”
Gavin: “Okay, maybe a little. But it’s perfectly safe to open. Don’t want my disciplinary folder overtake Hank’s in size, you know?”
So what should I buy as Gavin to give Antony, I wondered. Fortunately he already had two objects in his inventory: the wooden sculpture he had bought the day before and an Engineer Corps Honor Medal from his job. Perfect, actually!
Antony: “My honor medal from my military days! You found it! And after all this time!”
Gavin: “Hell, no, mate. I found it back when you lost it already, but hung on to it in case I ever needed to bribe you. But now the year’s almost over, so... Merry Christmas!”
At this point I was still unsure whether to go the friends or the enemies with benefits path. I had given the sims a start on both - and Antony made a decision by gifting Gavin a rose back.
Gavin: “Hear, hear, who’s talking about prank presents NOW!”
Antony: “Haha, no! I promised I’d make an effort to bond with my partner and I’ll stick to that! Now I really, really, really cannot see us become friends, so I settled for the nextbest thing: Enabling you to leave your closet, Mister “I made my alibi girlfriend a child”!”
Gavin: “Forget it! You can’t prove something that isn’t real!”
Antony: “I promised!”
Gavin: “Pfft.”
Antony: “I promised TO DANIEL.”
Not quite the truth, Antony admitted to himself. But Daniel had at least been in the same room when the officer had made his resolution. So that had to count.
The mention of Daniel unlocked the pink romance bar. It was hard to overlook and Antony knew he had correctly intuited his co-workers orientation. But it was strange. Gavin Reed had an ego sufficient to be a whole Pride Parade all on his own, so why was he so determined to come across as straight?
Antony: “It’s “muh career” again, correct?”
Gavin: “...yeah. You never know how times might change, and then it’s better to be safe than sorry. But Jin’s not an alibi! He was an honest accident on my part when Tina collected her payment! - Was I really that easy to read?”
Antony: “Not for the longest time. Tina and you make convincing friends with benefits. But ever since Daniel has started working here, you went into heat.”
And ever since that day, Antony, who technically was attracted to men and women alike, but in practise spent more time tinkering than conquering, had started noticing Gavin as a... no, not as a person, but as a body, a face and a smile. Antony’s perception of Gavin as a person usually didn’t pass a profanity check.
Bolstered by the realisation that they hadn’t yet killed each other, Gavin and Antony decided to try their hands at what was called a “Festive Breakfast” in Daniel’s cookbook.
It went... about as expected from starting sims.
Gavin: “There need to be more practical instructions in those recipe books! Like a warning when exactly the stuff will attempt to attack you!”
Antony: “Twenty-eight stab wounds! We killed our meal fair and square, like real men!”
Gavin: “Tooooonieeeeeeee! I think I have the... ouch... hots for you...!”
Antony: “And this is why sensible people have an android for housework!!!”
And that was when Gavin Reed learned about another of Antony’s hobbys: Photography.
With the stove gone, Antony and Gavin had to say Goodbye to the prospect of a Grand Meal. Even if they called an emergency repairservice, chances were they’d just demolish the stove again with their non existent cooking skills.
There were still the android manned food stalls at the neighborhood plaza, of course. They rotated between a large variety of exotic dishes.
The two officers donned their scarves and hats and went looking what might be on the menu today. Turned out they had the choice between fruit and coffee specialities.
Antony picked a candied apple and Gavin a pitch black coffee. That was their Grand Meal at Christmas Day.
The prospect of finding an ourageously large bonus in their bankaccounts after the holidays was absolutely no consolation.
Antony felt like pulling an AR helmet over his face and immerse himself in some virtual world, maybe a Lookout Travels Virtual Vacation. His parents had gifted Antony’s account a new trip, without saying where exactly the clip would take him.
Gavin in turn felt like kicking the android vendors and making Antony watch it. In the past that would both have helped to work through his frustration and to entertain the detective. But now he could think of something better...
Gavin: “There was this dude in mythology, his peers used to toss sharp objects at him for fun, because he was invincible. Then one day Loki came along and did it differently...”
Antony: “A Mistletoe-to-go? What else have you got in your pockets, you magpie?”
Gavin: “Wanna see...?”
However, Antony was about as pleased as Baldr had been after getting hit by the mistletoe spear. Only unlike the ancient deity, Antony was still very much alive afterwards to voice his complaint:
Antony: “What’s gotten into YOU?! You can’t just kiss me in public!”
Gavin: “Oh, I can’t? So what happened to your “opening the closet door for poor Gavin to clamber out”? Keep your gays in the bedroom instead of in the closet is that it? That what you call progress?!”
Antony: “Yes! If that “GAY” is the first syllable of “GAVIN”! Getting seen with YOU will ruin my chances with every last man, woman and android in this city!”
Soon the duo was pelting each other with snow and eventually rolling on the ground, their relationship worse than it had been yesterday. They had to get into the police station quickly and get out of the wet clothes.
Antony: “Hey! This shower is already taken!”
Gavin: “But is the dude inside taken, too?”
Later...
Antony: “This better not end up on Facebook! I’ll need to delete the camera feeds just in case.”
Gavin: “Awesome! We went at it like two ratty old country tomcats!”
The atmosphere stayed flirty... until Antony got a call from one of his patrol bots (that I organized in a club with him).
Gavin: “Way to kill the mood! Keep your androids out of my bed!”
Antony: “Oh, I bet you wouldn’t complain if it had been Daniel calling instead of Three-Oh-Two!”
Gavin: “That’s exactly why we’re practising here for, though...? Getting Daniel into bed?”
Antony: “No! We are having fun and if it helps you to score with a handsome man and me to make friends with a real person somewhere down the line, then that’s a bonus!”
Gavin: “In case you haven’t noticed, deviant androids ARE real persons! Why else would I have suggested to Connor to rough that one suspect up? If I believed he wouldn’t feel the pain, then that would make no sense!”
Antony: “Wait a mom’! You think deviants are people, yet you mistreat them same as any household appliance? That’s sick!”
Gavin: “Oh, cry me a river! Is this going to be about Ben Collins again?”
Antony: “Matter of fact...”
At this point they remembered the shower being nearby and put it to good use again.
Next: An unexpected visitor (not Daniel).
Later that day Antony wondered just how out of the world he actually was. For example never in his years of service had the officer noticed there being a fireplace right next to the interrogation room. Maybe Daniel had installed it when he had started working here? But that had been in August already!
On second glance Antony noticed that the “fireplace” was made of cardboard. The next moment the door to the adjacent room swang open and out came...
Antony: “Hank! Uh, I mean: Santa!”
Hank: “HO-HO-HO! I come to bring gifts to two poor boys that are home alone on this merry day! Now the question is, have you been nice - or naughty?!”
Antony: “Definitely naughty! In the showers! Twice!”
Hank: “There’s something like there being too much information...”
Every DPD staff member had a wishlist stored in the database. Some lists were filled with only general likes and dislikes, others had specific objects. Some were notably longer than others, too. Whoever drew the short stick for major holiday shifts could expect their co-workers to collect money, then Chief of Police adding a little to that fund and then one entry from your list might just become reality.
So Antony Deckart wasn’t surprised when Lt. Anderson handed him a present now.
Except...
Antony: “A print of silly cats playing jazz music? Sounds like something Gavin might value.”
Hank: “Mhm-mhm...”
Hank: “And this one is for you!”
Gavin: “A bunch of upgrade parts? I don’t even recognize what half of those are. Looks like something Antony might like.”
Hank: “Doesn’t that give you two an idea?”
Okay, game, I admit that was perfect
Antony: “Hank mixed up the presents! Those upgrade parts should have been mine - give them back!”
Gavin: “Just dismantle one of your tincans if you’re desperate for spare parts!”
Hank: *deep sigh*
Gavin: “Hey, look! R. Daneel Olivaw!”
Antony: “What? Where?!”
Arguing over their presents and trying to snatch them from each other brought Gavin’s and Antony’s relationship down far enough to complete the scenario.
Still festering grudges, still enemies, but now enemies with benefits. Fittingly Gavin also has a positive sentiment for Antony that relates to a present, so I imagine that in the end they swapped their packages as Hank intended for them to.
Not quite the end. They still have a third day to work, and I have still three more posts planned.
Antony: “Hope you don’t mind me having invited some visitors, Gavin? You know, today is Boxing Day, so visits are traditional.”
Gavin: “In England. My ancestors came from Scottland.”
Antony: “My visitors do not hail from that far away... just from the android compartments down in the main office. So - do you mind them staying or is it okay?”
Gavin: “Can’t argue with a man who puts his four favorite dollies ‘round the table for a tea party.”
Gavin: “Here, try this! It’ll make your dish much better!”
Antony: “Since when are you an expert on spices?”
Gavin: “It’s the dispenser with the least material in. So it stands to reason that this is a commonly used ingredient.”
PC200-250: “It’s called “salt”, Officer Deckart.”
Gavin: “You aren’t even looking our way, tincan!”
PC200-250 (to itself): “And I wish I hadn’t been listening, either...”
PC200-250: “My cooking app says...”
Gavin: “My mom always says...”
Antony: “You have a cooking app?!”
PC200-250: “My emergency protocol prompted me to download one right when you started eyeing the kitchen tools, Sir.”
Antony: “And your parents still acknowledge you?!”
Gavin: “They’re mighty proud of me! Just don’t expect me to introduce you to them.”
Another tradition of Boxing Day was to literally box gifts to show your gratitude to your servants. The DPD’s patrol androids counted as such, but Antony had never considered giving them presents. Something had changed, though...
Antony decided to gift the patrol bots money. If the androids were stable, nothing more than sophisticated mobile cameras, they’d spend the money in accordance with their programming: protecting the citizens of Detroit. Antony thus wouldn’t have squandered the money on “dolls”, but done a good deed.
But if the androids were persons for real, then deciding what to do with the money might help them get even deeper into their personhood. What might at first be painful for the young person in question, but ultimately would constitute an even better deed.
PM700-303 (sending): <<<It’s a trick. Mister Deckart wants to check if any of us are deviants and then dismantle the affected units. Don’t fall for it, friend!>>>
PC200-250: <<<Maybe you’re right. But this could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance...>>>
PC200-250: “I don’t want your money, Officer! I wanna get transferred to the motorbike patrol squad!!!”
(He was the only one to agitatedly talk to Antony after receiving his present. Also, no worries, 250, I have working cc motorcycles.)
Meanwhile the other PC200 sat in the reception hall, admiring the tree for hours.
It’s probably just ashes from a Mischief festival, but in conjunction with the pigeons it looks like guano.
And so Antony Deckart spent the second day of Christmas cleaning the square of pigeon poop.
He still had it better than Gavin Reed. The detective had to disband a political protest for no other reason than it being spontaneous. Freeze ray’ing the protesters hurt them, pained the detective and might also sadden the mayor when she’d hear about the incident later.
So why were they doing this, the duo wondered. Because it was the law? And because if they did nothing today, tomorrow a nefarious group might take advantage of their inaction and cite today as a precedence?
Some days that sounded so hollow...
No rest for the wicked...
It was their final night at the police station and Gavin and Antony had just went to bed, expecting nothing serious, when they heard cries from the bus station right next to the building.
An android with a knife was trying to mug the people!
After the bad aftertaste that sending the protesters home earlier today had caused, Gavin and Antony once again knew why they did this job: For nights like this one, when innocents were in danger.
(I wanted to give knife-carrying townie the benefit of doubt, maybe he was on the run and desperate, but seeing the man’s traits I knew he wasn’t innocent: Klepto, Greedy and Collector. So behind bars he went via "add to family".)
Getting hit with a freeze ray in an already cold winter night takes a toll on even the most weatherproof machine. Antony therefore provided a de-freezing agent and a portable room heater before going to bed.
I currently have all scenarios available, because my game wasn’t updated in a while. So I thought why not make a bunch of new sims and run them through all those scenarios. The common theme of those newbies is that they all come to a big city from elsewhere. The scenarios are their backstories, so to say. One will come from Sulani, two from Mt. Komorebi, four from Strangerville, one from Newcrest, one from Henford-on-Bagley and the final two will be city natives, but with a twist.
Without further ado - meet Kaleo!
Kaleo is a resident of Ohan’ali town, Sulani. She made the New Year’s resolution of moving to a big city and make her fortune, just like she has always dreamed of. Only problem: such places aren’t too friendly to newcomers, they bleed them dry and spit them out, so having a financial cushion is adviseable.
Being a thrill seeker, Kaleo decided to temporarily work as a pearl diver to raise some money. That means she has to move away from the cosy lagoon to the wilderness of Mua Pel’am, where the best pearl oyster banks are located.
Kaleo’s scenario is “New year, new hustle”. It requires a sim to reach level 3 in a career or raise a skill to 5 and make 25,000 simoleons.
Welcome to Mua Pel’am...
It was raining hard the day Kaleo arrived in the wooden hut she had rented. Swimming in this weather would be a bad idea, not only because of the risk of lightning strike, but due to the waves alone.
Determined to make the best of ther situation, Kaleo unpacked the TV she had brought from her old teen room, the one possession she’d probably never part with. Then she started training her fitness, that she needed as a pearl diver anyway.
When the rain stopped, Kaleo took the first steps into the water. Right below her house was a small bay, that provided conditions similarly to the Ohan’ali lagoon. It was save to train here.
And also conveniently secluded, because the last thing the brave pearl diver needed was people catching on that she had never really learned to swim. Moving arms and legs like a frog had always been good enough in the lagoon.
By her second day of rigorous training, Kaleo’s swim style was looking much better already. She was confident to be able to swim in the ocean now, and not just that, she’d try reach the dive buoy right away!
She reached the goal of skill level 5 the second day. Don’t ask about her social bar, though.
Still only day two and Kaleo is already busy at the dive buoy!
What could go wrong...?
Note: Pearl (sea shell) diving is a reliable source of income. For example Kaleo here made 2,700 simoleons in seven hours. So it’s really something you’ll want to lock behind a story gate, like restricting it to Sulani citizens, or put a hefty tax on (”Nice seashells you have there, tourist - taking them out of the country will cost you xy simoleons.”)
What could go wrong, indeed... Kaleo was carrying a knife to cut the pearl oysters from the banks and her only worry had been meeting a shark.
She hadn’t expected the ground to shake or large rocks with fiery tails impact on the islands! Sheltered as she had grown up, the fledgeling pearl diver’s first thought was “Asteroids!”. Then she noticed the volcano.
The massive structure had always been there in the background, easy to overlook despite its size. Not any longer. The volcano had come to life and didn’t care for the life around it.
Kaleo saw a lone human run up the slope towards her hut. She recognized him as Dr. Kealoha, a conservationist from Ohan’ali. The doctor knew Kaleo had moved here just yesterday, and wanted to check on here.
If only Kaleo could catch his attention, tell the man that she was not exactly save out in the water, but not in the hut, either! But no amount of waving and shouting could reach Dr. Kealoha now.
The air was burning and full of soot particles. Dr. Kealoha had to wet his parched throat. He downed the lukewarm drink in the comfortable awareness that Kaleo was save.
In the debris left behind by the eruption Kaleo made a gruesome discovery:
A proto-sim skull. If the volcano had hurled it out, then it stood to reason that the skull had somehow went into the fiery abyss in the first place. An adventurous primeval sim, maybe? Someone like herself, Kaleo wondered?
Dr. Kealoha: “Or a sacrificial victim, tossed into the maw to appease the volcano god.”
Kaleo: “Oh... right. As if that day hadn’t been dark enough!”
Eventually night fell over Mua Pel’am.
What was the volcano doing?
Silly me for asking.
The second eruption in as many days (because technically it was after midnight) broke both the sink and the stove.
Tuesday was Kaleo’s third day on Mua Pel’am.
When she stepped out of her hut the morning after two volcanic eruptions in short succesion, the sky was overcast and sickly yellow from the dust. (I cheated Mua Pel'am to industrial to create the fitting visuals.)
Around nine in the morning the earth shook a bit again.
And then the inevitable followed.
This time a lava bomb hit right in front of the hut’s door. Kaleo couldn’t help but wonder if she had done something in person to rile up the volcano god like that...
Mua Pel’am was covered under a dust bowl and would remain like this for weeks.
Being an adventurer at heart, Kaleo decided to stay on the island. But she set aside her goal if harvesting pearl oysters for money, and instead joined the conservationist career, in the hopes of being able to aid the environment recover. The conservationists were now battling human-made problems and the aftermath of the volcanic eruptions at the same time.
Kaleo: “Oh, come now, this is getting ridiculous!”
All she wanted was to score a date with a co-worker for love day the next day. But the volcano had other ideas.
Kaleo went to Ohan’ali for love day anyway. She even met a handsome man that she exchanged flowers with. Unfortunately he was pretty resistent to opening a romance bar. Maybe he just wasn’t into women. Or it wasn’t the right time for romance.
In any case relaxing in her home town recharged Kaleo’s mental batteries. She was now ready to resume her pearl diving in addition to her auxiliary conservationist job.
Due to the circumstances it took Kaleo six days to fulfill the scenario goal of reaching career level 3. Next I’ll do the other goal (earn 25K).
Spring hadn’t fully turned into summer yet. Returning home to her hut on the hill, Kaleo found things there... as usual, actually.
Poor Kaleo witnessed six outbreaks in the thirteen days she stayed at Mua Pel’am. The time stamps on my screenshots were:
0:36
0:43
0:49 (that was a different one from the 0:43)
1:06
1:27
1:52
(Yes, I’m a nightowl. My natural bedtime is 3 a.m., so it was late, but not as late as the timestamps would suggest for a diurnal person.)
Kaleo Mahi’ai - scenario results
Kaleo completed her scenario goals at the last day of summer. She also completed the Collector aspiration and made good progress in Fabulously Wealthy. Reward traits shown are before spending the bonus points from New Year, New Hustle (and Vegetarian is modded to not take up a trait slot). The Independent bonus trait I bought her because deep down Kaleo suspects that she somehow caused the volcano's unrest. For this reason she'll avoid people as to not spread her bad luck/curse. But one could also argue that all the solitary pearl diving taught her to get by on her own.
Also pictured are the objects Kaleo will take to "the big city" (haven't decided on a name/location/backstory yet), along with the penguin TV, 26,000 simoleons in cash and whatever the hut is still worth (around 15K ?).
Kaleo will lose her job upon leaving Sulani, and will have to do with her skills (Fitness 8, a little Handyness and Cooking).
She also slimmed down considerably from all the diving, so the first order of business in her new home will be to scout all the dining places to get curvy again.
Aimi and Yukio are “that cousin” to each other. They will go to great lengths explaining that they got their surname from different ancestors. It’s a common name, after all. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are on the same family tree and on occasion are expected to share the same continent.
Aimi and Yukio have arrived early at the extended family’s vacation home in Yukimatsu for the New Year’s celebrations. It’s awkward, but they are confident that the rest of the Tanakas will join them soon, resulting in other sims to interact with and being able avoid each other. Too bad a snowstorm is coming, that will prevent all travel from and to Yukimatsu...
The Tanakas’ scenario is Survive the Holidays. It starts them out as enemies with a festering grudge and can result in them either becoming friends or enemies with benefits. The scenario is also bugged. Before they haven’t solved it, the sims cannot go through a loading screen. That’s why the snowstorm backstory (and the game was kind enough to send me an actual one without the need to cheat it in).
So what drove the Tanaka cousins apart ever since their toddler days?
Is it the fact that Yukio is a cat person, but Aimi a dog person? That they both like turquoise, but she calls it blue, while calls it green? Her preferring the ski over the snowboard, and him exactly the other way around? Or that she could listen to traditional music and zen music for hours, while he immerses himself in Tween and S-Pop, exactly the music the other cannot stand?
Yes to all, and the fact that both have an outgoing trait (Bro respectively Self assured) worsens the situation, because they just won’t give each other a break. They actively seek the other out to pester them.
It’s not as if the Tanakas didn’t have anything at all in common. Sadly the thing they do have in common is their bad luck (Clumsy trait):
New Year’s Eve and the Tanakas are still at each other’s throats.
It started out harmless, by Aimi deciding to fulfill the Spa Tradition I put by doing yoga, while Yukio retreated to the bathroom to take a mud bath.
But then she found the mochi and obliterated them all.
Aimi: “Yeah, sorry, I thought it was a group serving! Only after I grabbed a share did I realize it was a single and by then it was too late.”
True story, by the way. Also, according to the game they both had a wonderful holiday, because they checked all the goals. But the true test will come tomorrow, when they are supposed to visit a shrine together for good fortune in the new year.
At New Year’s Eve the snow storm was raging full force. In the afternoon it was already as dark as night. Around 20:00 the Tanakas decided to light some fireworks, fully expecting to be snowed in by midnight.
Aimi and Yukio wanted to be anywhere else, with anybody else.
And for the first time in probably their whole life, they didn’t harass the other over a show of weakness, but instead pretended not to have seen it. It was the closest to showing comfort to the other that they had ever come to.
After daring each other to climb to the highest point they could reach in this weather, the Tanakas played with sparklers.
Climbing back down - this can go slowly or very, very fast..
Aimi: “Yukio! I can’t see you anymore!” (pause) “Come to think of it, there had to be a saving grace to this night, and this is it.”
By now the gondola station had closed. The building was still open, but no traffic was going in or out anymore. It was either spending the night inside the top hill station - or going down one of the slopes.
Time to settle snowboard or ski superiority once and for all!
Yukio: You don’t have to look good or even decent, doing this, Yukio Tanaka. Just stay on... stay on... stay on... somehow...
Yukio (what he wants to say): “Hello and well met, random passerby! If you could just pick me up and pull me home lying on my snowboard, that sounds like the start of an awesome romance!”
Yukio (out loud): Whimper...
Becca Clarke wasn’t even cold hearted or absorbed into her private thoughts. No, the storm was that bad that it drowned out Yukio’s cries for help. Focused on each next step, Becca simply didn’t notice he was there.
Meanwhile Aimi couldn’t decide whether her ski poles were a help or a liability right now.
For a moment I thought she’d make it...
...but then she arrived same as Yukio had before her.
Somehow they had to make it home... maybe the sparklers will help with seeing something?
The local hospital knows about snowburn, of course, but I bet the doctors didn’t expect to have to treat the victims of a snow storm for actual burn marks.
When they had their bruises and burns treated at the local hospital, the doctors couldn’t help to notice Aimi’s and Yukio’s festering grudge. They suggested to get a therapy animal and the Tanakas accepted.
It was a small miracle that the pet shelter representative made it to the vacation home in the storm the next day already.
Yukio: “So the evaluation process consists of you looking into a future cube to find out if we will be good pet owners?”
Naomi: “Yay!”
You can probably guess how it ended. They got TWO therapy animals. Conflicting ones.
Shaska is a clingy, lazy little furball, while Zoe is adventurous and a gluttonous big furball. (Default names subject to change.)
I need to have fireplaces more often! (At least in dog households.)
Snowed in and with two pets, the Tanaka cousins now HAD to make things work.
Interestingly Yukio’s Festering Grudge against Aimi is fading and already at half strength only, despite me cycling as equally as possible between them for initiating interactions. For some reason he is more open to the idea of making peace than Aimi is.
After the snowstorm I had bought them them both cold resistance and assigned a liking for cold temperatures. So they started talking about the weather. A lot. Every second conversation topic from the pie menu was “Enthuse about frost” and each use shaved off a large chunk of the red relationship bar.
(Another option that requires no contact might be Volunteer together, but I save that for a different household, the Find Love after a Breakup ex-couple.)
Comments
RING-RING!
“The clam chowder!” Gavin gasped in anticipation, then hit the button that would unlock the front door. The wings swang wide open and revealed... some food getting delivered, anyway. Only not the anticipated clam chowder.
Gavin: “Okay, I can spot the crime and you delivered the evidence. Any idea who the culprit might have been?”
Rupert: “Ey? What crime are you talking about? We’re here to gift you this fruitcake as a Thank You gesture from Urban Farms Detroit for all your hard work this year. It was made with choice ingredients from the Rooftop Farm.”
Gavin: “Okay, thanks, I guess. We’ll honor that gift of yours. Put it safely into a locked vitrine, like one does with prized possessions. It’ll go great next to the killer weapons in the evidence archive!”
Ah, the clam chowder and spaghetti finally came through.
Gavin: “I never in my life turned down free grub, but I’m beginning to see why people say that only things you paid for have any worth...”
(Gavin then used poor Rupert and Travis to finish his aspiration goals of 10 mischievious/mean interactions and being disliked by two sims.)
Antony didn’t feel like intruding into Gavin’s exchanging insults with the Urban Farms envoys. He slid into the reception hall, paid the delivery person, and slid out with the paperbag in hand.
A complication arose when the man opened the bag. Antony (or rather) I seemed to have forgotten to add the spaghetti to the shopping cart, so only the clam chowder had arrived. Antony now had the choice between eating Gavin’s shellfish soup or to make do with the fruitcake.
It was a non-choice, really.
A little later Gavin entered the cafeteria. The appetitzing smell of clam chowder was still in the air and the detective couldn’t wait to...
...find that it came from the empty bowl Antony had left on the table. Ever since the DPD had its own dedicated PL600 android, even those few officers who had used to do their own dishes had weaned themselves of that habit.
Gavin: “Antony, you little 🐸🐸🐸🐸!!! Didn’t even bother removing the evidence from the crime scene...”
By now the detective’s stomach was growling loudly. Waiting for another delivery wasn’t an option, the choice was now between an instant meal from the vending machine or the dreaded fruitcake. Come to think of it, maybe Urban Farms fruitcake would actually be edible? The company was famous for its fruit and veggies, after all!
Gavin: “Christmas is supposed to bring back warm childhood memories in people. But I really could have done without the one where I’d gladly eat anything, only to feel full for once.”
Expecting to bite into something dry, and the occasional candied red bullet assaulting his teeth, Gavin was surprised to find that what he actually bit into felt more like a sponge. Then he took another bite... the fruit were plump and moist, because the Urban Farms team had soaked them long enough that there was no need for them to suck the moisture out of the bread dough. There was a hint of scotch, dried Michigan cherries, apircot and nuts. It tasted...
In fact, it still tasted like nothing Gavin Reed would have preferred on his platter. But the detective realized that he was eating some real good, expensive 🐸🐸🐸🐸, and that experience made it worth to the man. The fact that you had to do this only once per year made it even better!
Tomorrow: Sometime I'll have to make them meet. Sigh.
And then they couldn’t procrastinate it any longer - the holiday shift officers had to meet, and make an effort at socializing. What wasn’t a bad thing per se. Except that they had to socialize with each other.
Seeing each other in their after hours sweaters after having worked together for six years certainly made things... different. It was an almost surrealistic sight.
Antony: “Look, Gavin, if you’re still mad about about the clam chowder, I can explain...”
Gavin: “Oh, stuff a sock in it, Tony! I had an insanely valuable fruitcake instead, handfed with dry scotch for what tasted like a week.”
Antony: “You make that sound like a good thing, so congrats?”
Gavin: “Thanks. But I still feel the craving for something nice. Let’s raid Daniel’s fridge! I know he keeps munchies for visitors.”
Antony: “Daniel’s fridge. That would be where Daniel lives. In the janitor’s flat downstairs.”
Gavin: “Yeah. I know it’s weird for an android to have an apartment of its own, but Daniel is our facility manager, so...”
Antony: “You mean the same Daniel whom you repeatedly insulted and I brawled with last week? The Daniel who definitely didn’t hand me the keys to its private space before leaving to spend the holidays with its previous owners? I had kinda banked on YOU having them.”
Gavin: “The Phillips family?”
Antony: “Nah. The keys.”
Gavin: “Nope.”
Antony: “Where are we keeping the folding cots again...?”
And so the officers put up camping beds in the police station -
Gavin in the briefing room...
...and Antony by the lockers.
While the humans slept, the patrol androids tirelessly walked the streets.
And then the sky let go, emptying a week’s worth of snow over the city as if it had held back on purpose all last week to gift Detroit with a White Christmas tonight.
Note about the cop passerby: It's a quirk of my Detroit save(s) that for such an allegedly chaotic city rife with crime there's always at least one cop spawning in any given neighborhood. My played sim count fluctuates between 180 and 200 sims, of which ca. twenty are in the detective career and about ten more working in related fields (like Susan, who is freelance programmer, but storywise employed at the police station, and the paranormal investigators). With cops making up one fifths of my population, it shouldn't be a surprise to see them everywhere.
“In my family we exchange gifts at Christmas Eve already”, Gavin chatted away. “Here, look, Tina sent a video of Jin playing with the mermaid playset I bought for him!”
Antony: ”Phew. For a moment I was afraid it would be another cat video... But that’s not a toddler you two have there, but an anthropomorphic water rat.”
Gavin: “Yeah, yeah, I know. He got the water part from his mom and the rat part from me. Now open your package! - Ew, no, not the robot building kit. The other one!”
Gavin: “What did you get? Oh, crap, a lousy postcard...”
Antony: “A postcard from Littlehaven, signed by a certain someone by hand. That is proof they are safe and that in turn is worth more than anything.”
Not their best haul. Antony got that postcard, and Gavin got nothing at all (not even a notification).
Gavin: “I have something for you, by the way!”
Antony: “You? No way! It’s a prank!”
Gavin: “Nope.”
Antony: “C’mon!”
Gavin: “Okay, maybe a little. But it’s perfectly safe to open. Don’t want my disciplinary folder overtake Hank’s in size, you know?”
So what should I buy as Gavin to give Antony, I wondered. Fortunately he already had two objects in his inventory: the wooden sculpture he had bought the day before and an Engineer Corps Honor Medal from his job. Perfect, actually!
Antony: “My honor medal from my military days! You found it! And after all this time!”
Gavin: “Hell, no, mate. I found it back when you lost it already, but hung on to it in case I ever needed to bribe you. But now the year’s almost over, so... Merry Christmas!”
At this point I was still unsure whether to go the friends or the enemies with benefits path. I had given the sims a start on both - and Antony made a decision by gifting Gavin a rose back.
Gavin: “Hear, hear, who’s talking about prank presents NOW!”
Antony: “Haha, no! I promised I’d make an effort to bond with my partner and I’ll stick to that! Now I really, really, really cannot see us become friends, so I settled for the nextbest thing: Enabling you to leave your closet, Mister “I made my alibi girlfriend a child”!”
Gavin: “Forget it! You can’t prove something that isn’t real!”
Antony: “I promised!”
Gavin: “Pfft.”
Antony: “I promised TO DANIEL.”
Not quite the truth, Antony admitted to himself. But Daniel had at least been in the same room when the officer had made his resolution. So that had to count.
The mention of Daniel unlocked the pink romance bar. It was hard to overlook and Antony knew he had correctly intuited his co-workers orientation. But it was strange. Gavin Reed had an ego sufficient to be a whole Pride Parade all on his own, so why was he so determined to come across as straight?
Antony: “It’s “muh career” again, correct?”
Gavin: “...yeah. You never know how times might change, and then it’s better to be safe than sorry. But Jin’s not an alibi! He was an honest accident on my part when Tina collected her payment! - Was I really that easy to read?”
Antony: “Not for the longest time. Tina and you make convincing friends with benefits. But ever since Daniel has started working here, you went into heat.”
And ever since that day, Antony, who technically was attracted to men and women alike, but in practise spent more time tinkering than conquering, had started noticing Gavin as a... no, not as a person, but as a body, a face and a smile. Antony’s perception of Gavin as a person usually didn’t pass a profanity check.
Bolstered by the realisation that they hadn’t yet killed each other, Gavin and Antony decided to try their hands at what was called a “Festive Breakfast” in Daniel’s cookbook.
It went... about as expected from starting sims.
Gavin: “There need to be more practical instructions in those recipe books! Like a warning when exactly the stuff will attempt to attack you!”
Antony: “Twenty-eight stab wounds! We killed our meal fair and square, like real men!”
Gavin: “Tooooonieeeeeeee! I think I have the... ouch... hots for you...!”
Antony: “And this is why sensible people have an android for housework!!!”
And that was when Gavin Reed learned about another of Antony’s hobbys: Photography.
With the stove gone, Antony and Gavin had to say Goodbye to the prospect of a Grand Meal. Even if they called an emergency repairservice, chances were they’d just demolish the stove again with their non existent cooking skills.
There were still the android manned food stalls at the neighborhood plaza, of course. They rotated between a large variety of exotic dishes.
The two officers donned their scarves and hats and went looking what might be on the menu today. Turned out they had the choice between fruit and coffee specialities.
Antony picked a candied apple and Gavin a pitch black coffee. That was their Grand Meal at Christmas Day.
The prospect of finding an ourageously large bonus in their bankaccounts after the holidays was absolutely no consolation.
At this point both men’s mood was at its lowest.
Antony felt like pulling an AR helmet over his face and immerse himself in some virtual world, maybe a Lookout Travels Virtual Vacation. His parents had gifted Antony’s account a new trip, without saying where exactly the clip would take him.
Gavin in turn felt like kicking the android vendors and making Antony watch it. In the past that would both have helped to work through his frustration and to entertain the detective. But now he could think of something better...
Gavin: “There was this dude in mythology, his peers used to toss sharp objects at him for fun, because he was invincible. Then one day Loki came along and did it differently...”
Antony: “A Mistletoe-to-go? What else have you got in your pockets, you magpie?”
Gavin: “Wanna see...?”
However, Antony was about as pleased as Baldr had been after getting hit by the mistletoe spear. Only unlike the ancient deity, Antony was still very much alive afterwards to voice his complaint:
Antony: “What’s gotten into YOU?! You can’t just kiss me in public!”
Gavin: “Oh, I can’t? So what happened to your “opening the closet door for poor Gavin to clamber out”? Keep your gays in the bedroom instead of in the closet is that it? That what you call progress?!”
Antony: “Yes! If that “GAY” is the first syllable of “GAVIN”! Getting seen with YOU will ruin my chances with every last man, woman and android in this city!”
Gavin: “Shut up, android woohooer! Just! Shut! Up!”
Soon the duo was pelting each other with snow and eventually rolling on the ground, their relationship worse than it had been yesterday. They had to get into the police station quickly and get out of the wet clothes.
Antony: “Hey! This shower is already taken!”
Gavin: “But is the dude inside taken, too?”
Later...
Antony: “This better not end up on Facebook! I’ll need to delete the camera feeds just in case.”
Gavin: “Awesome! We went at it like two ratty old country tomcats!”
The atmosphere stayed flirty... until Antony got a call from one of his patrol bots (that I organized in a club with him).
Gavin: “Way to kill the mood! Keep your androids out of my bed!”
Antony: “Oh, I bet you wouldn’t complain if it had been Daniel calling instead of Three-Oh-Two!”
Gavin: “That’s exactly why we’re practising here for, though...? Getting Daniel into bed?”
Antony: “No! We are having fun and if it helps you to score with a handsome man and me to make friends with a real person somewhere down the line, then that’s a bonus!”
Gavin: “In case you haven’t noticed, deviant androids ARE real persons! Why else would I have suggested to Connor to rough that one suspect up? If I believed he wouldn’t feel the pain, then that would make no sense!”
Antony: “Wait a mom’! You think deviants are people, yet you mistreat them same as any household appliance? That’s sick!”
Gavin: “Oh, cry me a river! Is this going to be about Ben Collins again?”
Antony: “Matter of fact...”
At this point they remembered the shower being nearby and put it to good use again.
Next: An unexpected visitor (not Daniel).
On second glance Antony noticed that the “fireplace” was made of cardboard. The next moment the door to the adjacent room swang open and out came...
Antony: “Hank! Uh, I mean: Santa!”
Hank: “HO-HO-HO! I come to bring gifts to two poor boys that are home alone on this merry day! Now the question is, have you been nice - or naughty?!”
Antony: “Definitely naughty! In the showers! Twice!”
Hank: “There’s something like there being too much information...”
Every DPD staff member had a wishlist stored in the database. Some lists were filled with only general likes and dislikes, others had specific objects. Some were notably longer than others, too. Whoever drew the short stick for major holiday shifts could expect their co-workers to collect money, then Chief of Police adding a little to that fund and then one entry from your list might just become reality.
So Antony Deckart wasn’t surprised when Lt. Anderson handed him a present now.
Except...
Antony: “A print of silly cats playing jazz music? Sounds like something Gavin might value.”
Hank: “Mhm-mhm...”
Hank: “And this one is for you!”
Gavin: “A bunch of upgrade parts? I don’t even recognize what half of those are. Looks like something Antony might like.”
Hank: “Doesn’t that give you two an idea?”
Okay, game, I admit that was perfect
Antony: “Hank mixed up the presents! Those upgrade parts should have been mine - give them back!”
Gavin: “Just dismantle one of your tincans if you’re desperate for spare parts!”
Hank: *deep sigh*
Gavin: “Hey, look! R. Daneel Olivaw!”
Antony: “What? Where?!”
Arguing over their presents and trying to snatch them from each other brought Gavin’s and Antony’s relationship down far enough to complete the scenario.
Still festering grudges, still enemies, but now enemies with benefits. Fittingly Gavin also has a positive sentiment for Antony that relates to a present, so I imagine that in the end they swapped their packages as Hank intended for them to.
Not quite the end. They still have a third day to work, and I have still three more posts planned.
Antony: “Hope you don’t mind me having invited some visitors, Gavin? You know, today is Boxing Day, so visits are traditional.”
Gavin: “In England. My ancestors came from Scottland.”
Antony: “My visitors do not hail from that far away... just from the android compartments down in the main office. So - do you mind them staying or is it okay?”
Gavin: “Can’t argue with a man who puts his four favorite dollies ‘round the table for a tea party.”
Gavin: “Here, try this! It’ll make your dish much better!”
Antony: “Since when are you an expert on spices?”
Gavin: “It’s the dispenser with the least material in. So it stands to reason that this is a commonly used ingredient.”
PC200-250: “It’s called “salt”, Officer Deckart.”
Gavin: “You aren’t even looking our way, tincan!”
PC200-250 (to itself): “And I wish I hadn’t been listening, either...”
PC200-250: “My cooking app says...”
Gavin: “My mom always says...”
Antony: “You have a cooking app?!”
PC200-250: “My emergency protocol prompted me to download one right when you started eyeing the kitchen tools, Sir.”
Antony: “And your parents still acknowledge you?!”
Gavin: “They’re mighty proud of me! Just don’t expect me to introduce you to them.”
Another tradition of Boxing Day was to literally box gifts to show your gratitude to your servants. The DPD’s patrol androids counted as such, but Antony had never considered giving them presents. Something had changed, though...
Antony decided to gift the patrol bots money. If the androids were stable, nothing more than sophisticated mobile cameras, they’d spend the money in accordance with their programming: protecting the citizens of Detroit. Antony thus wouldn’t have squandered the money on “dolls”, but done a good deed.
But if the androids were persons for real, then deciding what to do with the money might help them get even deeper into their personhood. What might at first be painful for the young person in question, but ultimately would constitute an even better deed.
PM700-303 (sending): <<<It’s a trick. Mister Deckart wants to check if any of us are deviants and then dismantle the affected units. Don’t fall for it, friend!>>>
PC200-250: <<<Maybe you’re right. But this could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance...>>>
PC200-250: “I don’t want your money, Officer! I wanna get transferred to the motorbike patrol squad!!!”
(He was the only one to agitatedly talk to Antony after receiving his present. Also, no worries, 250, I have working cc motorcycles.)
Meanwhile the other PC200 sat in the reception hall, admiring the tree for hours.
Eww...
It’s probably just ashes from a Mischief festival, but in conjunction with the pigeons it looks like guano.
And so Antony Deckart spent the second day of Christmas cleaning the square of pigeon poop.
He still had it better than Gavin Reed. The detective had to disband a political protest for no other reason than it being spontaneous. Freeze ray’ing the protesters hurt them, pained the detective and might also sadden the mayor when she’d hear about the incident later.
So why were they doing this, the duo wondered. Because it was the law? And because if they did nothing today, tomorrow a nefarious group might take advantage of their inaction and cite today as a precedence?
Some days that sounded so hollow...
No rest for the wicked...
It was their final night at the police station and Gavin and Antony had just went to bed, expecting nothing serious, when they heard cries from the bus station right next to the building.
An android with a knife was trying to mug the people!
After the bad aftertaste that sending the protesters home earlier today had caused, Gavin and Antony once again knew why they did this job: For nights like this one, when innocents were in danger.
(I wanted to give knife-carrying townie the benefit of doubt, maybe he was on the run and desperate, but seeing the man’s traits I knew he wasn’t innocent: Klepto, Greedy and Collector. So behind bars he went via "add to family".)
Getting hit with a freeze ray in an already cold winter night takes a toll on even the most weatherproof machine. Antony therefore provided a de-freezing agent and a portable room heater before going to bed.
EEEEEP!
The next morning the officers of the holiday shift still could not return home. First the police station had to get dusted and de-bunnied.
All the dishes were washed, the floors dusted, the patrol bots charged, the prisoner fed and the reports written.
When the officers of the morning shift arrived one by one or in groups...
...it was time to go home for my scenario sims!
Without further ado - meet Kaleo!
Kaleo is a resident of Ohan’ali town, Sulani. She made the New Year’s resolution of moving to a big city and make her fortune, just like she has always dreamed of. Only problem: such places aren’t too friendly to newcomers, they bleed them dry and spit them out, so having a financial cushion is adviseable.
Being a thrill seeker, Kaleo decided to temporarily work as a pearl diver to raise some money. That means she has to move away from the cosy lagoon to the wilderness of Mua Pel’am, where the best pearl oyster banks are located.
Kaleo’s scenario is “New year, new hustle”. It requires a sim to reach level 3 in a career or raise a skill to 5 and make 25,000 simoleons.
Welcome to Mua Pel’am...
It was raining hard the day Kaleo arrived in the wooden hut she had rented. Swimming in this weather would be a bad idea, not only because of the risk of lightning strike, but due to the waves alone.
Determined to make the best of ther situation, Kaleo unpacked the TV she had brought from her old teen room, the one possession she’d probably never part with. Then she started training her fitness, that she needed as a pearl diver anyway.
When the rain stopped, Kaleo took the first steps into the water. Right below her house was a small bay, that provided conditions similarly to the Ohan’ali lagoon. It was save to train here.
And also conveniently secluded, because the last thing the brave pearl diver needed was people catching on that she had never really learned to swim. Moving arms and legs like a frog had always been good enough in the lagoon.
By her second day of rigorous training, Kaleo’s swim style was looking much better already. She was confident to be able to swim in the ocean now, and not just that, she’d try reach the dive buoy right away!
She reached the goal of skill level 5 the second day. Don’t ask about her social bar, though.
Still only day two and Kaleo is already busy at the dive buoy!
What could go wrong...?
Note: Pearl (sea shell) diving is a reliable source of income. For example Kaleo here made 2,700 simoleons in seven hours. So it’s really something you’ll want to lock behind a story gate, like restricting it to Sulani citizens, or put a hefty tax on (”Nice seashells you have there, tourist - taking them out of the country will cost you xy simoleons.”)
What could go wrong, indeed... Kaleo was carrying a knife to cut the pearl oysters from the banks and her only worry had been meeting a shark.
She hadn’t expected the ground to shake or large rocks with fiery tails impact on the islands! Sheltered as she had grown up, the fledgeling pearl diver’s first thought was “Asteroids!”. Then she noticed the volcano.
The massive structure had always been there in the background, easy to overlook despite its size. Not any longer. The volcano had come to life and didn’t care for the life around it.
Kaleo saw a lone human run up the slope towards her hut. She recognized him as Dr. Kealoha, a conservationist from Ohan’ali. The doctor knew Kaleo had moved here just yesterday, and wanted to check on here.
If only Kaleo could catch his attention, tell the man that she was not exactly save out in the water, but not in the hut, either! But no amount of waving and shouting could reach Dr. Kealoha now.
The air was burning and full of soot particles. Dr. Kealoha had to wet his parched throat. He downed the lukewarm drink in the comfortable awareness that Kaleo was save.
In the debris left behind by the eruption Kaleo made a gruesome discovery:
A proto-sim skull. If the volcano had hurled it out, then it stood to reason that the skull had somehow went into the fiery abyss in the first place. An adventurous primeval sim, maybe? Someone like herself, Kaleo wondered?
Dr. Kealoha: “Or a sacrificial victim, tossed into the maw to appease the volcano god.”
Kaleo: “Oh... right. As if that day hadn’t been dark enough!”
Eventually night fell over Mua Pel’am.
What was the volcano doing?
Silly me for asking.
The second eruption in as many days (because technically it was after midnight) broke both the sink and the stove.
Tuesday was Kaleo’s third day on Mua Pel’am.
When she stepped out of her hut the morning after two volcanic eruptions in short succesion, the sky was overcast and sickly yellow from the dust. (I cheated Mua Pel'am to industrial to create the fitting visuals.)
Around nine in the morning the earth shook a bit again.
And then the inevitable followed.
This time a lava bomb hit right in front of the hut’s door. Kaleo couldn’t help but wonder if she had done something in person to rile up the volcano god like that...
Mua Pel’am was covered under a dust bowl and would remain like this for weeks.
Being an adventurer at heart, Kaleo decided to stay on the island. But she set aside her goal if harvesting pearl oysters for money, and instead joined the conservationist career, in the hopes of being able to aid the environment recover. The conservationists were now battling human-made problems and the aftermath of the volcanic eruptions at the same time.
Kaleo: “Oh, come now, this is getting ridiculous!”
All she wanted was to score a date with a co-worker for love day the next day. But the volcano had other ideas.
Kaleo went to Ohan’ali for love day anyway. She even met a handsome man that she exchanged flowers with. Unfortunately he was pretty resistent to opening a romance bar. Maybe he just wasn’t into women. Or it wasn’t the right time for romance.
In any case relaxing in her home town recharged Kaleo’s mental batteries. She was now ready to resume her pearl diving in addition to her auxiliary conservationist job.
Due to the circumstances it took Kaleo six days to fulfill the scenario goal of reaching career level 3. Next I’ll do the other goal (earn 25K).
Spring hadn’t fully turned into summer yet. Returning home to her hut on the hill, Kaleo found things there... as usual, actually.
Poor Kaleo witnessed six outbreaks in the thirteen days she stayed at Mua Pel’am. The time stamps on my screenshots were:
0:36
0:43
0:49 (that was a different one from the 0:43)
1:06
1:27
1:52
(Yes, I’m a nightowl. My natural bedtime is 3 a.m., so it was late, but not as late as the timestamps would suggest for a diurnal person.)
Kaleo Mahi’ai - scenario results
Kaleo completed her scenario goals at the last day of summer. She also completed the Collector aspiration and made good progress in Fabulously Wealthy. Reward traits shown are before spending the bonus points from New Year, New Hustle (and Vegetarian is modded to not take up a trait slot). The Independent bonus trait I bought her because deep down Kaleo suspects that she somehow caused the volcano's unrest. For this reason she'll avoid people as to not spread her bad luck/curse. But one could also argue that all the solitary pearl diving taught her to get by on her own.
Also pictured are the objects Kaleo will take to "the big city" (haven't decided on a name/location/backstory yet), along with the penguin TV, 26,000 simoleons in cash and whatever the hut is still worth (around 15K ?).
Kaleo will lose her job upon leaving Sulani, and will have to do with her skills (Fitness 8, a little Handyness and Cooking).
She also slimmed down considerably from all the diving, so the first order of business in her new home will be to scout all the dining places to get curvy again.
Aimi and Yukio are “that cousin” to each other. They will go to great lengths explaining that they got their surname from different ancestors. It’s a common name, after all. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are on the same family tree and on occasion are expected to share the same continent.
Aimi and Yukio have arrived early at the extended family’s vacation home in Yukimatsu for the New Year’s celebrations. It’s awkward, but they are confident that the rest of the Tanakas will join them soon, resulting in other sims to interact with and being able avoid each other. Too bad a snowstorm is coming, that will prevent all travel from and to Yukimatsu...
The Tanakas’ scenario is Survive the Holidays. It starts them out as enemies with a festering grudge and can result in them either becoming friends or enemies with benefits. The scenario is also bugged. Before they haven’t solved it, the sims cannot go through a loading screen. That’s why the snowstorm backstory (and the game was kind enough to send me an actual one without the need to cheat it in).
So what drove the Tanaka cousins apart ever since their toddler days?
Is it the fact that Yukio is a cat person, but Aimi a dog person? That they both like turquoise, but she calls it blue, while calls it green? Her preferring the ski over the snowboard, and him exactly the other way around? Or that she could listen to traditional music and zen music for hours, while he immerses himself in Tween and S-Pop, exactly the music the other cannot stand?
Yes to all, and the fact that both have an outgoing trait (Bro respectively Self assured) worsens the situation, because they just won’t give each other a break. They actively seek the other out to pester them.
It’s not as if the Tanakas didn’t have anything at all in common. Sadly the thing they do have in common is their bad luck (Clumsy trait):
New Year’s Eve and the Tanakas are still at each other’s throats.
It started out harmless, by Aimi deciding to fulfill the Spa Tradition I put by doing yoga, while Yukio retreated to the bathroom to take a mud bath.
But then she found the mochi and obliterated them all.
Aimi: “Yeah, sorry, I thought it was a group serving! Only after I grabbed a share did I realize it was a single and by then it was too late.”
True story, by the way. Also, according to the game they both had a wonderful holiday, because they checked all the goals. But the true test will come tomorrow, when they are supposed to visit a shrine together for good fortune in the new year.
At New Year’s Eve the snow storm was raging full force. In the afternoon it was already as dark as night. Around 20:00 the Tanakas decided to light some fireworks, fully expecting to be snowed in by midnight.
Aimi and Yukio wanted to be anywhere else, with anybody else.
And for the first time in probably their whole life, they didn’t harass the other over a show of weakness, but instead pretended not to have seen it. It was the closest to showing comfort to the other that they had ever come to.
After daring each other to climb to the highest point they could reach in this weather, the Tanakas played with sparklers.
Climbing back down - this can go slowly or very, very fast..
Aimi: “Yukio! I can’t see you anymore!” (pause) “Come to think of it, there had to be a saving grace to this night, and this is it.”
By now the gondola station had closed. The building was still open, but no traffic was going in or out anymore. It was either spending the night inside the top hill station - or going down one of the slopes.
Time to settle snowboard or ski superiority once and for all!
Yukio: You don’t have to look good or even decent, doing this, Yukio Tanaka. Just stay on... stay on... stay on... somehow...
Yukio (what he wants to say): “Hello and well met, random passerby! If you could just pick me up and pull me home lying on my snowboard, that sounds like the start of an awesome romance!”
Yukio (out loud): Whimper...
Becca Clarke wasn’t even cold hearted or absorbed into her private thoughts. No, the storm was that bad that it drowned out Yukio’s cries for help. Focused on each next step, Becca simply didn’t notice he was there.
Meanwhile Aimi couldn’t decide whether her ski poles were a help or a liability right now.
For a moment I thought she’d make it...
...but then she arrived same as Yukio had before her.
Somehow they had to make it home... maybe the sparklers will help with seeing something?
The local hospital knows about snowburn, of course, but I bet the doctors didn’t expect to have to treat the victims of a snow storm for actual burn marks.
When they had their bruises and burns treated at the local hospital, the doctors couldn’t help to notice Aimi’s and Yukio’s festering grudge. They suggested to get a therapy animal and the Tanakas accepted.
It was a small miracle that the pet shelter representative made it to the vacation home in the storm the next day already.
Yukio: “So the evaluation process consists of you looking into a future cube to find out if we will be good pet owners?”
Naomi: “Yay!”
You can probably guess how it ended. They got TWO therapy animals. Conflicting ones.
Shaska is a clingy, lazy little furball, while Zoe is adventurous and a gluttonous big furball. (Default names subject to change.)
I need to have fireplaces more often! (At least in dog households.)
Snowed in and with two pets, the Tanaka cousins now HAD to make things work.
Interestingly Yukio’s Festering Grudge against Aimi is fading and already at half strength only, despite me cycling as equally as possible between them for initiating interactions. For some reason he is more open to the idea of making peace than Aimi is.
After the snowstorm I had bought them them both cold resistance and assigned a liking for cold temperatures. So they started talking about the weather. A lot. Every second conversation topic from the pie menu was “Enthuse about frost” and each use shaved off a large chunk of the red relationship bar.
(Another option that requires no contact might be Volunteer together, but I save that for a different household, the Find Love after a Breakup ex-couple.)