The Tanakas (A) - Round 4

Starring:

Yuuna Tanaka, Elder Family Sim, LTW Marry Off Six Children

Jiro Tanaka, Adult Romance Sim, LTW Become Hall of Famer

Linda Mazza, Adult Romance Sim, LTW Become Hall of Famer

Inari Tanaka, Teen Family Sim, LTW Become Education Minister

Aki Tanaka, Teen Popularity Sim, LTW Have 20 Simultaneous Pet Best Friends

~*~*~*~*~

At the Tanaka house, Jiro and Linda worked out an understanding. One of the things that they both appreciated about one another was how they felt the same about love and romance. They both felt it was important to treat the people you care about well, and any physical gratification was no representation of that love and affection you might have for a person.

So, they reached an agreement. They would have an open relationship so long as they were discrete. Neither really wanted to see the other flirting with or making out with someone else, even if they knew it happened. So as long as they kept it away from one another, they were happy. This worked well for them. Jiro still flirted with any and everything with legs and boobs.

Linda, however, set her sights a bit higher. She was currently courting the two richest bachelors in Rosebud and the surrounding areas: Malcolm Landgrabb III and Checo Ramirez. Both were handsome middle-aged men, one married, but they were just ripe for a young, fit, beautiful woman such as Linda to show them a good time.


Plus, they gave the best gifts.

Poor Inari hadn't had the same luck as Jiro and Linda. She wandered from place to place, wondering if she would ever find someone to someday build a family with. One day as she went out to get the mail, she noticed a new guy walking past. He looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place him. "Hey," she said easily, studying him. "Do I know you?" He smiled brightly, shaking his head. "I don't think so, though my family is from around here. Yours too, huh?" he asked, flicking his eyes up to the house behind Inari.


She smiled. He was cute. And nice too. "Yeah. We weren't always, but it seems like everyone around here is a transplant." Salvatore nodded and held out his hand. "I'm Salvatore, but everyone calls me Sal." "Inari," Inari said, shaking his large, warm hand.

Inari and Sal hit it off immediately. There was definitely chemistry there, and Inari felt her spirits lift. Maybe she wouldn't be alone forever after all. Sal was sweet and smart and kind of eccentric, just like her.


Before long, Sal asked Inari on a date. She said yes, of course, and the whole evening felt magical. There was food and dancing and it was like a REAL date. Inari's first real date. The idea made her giddy.


Perhaps that was why, when he dropped her off at her house that night, she felt so bold as to lean in gently, hesitantly, and give Salvatore a kiss - a first for both of them.



From then on, they were practically inseparable. They spent a lot of time at the park, especially. Number one, it got them out and away from Inari's busy house full of people, and number two, they both enjoyed the outdoors. Sal was a nature buff, and Inari loved nothing more than to relax by a pond with a fishing rod.


And when they kissed, it was like the heavens shined down upon them. They were so happy and so in love, they could hardly imagine what life was like before one another. Friends told them it was puppy love, but they knew. There was some sort of deep connection there that they couldn't deny, nor would they ever want to.


When they kissed on the bridge, late at night after everyone else in the park had gone home, they both knew that they were meant to be. It was strange to both of them to feel so certain, but it felt more right than anything the two of them had ever known.


Meanwhile, down a little lower from cloud nine where Inari and Sal spent most of their time, life was chugging along. Jiro and Linda frequently worked out together and built skills.


They jokingly pretended to be in competition with one another - a race to the top, so to speak - but there was no race. Linda was more focused than Jiro and got promoted more quickly. Nevertheless, they were both well on their way to claiming their spots in the Hall of Fame.

A prime reason that Linda was promoted more often was because she, unlike Jiro, didn't allow her genitalia to dictate her schedule. She planned her dates carefully, in the times when she knew they wouldn't conflict with anything else she needed to do.


Jiro, on the other hand, tended to troll local places and schmooze the ladies, hoping to get lucky.


Most of the time it worked, though he was totally bummed he couldn't talk those two girls at the spa into a little threeway in the hottub that day. Maybe another day...


Back at the house, Inari and Aki were beginning to prepare for college. Inari was torn about leaving Sal behind - he wouldn't be able to come until the next year - but they promised to visit often, and their dedication to one another soothed her worries.


Aki managed to snag $3250 per semester in grants, setting him up pretty well for the university experience.


Inari did slightly better, managing to pull in a total of $4000. It was all that guitar playing that put her over the top.


They piled their suitcases and milk cartons into the back of the taxi and loaded in together. They weren't really scared - just excited. After all they'd faced in their lives and the self-sufficiency they'd had to develop, they knew they'd be just fine. They simply couldn't wait to find out what would happen.


Thanks to a fortuitous thumb-wrestling match, Jiro stumbles haplessly into a new promotion.



Even more pleasant, he almost stumbles into the maid while she's bending over doing yardwork when he returns home. He'd have to see if he could work that out in a way that would be discrete. Those legs in those stockings! Yowza.



Linda continued with her steady promotions thanks to her hard work and dedication, and she could practically taste the success in her mouth. She was so close!


Even Yuuna was achieving small goals, earning her gold sewing badge and gaining the ability to really outfit her family in the kind of clothes they wanted, instead of having to rely on what the stores told customers they should wear.


Unfortunately, all the good luck was about to end. One night when Linda was out on her dates, Jiro invited a flame he'd met at the spa back to the house for a date. It was classically and epically stupid of Jiro because the moment Linda walked in, his date could tell that she belonged here, and moreover, that all the female things in his bedroom weren't, as he had claimed, his "sister's crap she leaves everywhere." She slapped him silly and stormed out the door. Linda was a bit put out as well. "In our home, Jiro?" she asked distastefully, turning away before he could even answer.


He eventually made it up to Linda - that wasn't the hard part. But no matter how much he begged and pleaded and apologized and sweet talked his date, she wasn't budging.


From then on, it was flaming bags of poo and stinky trash can spillovers, and all the smooth talking in the world couldn't stop it.


It was fortunate at least one person in the house was doing it right though. Linda's stockpile of expensive gifts kept piling up, and she couldn't have been more delighted.


Stay tuned to see how lovebirds Stella and Mariko are doing in their townhouse!

~*~*~*~*~

Scoring:

No new points, I don't think.

[[Author's Notes: Hahaha, omg, this house is crazy. I cut out SO many pictures that I took just so I could make this into a somewhat coherent story. Between Inari wanting to go out with Sal all the time, Aki mooning after Tara (who he can't see because I haven't moved her into a dorm yet), and Jiro and Linda's perpetual dates, I had a hard time keeping up in this house. What I really want is to have Linda get pregnant, but no amount of woohooing seems to be doing it. Not sure why.

Also, if you're wondering why you haven't seen Yuuna, it's because she's having a little clandestine relationship under the radar. Basically, I felt bad because she constantly had wants for this one woman whose name I've forgotten (Frances Delarosa, maybe?), and I didn't really want another official lesbian couple in the neighborhood, so I let her get away with secret little doings. No one in the house knows about it either as she always invites the woman I will call Frances over when everyone is gone. But for you who like a behind the scenes look, I'll give you a few pics: 1 2 Thanks to this decision to let Yuuna have her ladyfriend, for the first time ever, everyone in the Tanaka house was at platinum. This is an interesting house. Can't wait to follow Inari and Sal in uni. They are officially my new favorite couple.


This Entry's MP3:
Musicbox by Regina Spektor (from the album Begin to Hope)

Bloopers:
The horror all dating individuals face. // Not a blooper, but Linda got this; I've never seen it before. //Unfortunate accident at the spa. // Chummy mommy? Weird.]]