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
~*~*~*~*~
Last round at the Tanaka house, Linda got her freak on with the two richest men in Rosebud - Malcolm Landgrabb and Checo Ramirez. They both left her amazing gifts after all their dates. Jiro had a few dates of his own, including one ill-advised one at the house that caused the Tanakas to forever have stolen newspapers and dumped trash. Inari and Salvatore first met and became boyfriend and girlfriend, and Aki and Inari headed off to university at the end of the round. Let's see how they do now that it's just Yuuna, Linda, and Jiro in the house.
Out of curiosity, I left the bag of flaming poo on the front lawn from the middle of last round, and it is still burning away happily when I returned. Linda seems put out by the stench of charred poo, but it's probably only because she didn't notice the gypsy leaving them a magic lamp behind her.
Checo stopped by shortly after, ignoring both the flaming poo and the genie lamp to go straight for the newspaper. Apparently, he's angry at Linda for some reason as yet unknown to this humble narrator, besides the obvious.
Jiro encountered some bad fall illness just before an important game, and though he wasn't familiar with his trainer, he took the man's advice and ended up coming out ahead in the game. It was a fortuitous decision for him as it led to a promotion.
Being a superstar was definitely great - good hours, great pay, amazing bonus, plus lots of women fawning over him - but it still wasn't quite what he wanted. He had to be a Hall of Famer, not just a star that burnt out overnight and was forgotten to history.
To his chagrin, Linda came home that day with just that. She'd finally made it and was now a Hall of Famer. Jiro didn't begrudge his live-in...whatever she was... her success; he simply liked to tease her that he might not have been that famous yet, but he did get to sleep with someone that famous every night.
Jiro settled in that night to work hard gaining the remaining skills necessary for his own promotion, and so Linda took herself out to celebrate on a date with Malcolm.
Unfortunately, she'd stayed late and celebrated a bit too hard, which led to a painfully terrible decision in the morning. It shocked her almost to numbness how a few ill-planned words could cost her fifty THOUSAND simoleans. They had the money, but to say they could afford it was absurd. Who could afford throwing away that much money!?
She was ill when she got home from thinking about it, and Yuuna greeted her with a hug. The old lady was getting feebler lately, but for some reason, she and Linda became very close. Linda had never really had a nice grandmother, and so she sort of adopted Yuuna as her own. Yuuna was happy to have someone who loved her so dearly in the house, as she and Jiro had never been very close, and Aki and Inari were gone.
Fortunately, it was with this love in her heart that Yuuna passed away later that day. She was lying down for a nap, claiming her old bones were tired, and she simply drifted off permanently.
Both Linda and Jiro were there, and though they look rather pleased in this picture, they were quite devastated.
Jiro was upset because, true, he loved her, but mostly because that's what you did with family, whether you particularly wanted to or not. He had been the least close to Yuuna of all her grandchildren, and his devastation was mostly because he was now the adult keeper of the house. He would actually have the responsibility of being The Man now, and he wasn't sure he was ready or even wanted it.
Linda, on the other hand, was genuinely depressed at the loss of Yuuna. There was something quiet and sweet about the old lady and her broken English, and her careful stitching on the quilt that lay folded, a gift, in Linda's closet. She would miss her adopted Grandma.
However, as it tended to do, life went on. Jiro, thinking he was acting the part of a hero, attempted to give a choking woman the heimlich maneuver.
Unfortunately, his attempt at nobility is thwarted when he realized he had misdiagnosed the woman's problem completely and, in fact, made her condition that much worse. The Tanaka pocketbook took another tragically tremendous hit. Their savings was now down to the thousands, and both Jiro and Linda were practically in shock at what tragedy could strike in just a few months.
They decided they needed to start recouping some of their cash, and Jiro took up robotics again, whipping out the robot station he hadn't laid hands on since college.
Linda made up with Checo and resumed her dates with both Checo and Malcolm, selling every extravagant gift they brought her for the cash.
Jiro's next promotion helped a bit too, not only because of the bonus, but because it raised both of their spirits. Perhaps they wouldn't go bankrupt after all.
Linda and Jiro were finding, as the weeks went past, that they were a rather good team, the two of them. Jiro still wasn't in any hurry to get married, ever, and neither was Linda, but their relationship had definitely evolved into their own customized brand of love and life.
Linda still continued to mourn for Yuuna, but the pain was slowly subsiding, the way time intended it to.
Jiro had some tiny victories at work that continued to help bolster his confidence, and ultimately, he got another promotion.
He was now a coach and only needed one more boost of charisma before he could reach his true goal.
That night, he studied hard, and when he came home from work the next day, he officially had earned his title of Hall of Famer. He'd made it, his life's goal, and the Tanaka coffers were beginning to fill up once more. They spent some of their cash on redecorating the two bedrooms on the first floor, turning Yuuna's room into an office and the bedroom they had formerly shared into a play room. Linda and Jiro took over the blue bedroom upstairs, turning it into the master bedroom. It seemed they were finally getting on their feet in the world of adults.
Stay tuned to see how Jiro's sister Mariko and her fiancée Stella are doing in the next round!
~*~*~*~*~
Scoring:TOC (Linda and Jiro): +2
Platinum Headstone (Yuuna): +1
[[Author's Notes: Aw, poor Yuuna. I was kinda sad to see the old lady go. At first, I'd thought she was kind of useless, but the more I played her, the more attached I got. She was always very quiet in my head, but it's true Linda seemed to take to her well. They had a 100/100 relationship when Yuuna died, and Jiro's relationship with Yuuna was only like 24/100. She was happy when she went, though, and I'm sure Florence is out there somewhere in Rosebud townie land crying her eyes out. Jiro and Linda took two HUGE HITS of cash in this round, geez. At one point, they were down to $1,000, after having been up in the 70's. It was painful. But with two of them at TOC, it shouldn't take too long for them to have their play money once more. This house is kind of growing on me to play. I enjoy Jiro and Linda's relationship. Kinda fun. I'm hoping for a baby because I need an heir, but so far, no amount of woohooing is making it happen. Unprotected woohoo for three rounds between them now; I may need to resort to the InTeen fertility drug feature before they're both too old to have kids. Anyway! That's all for these lovers.
This Entry's MP3:
TBA
Blooper:
Yuuna finally gives in.]]
Starring:
Arnaud Beaumont, Adult Romance Sim, LTW Become Celebrity Chef
Arnaud, frustrated and tired of working fast food when he knew he had the skills to run his own restaurant, finally got fed up one night. The punks he had to deal with on a regular basis made him insane, and he was going to teach those spoiled rich brats a lesson for stiffing him.
Unfortunately for Arnaud, this turned out to be a fatal mistake. Not only was the young girl not planning on stealing food, she was angry enough to complain to her father, who promptly saw that Arnaud was working there no longer.
When he got home, Arnaud was so shocked at the turn of events that he simply stood on the front walk with his head in his hands and cried. He would NEVER get to be a celebrity chef, it seemed. It was like the whole universe was against him. He barely had any money left, and now he was unemployed. He called the only person who could make him feel better.
True to form, Steffi came over and consoled her heartbroken fiancé. After an evening of play and snuggling and...other things... Arnaud was feeling less suicidal but definitely still depressed at his failure in the work world.
That was when he decided he had to do something. If he couldn't be a chef, he had to make money. He was too depressed to show his face in town, so one night, he sat down to his computer and started to write. It was a fiction book, he gradually discovered, though the main character shared some of his traits and interests. As the weeks went by, however, Arnaud got deeper and deeper into his story until, surprised, he discovered he'd written a novel.
His first novel sold wonderfully, and, spurred by his success, he quickly sat to write the sequel.
That too sold great. He was finally making an income. A small income, granted, but an income to sustain him nonetheless. Every day, he still continued to check and see if any jobs in the culinary field might open up to him again, but alas, he had no luck.
It was only after a visit from his mother, concerned about Arnaud's aloofness of late, that Arnaud finally started to get out of his funk and see the light at the end of the tunnel. No, he would not be destined for a life writing novels, though he might continue it as a side project. He would be a celebrity chef because that's what he wanted to be since he was a teenager. And he would be a GOOD chef too. The best. Adelaide gave her son a few pointers and some suggestions he hadn't yet thought of. He knew his next step.
