Chapter 10 Creepy Florence

Phew. There's a lot to catch up on.

Guy spends a lot of time tending to his indoor garden in the asylum. 

....and an equal amount of time brooding about Florence, his married co-worker who gave him his first kiss. It's been some time since they talked. 

Guy pushes aside the fact that Florence is very much married from his mind when he calls her again. They're co-workers. They can be friends. 

Their chat is very short and mostly about work. Still, Guy feels better knowing that their...he wouldn't even call it a romance...involvement? won't make things too awkward in the future. Florence is at home, recovering from her birth right now. It'll be a few months before he sees her again. 

Lincoln also spends a lot of time thinking about a woman, but for very... 

...different...

reasons than Guy is. 

"Yay, Autumn salad," Jinenji claps happily. It's his favourite. 

He asks Guy, as a man of science, what his opinion on unicorns are. 

"I always thought they were ludicrous myself," he admits, "But I keep reading about sightings near the lakes here." 

"Why don't you check them out then?" Guy asks, innocently curious. 

Jinenji shakes his head fervently. "It's...outside. I don't feel well out there..." 

Guy cocks his head, "Even at night?" 

Jinenji nods grimly. "The doctors say it's pyschosomatic, but ever since I was forced into drinking that vampire cure...my skin just doesn't feel right when I'm outside. Even when the sun is gone. I just...can't." 

Sigh. After the first call, it becomes easier for Guy to justify calling Florence more often. 

To his credit, the conversations are nothing romantic. 

"Don't mind that, I think Jinenji's just having a bad day..." 

Jinenji uses the private time in the bathroom to work through some difficult emotions. 

"You can't do this to me! You can't make me stay inside all day like a-like a..." vampire... 

"Jinenji, c'mon, no one here thinks you're a monster," Guy pleads with his housemate. 

A strangled groan answers him. "Just...leave me alone." 

If Guy is perfectly honest with himself, calling Florence is a distraction for himself as much as it is for her from her crumbling marriage. 

Things are never quiet here. 

Sigh. Florence! 

Guy finds it easier to cope with his complicated feelings for her by writing them out. He would never dream of sending this letter to her. 

Your smile hits me like a ray of sunshine... he scratches that out. Too sappy. When I see you, I feel like everything will be alright. He scratches that out. Why couldn't he be better with words? Like... 

like Tula. 

Tammi watches in confusion as Guy suddenly pauses, then carefully picks up his letter and tears it into tiny pieces. 

Maybe typing it would be better. He can always edit it later, or delete it later. 

Guy feels unsettled when he goes to bed that night. 

But after a good night's sleep and some breakfast, he feels much better. 

It's amazing how high up he is in the lab now. They send a driver with a car that costs several times more than the household's entire savings, all because he knows which buttons to press on their genetic resequencing machines. 

Things are pretty quiet at home for most of the day.

Tammi? Getting along with people? Utter nonsense. 

Yep, there it is. 

"Stop your-your-insipid psychobabble," Tammi insults Ti with some Star Trek dialogue. It doesn't matter that it doesn't fit the context- Ti was just talking about some cool comic books she found online- it sounds smart. 

"Blah blah I read the dictionary," Ti imitates Tammi with a corny falsetto. 

Tammi predictably storms out of the room. 

About half of the household has synchronised routines. The focal point for the entire residence is around noon- the ones who get up in the morning sit down for lunch, and the ones who stay up most of the evening are just starting the day. 

Ti here is chatting with Tammi about her home town. "Bridgeport gets so foggy in autumn," she sighs, "Makes it damn near impossible to see anything. It does make for some pretty photos of the bridges, though." 

"When I went to Bridgeport, it was to perform in a club," Tammi brags, "Lots of fog in there too, though that was special effects." 

"Was it a strip club?" Gregory asks snidely. 

"It was a proper establishment!" Tammi fumes, "A restaurant, as a matter of fact! Ever heard of Flying V's Coffeehouse?" 

"Yeah- there's one about 10 minutes from here! At least make your lies convincing," Gregory rolls his eyes. 

"It's a nationwide chain," Ti murmurs, but is ignored by everyone. 

"Ah Bridgeport. The land of dumb reality TV shows. I suppose I have you lot to thank for Panicked Homemakers..." Tina sneers. 

"Fascinating regional trivia," Jinenji says seriously. "How about you, Gregory? Any interesting facts about your hometown?" 

"Oh, so you wanna gossip? Sure, sure I'm game," Gregory says needlessly loudly, "Well. I grew up in Twinbrook, same as Dove. We never met though. You know why? My poppa decided what I needed to 'screw my head on straight' was military school! Almost never saw the glorious swamps of my homeland," Gregory sniffs and mimes wiping a tear away, "But the thought of it makes me so damn emotional. Ripped away from home! Fat load of good it did me..." he pushes his pancakes around with his fork moodily. 

"I hear Twinbrook has the largest group of swamps in the country," Jinenji replies as if Gregory hadn't spoken, "The wildlife must be amazing!" 

Gregory deflates, obviously annoyed that his life story didn't have more of an impact. "I did see some alligators a few times. That was alright." 

"Wellll, this has been fun," Tammi says with one of the most insincere smiles I've ever seen in this game, "Sharing all of these quaint little stories about our lives. Well. I'll be going now. Ta-ta." 

Ti frowns. Ta-ta? Really? Where did Tammi pick up that stupid phrase? 

Guy keeps getting strange calls to go to China and catch some butterflies, or to go to the gym and swim for an hour. He thought he was just imagining these strange requests at first, but his call log clearly shows several missed calls from an unknown number. He never accepts-probably some bored teenager pulling a prank. 

The only real test of my patience with this challenge is the bathroom. Here, Tina mocks Ti while she stands in line. 

Most of the residents have a mid-level position in the nerd social group. It comes from all the video games they play on their computer.

"Oh you like Freezer Bunny IV? Me too! I wish there was an arcade we could go to..." 

Sorry guys, rules are rules! You have to stay inside. 

Guy tries to upgrade the computer's graphics. Unfortunately, it's simply too old for his modifications. The computer starts spewing sparks and smoke after Guy opens it up. Well, at least he can get a boost to his handy skill this way. 

"Ooh, macaroni. My favourite!" Guy says with childish glee. 

Ti frowns at her burned goopy carbonara. "Why can't I cook like before?" she mutters. Distant memories of recipes come to her sometimes, but she can never seem to get it right. 

Dove and Tina read together silently. Tina's getting pretty muscular from all of her working out. 

"Did you remember the recipe?" Guy asks Ti once she sits down. 

"No, I gave up. It's just salad for me," she sighs.

"Hey Guy... tell me, how do you keep going out? It's so..." 

"dark and creepy," Ti shudders. 

He shrugs. "I have to go fishing for work. I work so much with plants too, I think I just got used to it?" 

"Well...next time you're out there, tell me if you see any unicorns, yeah?" 

More silent reading. 

Poor Dove. She was unlucky last night and didn't manage to find a bed. 

Another day, another simoleon, Guy keeps telling himself. 

"Ew, why did you shave your head? You look like you're from some creepy cult. I know Moonlight Falls is full of weird, culty shit, but really Jinenji..." Tammi criticises Jinenji's new hairstyle. (AN: I actually lost the hair he used to have, so the game changed some of his hair styles to a buzzcut). 

"Tammi, the only weird thing here is you. I think your hair is much stranger than mine, and yet I never see you hiding it." 

"Such an astute observation as always," Tammi remarks with a dramatic eyeroll. 

"Tammi. Listen to me. You give us ways to insult you on a silver-platter. Why do you like arguing so much?" 

"I don't know what you're talking about! Go away!" Tammi snaps. 

On her way out of the room, she calls Tina "an ignorant banshee" and then huffs away. 

As a good sim, Jinenji is pained by all of this fighting and drama. 

Later that evening, Tammi has seemingly forgotten her various reasons to be angry and chats up Tina. 

"Man it's been raining so much. Just, like, waterfalls of rain..." 

All this talk of water only reminds Tina of the pain in her bladder. 

Phew. That was a close call. 

I never see Lincoln go outside. How did he get so tan??? 

The residents are actually quite clean. They often autonomously clean dirty surfaces and put food away. 

Yeah like, sheets and sheets of water... 

Tina rolls her eyes. She won't fall for that one twice! 

Poor Jinenji just can't catch a break. 

"I'm not insane just because I don't like 'Nautilus'," he gripes to Ti, "I just don't get what everyone likes about that book." 

Ti switches to complaining about Tina. 

"Pleeeeeaaaase, I don't care anymore," Jinenji groans, "Why do we all have to fight all the time?" 

"Oh, tonight? Sure, come down...whenever..." 

Florence's maternity leave is over. She drops by with her daughter, Rae. 

Yeah, so much rain, it's ridiculous! 

Apparently when left to their own devices, sims will just talk endlessly about the weather. 

Guy quickly shoos Dove away. He doesn't want to make a bad impression on Florence. 

"So...um... did you read the new issue of Cow Plants Quarterly?" 

"It said, uh- they found out more about the pheromone Cow Plants use to lure in other animals," Guy stammers. Why is Florence standing so close? 

She puts her daughter down, then wraps Guy up in a tight hug. 

"I missed you Guy. Can you forgive me for everything that happened before?' 

Impulsively, he leans in for a kiss. This time, Florence reciprocates. 

Guy asks Florence to stargaze with him. She quirks an eyebrow- it's raining and wet, after all- but it all seems too romantic for her to say no. 

Rae looks on disapprovingly. Her relationship with Guy is now heavily in the red. 

Guy taps Florence's shoulder, "Hey, if you look there you can see..." 

He blushes. "...a cloud." 

Florence smiles. "It looks like a rabbit." 

He tilts his head. "Maybe a flower?" 

The rain stops after a while. 

"I'm having fun tonight, Guy. Can I come inside?" 

Guy blushes again. "Won't that look bad for you? I mean, my housemates are all in there... and your husband..." a pang of guilt hits Guy when he looks down at little Rae who is glaring back at him. 

Florence laughs bitterly. "My husband doesn't come home until four in the morning. I don't care what the other people in town think of me at this point.... but I'll call a sitter to pick up Rae." 

Guy lets her come inside, then hurriedly tidies up the place. Dirty toilet, dirty tub, dishes in the kitchen! 

While he's gone, Florence makes small talk with Gregory. He asks her about robot-fish crossbreeding. 

"Ha, you want to talk about my job?" 

"Um...what else would we talk about?" Gregory asks. 

"Well, I'm a beautiful woman, I'm sure you can think of something..." 

OH. Well, that's certainly not what Gregory expected. 

Thankfully, Ti bursts in to talk about comic books. 

"AH! Who are you?" Ti only belatedly notices Florence standing there. 

"I'm Guy's...co-worker. Florence Taylor-Modena," she reaches out a hand for Ti to shake. 

Ti doesn't even look at her proffered handshake. "Oh the one that-" 

Embarrassed again, Guy shoos away his housemates. 

"I'm sorry, we just don't...really meet a lot of new people," Guy explains, his cheeks red. 

Florence smiles. "Oh that's alright. Um, where can I sleep?" 

Guy can really only offer her the couch. Florence proclaims that it's "so nice and comfy!" before drifting off to sleep. 

Florence is only asleep for a few hours. She wanders into the kitchen for an early breakfast. She bumps into Gregory there.

"So Gregory, tell me, are you seeing anyone?" Florence thoroughly creeps me out here. 

Thankfully, it seems that Gregory is inept at flirting because when he tries to flirt back, she makes a face and stops talking to him. 

SIGH. Florence, stop. 

"So you all live alone here? No...supervision?" Florence tries to phrase things delicately. 

Gregory shrugs. "We all talked to a doctor before we came here. Uhhh, what's his name...Dr. Tavares. But we haven't really seen anyone else after we moved here."

Florence smiles. No one to catch her sneaking over here? Sounds perfect. 

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AN: Ewwww. Florence is so creepy! I really, really don't like her and I was SO HAPPY once Guy stopped rolling wishes about her.

However, for a while Guy kept rolling wishes to see her, kiss her, go on dates with her, etc. I was trying to fulfill all of his wishes so this all happened. She hit on all the men in the asylum at some point.