Guy answers his phone.
"So the reservation went through? That's great, see you then," he says with a smile. Once he hangs up, he goes back to aggressively scrubbing the tub. He wants everything to be clean before the moving truck will get here. In just a few days, he'll be leaving this town behind.
In the months since completing his therapy goal, Guy has noticed a shift in the house's energy.
Ti begins spending more and more time playing the piano. She claims it's helping her to remember things from her past. Right now it's just bits and pieces, but with help from neuro-specialists in Lunar Lakes, she's hoping to get more of her life back. Before, she could barely stomach going outdoors, much less in space.
Now? The idea still terrifies her. But at least she knows there's hope.
Lincoln and Tammi have regained a sense of humor. Though Guy can't tell if they're laughing together or at each other. Maybe it's better not to know.
Gregory swears to Guy that "something" is developing between Ti and Lincoln. Guy isn't so sure about that, but they do confide in each other a great deal. Lincoln's promised to accompany Ti to Lunar Lakes to provide emotional support.
"I got a job offer from city hall here," Dove shares her own exciting news with Tammi. "They're interested in hiring me as an architect! They saw some of my art pieces and my building sketches..." This news makes Dove feel dizzy. Jinenji encouraged her to send some of her work to the townhall...she didn't think anything would actually come out of it!
"Wow, that's great!"
"Hey...why not renovate the art museum? You could put a portrait of me in there," Tammi says with a wink.
Dove laughs. "How about you? When do the sim-o-grams start?"
Tammi suddenly looks a little sad. "I didn't get accepted in Starlight Shores. They said...at my age...there isn't much hope for me."
"Don't listen to those losers," Dove scoffs, "Why not stay here and build your career?"
Tammi frowns, "But...this isn't a town for artists," she says derisively.
"Exactly! You can be a cultural pioneer! Think of it- Tammi Duende, the woman who put Monte Vista on the map."
Tammi's frown turns into a smile. Yeah! Yeah, she could do that!
Jinenji is also staying in Monte Vista. His application for a medical internship was just approved. It'll be specially supervised, given his long absence from medicine, and he'll probably not make it to residency before he has to retire, but part of his dream is better than none.
Gregory's application to be a test subject got approved as well. Turns out being friends with a robot-fish cross breeder is a pretty good reference all by itself. Like Dove, Tammi, and Jinenji he'll be staying here.
Tina was...conflicted about what to do with some people leaving and others staying. It's not like much has actually changed in her life... but with everyone else making drastic changes, Tina feels emboldened to do the same.
She finally signs up to be a psychic with the local caravan. She knows it won't help her find her missing son... but it will be doing something she's always wanted to try.
Guy has just finished tiding up when his phone pings with a message. Meet me at Varg's in 20 minutes?
He sighs. I'll be there.
"You look good, Guy," Florence says in greeting.
"So do you," he returns tonelessly. Since the birth of her fourth child with Giacomo, he hasn't seen Florence around the lab much.
"So...you're really leaving?" she says, tears brimming.
"...yeah. I think it's for the best, Florence."
"And you didn't tell me? I thought we were friends!" she yells.
"Florence! What's wrong with you?! We...you know why we can't be friends. It went so wrong before. We aren't good together. You're married! I'm basically just figuring out my life!"
Florence's nostrils flare. "Well then. I suppose it's good that you're moving away then. Take care," she spits out.
Guy feels empty as he watches her go. It's only been a few months, but it's already hard for him to remember what it was like when he was head over heels for her. Looking back on this time of his life in the future, Guy will realise that Florence manipulated him until the end, always trying to play with his feelings and seek attention. Right now, though, he can only sigh heavily. He's not sure what he expected to get out of this.
It's the first time that they're all going out as a household. It hits Guy that it will also be the last time.
It's bittersweet, but they try to make the best of their time together.
Dove scowls when she slinks upstairs to make some drinks and gets followed by Rae Modena-Taylor over here.
"What do you want, kid? I'm not buying you alcohol. These are all virgin," she holds up her drink.
Rae leans over and grabs a mocktail.
"It's just that...you're the only person in this town with any sense of style," Rae says with a bored monotone, "I wanted to ask you what you thought about my haircut. Is it too sci-fi villain?"
This earns a genuine smile from Dove. "I think you look beautiful."
***
Guy shares the last dance of the evening with Noel.
"Oh my plumbob, that guy behind you just passed out," Noel cranes her neck to look.
They both share a laugh.
Guy spins her around. Noel rests against him.
"Ah, it's too bad you're leaving," Noel sighs, "They just found an actual scientist to replace me."
"What does that have to do with me leaving?" Guy asks, clueless.
"Well, I like you, you dummy! I wouldn't let anyone hold me like this."
Guy gently spins her around to face him, and gives her a light peck.
"Why don't we give it a shot?" he asks when he pulls away. "I have a few days left before I move. Sunset Valley's not a long plane flight away..."
Noel smiles. "Well, love always takes a bit of risk, doesn't it?"
Guy leans in for a longer kiss this time. "Are you free tomorrow?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AN:
Me by the end of the challenge:
After that fiasco with Florence, I really wanted to give Guy an actual romance. Noel Perry was very single after the death of her husband (don't worry, he died a long time before Guy came into the picture). She does have three kids, but they're all in high school.
Guy and Tula are now roughly the same age! I think Guy is a bit older than her now, but I can fix that.
Anyways, the final points tally:
Skill points: 115! (Pretty much all of them got to at least level 5 for one skill)
Friends: 7 (guy had 5, Lincoln and Ti were friends with each other so they got 1 each)
Each 1000 lifetime happiness points from each resident: 369 (they were one happy bunch...)
Negative points for number of days the challenge lasted: 55
Negative points for deaths: 30
Total: 406
I won't be blogging about these guys anymore, I have three unfinished RLC blogs right now (Winterlys, Silverys, Sykes) and I don't want to spread myself any thinner since I have stories planned for them. Besides, they're all part way into their adult stages so there's not that much left to play.
As my last act of goodwill towards them, I swapped out "hates outdoors" with traits that were either a part of their personalities before the challenge or what I had in mind as the challenge unfolded. I debated whether or not to remove absent minded and insane, but left it. After all, none of them really went through therapy and are just starting to change their lives. Their final personalities:
Ti Bellino
-Insane
-Absent minded
-Good sense of humor
-Great Kisser
-Virtuoso
Tina Gallo
-Insane
-Absent minded
-Loner
-Mean spirited
-Family oriented
Jinenji Asano
-Insane
-Absent minded
-Genius
-Good
-Hopeless romantic
Gregory Roda
-Insane
-Absent minded
-Ambitious
-Night owl
-Over emotional
Lincoln Silverly
-Insane
-Absent minded
-Eccentric
-Genius
-Good sense of humor
Tammi Duende
-Insane
-Absent minded
-Dramatic
-Diva
-Good sense of humor
Dove Frio
-Insane
-Absent minded
-Kleptomaniac
-Artistic
-Avant garde
Some other random rambling about them!
I tried to have a reason in mind for why each of them ended up in the asylum in the first place. For Tammi, Lincoln, Ti, and Dove these reasons are heavily tied to my Silverly blog and to some extent my Sykes blog as well, so hopefully I'll get around to writing that out. What I will reveal about Dove is that she's actually an altered version of Raven Caliente, again from Becky's Archers! I have plans for Raven in my other stories, which should explain some things about Dove here!
In Jinenji's case, in my original save with him he was born human, but forcefully turned into a vampire by an evil ex-girlfriend. In my save, he stayed a vampire but I always envisioned an alternate reality for him. In this reality, he was so desperate to reverse what was done to him that he drank a vampirism cure almost immediately, wreaking havoc on his physical and mental health due to the little time he gave himself to heal. He was the father of my generation two heir there and never really got over his love for the founder of that legacy (in my head, this was way before I actually blogged my sims) and held on hope that they would be together someday. But since he stayed a vampire and my founder was a witch (normal lifespan) she passed away while he was still young and SP had him get into a relationship with someone else. Tragic, really.
For Tina, her son went missing as an infant and she was never able to get over it. I debated having some kind of "reveal" that her ex-husband actually took full custody of the child and she just couldn't remember, but I abandoned doing a story driven asylum so you get this text explanation instead.
Gregory's reasons are pretty much explained already- he always experienced mental instability which his father tried to deal with by sending him to military school. Evidently, that didn't really work out well.
