One of Those Days Professor Mazza gets trapped

(For some reason it occurred to me once that it'd be fun for a playable Sim to have a resident non-playable to interact with. The "Propose / Stay the Night" interaction can sometimes get a guest to stay longer than usual, but it doesn't always work, or stay in effect very long. So I said to myself, well, what if a guest just sort of couldn't leave? Could we have like a secret back room with food and a bed and a toilet and cleverly-managed doors, and keep a guest on the lot and alive and even more or less happy, forever? This is my first experiment with the idea.)

Professor Nolan Mazza is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sim State University.

The professor meets Suzette "Hoobie, Noobie!" The professor meets Suzette Somnius.

Suzette Somnius was one of his favorite students. She never actually showed up at any of this classes or did any of his assignments, but they became very good friends, and she persuaded him to give her grades that she might not have, strictly speaking, deserved.

Suzette earns credits over breakfast "And your haircut is definitely hot."

When Suzette's cum laude was announced at the graduation ceremony, Professor Mazza noticed that he wasn't the only faculty member in the audience who was averting his eyes and whistling nonchalantly. There was a rumor that Suzette had (following an old SSU tradition) become more than very good friends with some of her other professors, but Professor Mazza's relationship with her had never gone beyond friendship.

At least not until she moved back to the neighborhood.

Suzette and Professor Mazza blissfully asleep The tumult and the shouting has died. She's working on a "woohoo with 20 different Sims" lifetime want here; I think he's like number seven (she got off to a slow start because she was busy with the Challenge in college).

One day Suzette invited the Professor over, and after a bit of amatory recreation he found that she had put out a banquet table.

Suzette and the Professor eating turkey "So what's the occasion?" At the time I thought that banquet food lasted longer than normal food before going bad; I don't know if that's actually true though.

After eating he tried to go down the stairs to the hot-tub or somewhere, but they were blocked by an immovable barrier!

Professor Mazza is trapped by an enormous immovable chair! "Could someone move this chair for me?"

Still trapped "Suzette, I'm trapped in the house!"

To his horror, Suzette's car pool pulled up and she went off, leaving the chair in place!

Still trapped "Help yourself to the food, honey; see you in a few hours!" I think she was a UFO Investigator or something at this point; the idea was to keep him around so she could play with him when she got home.

Left alone, Nolan changed back into his Professor clothes and tried to leave. Still blocked by the insurmountable chair, he spent the entire morning pacing up and down on the porch.

Nolan in captivity Pace, pace, pace. I was expecting him to go inside eventually and use the bathroom, or eat, or read a book or something. But he was very determined to leave.

Eventually (and just in time for me to move the chair for a second to let the maid get in) he went inside and washed his hands.

Nolan at the sink, thinking about kissing Thinking about Suzette's return? He also used the toilet, I think.

By the time the maid was done for the day, he had resigned himself to captivity somewhat, and was able to eat.

Nolan eats while the maid leaves More turkey dinner. It hadn't spoiled yet, fortunately. Note the chair briefly moved aside for the maid.

After eating he returned to the porch, and finding the chair still there he burst into tears.

Nolan in tears Poor fellow. I'm not actually sure what he was crying about; he didn't show any of the usual Unhappy Sim thought-bubbles, about discomfort or hunger or anything.

Eventually, Suzette returned home.

Suzette waves in a friendly manner to the captive professor "Did you miss me?" At this point the main problem with my scheme appeared: once a guest has decided to leave (which the Prof presumably did 'way back when he changed clothes and started pacing on the porch) all of the possible interactions on their pie-menu go away except for (naturally) "Ask to leave". So poor Suzette couldn't flirt with the professor or anything. What good's a captive guest if you can't play with him?

But the Professor was so upset (about who knows what) that he couldn't talk to her; he only stood by the window and cried.

The professor cries by the window, ignoring the beguiling Suzette "Boo and hoo"

"Well hey, if you feel that way, maybe you should go home! Oh, is that chair in your way? Here, the invisible divine hand will move it for you."

The professor finally walks down the stairs Free at last

No longer a captive, Professor Mazza raced down the stairs and...

The professor climbs nudely into the hot tub climbed nudely into Suzette's hot tub. This surprised me! I figured he'd just leave immediately, my experiment a failure. Note Suzette thinking about a promotion through the bedroom window. In fact she needs to be at work again in a few hours.

Suzette of course joined him.

Nolan watches Suzette as she joins him in the tub "Glad you decided to stay!" Note silly grin on Professor's face. Can't blame him, of course.

They talked and soaked far into the twilight.

Discussing criminal masterminds in the hot tub "Criminal masterminds; they're everywhere!"

And they got very comfortable.

A little sparking A little evening sparking. Although the Prof didn't have the usual interaction menu, the hot-tub version of the menu was there, including Cuddle and Kiss and all. So Suzette got to enjoy her captive a bit after all.

All too soon, Suzette had to leave for the first night of her new job.

Off to an exorcism Her first exorcism. The Mayor's toaster's been cursing him out again. I could have erected new barriers around the tub to try to keep the Prof for another cycle, but I was sort of losing interest.

Nolan alone He stayed in the tub alone for a couple of hours.

Nolan springs nudely from the tub But eventually he sprang nudely out.

Nolan walks off, thinking about kissing And headed home. Thinking about that last sweet kiss.

Nolan walks off, thinking about Suzette Into the twilight. "That Suzette! Whoosh."

(So the vanishing of the visitor's interaction menu when he decides to leave sort of kills the "perpetually captive visitor" notion, although I might play with it again someday. Of course there are all sorts of hacks to make visitors controllable and all, but I'm generally too conservative to use them. Anyway, it was a fun experiment, and we got some funny pictures out of it! Note that this all happened some time ago; lots has happened to Suzette since then, as we'll no doubt see in many more pictures elsewhere before long.)