I haven't posted very many stories about my very first Sims 2 sim, Ransom Zoom, or his household. Many of the interesting incidents happened back when I wasn't good at taking pictures yet; and Ransom and his wife Marisa are both Fortune aspiration, and Fortune sims aren't known for their interesting and dynamic lives. *8) Also the children have both moved out (Georgia long ago, to be with her wife Jane Danvers, and Hermes more recently to college after a mostly uninteresting childhood). There was that stretch when Peran Nolstovski lived with them, but he got sort of bored and went off to Rooms to Let. So.
Things are pretty quiet in general at the Zooms. Ransom's lifetime want is to earn 100,000 Simoleons; he's not very close to that, having retired young (before I installed the University expansion and knew what his lifetime want would be). I could get him a job via the No Age Discrimination hack like I did with Marisa, but for the moment I'm resisting. I could also use the new NightLife Orb thing to change his aspiration, but that's not likely to help much.
So Ransom spends his time painting pictures and writing novels (the main way that retired elders can make money); a side effect of this is that his Wants are mostly about painting pictures and writing novels, and since those things take a long time, his aspiration level tends to get low. Does Nightlife help any with this problem? We'll see.
Ransom is impressed by Marisa's new look.
Looks pretty frightening to me, but then Master Criminals should look frightening.
He expresses his approval.
Hubba hubba! He does get Wants about interacting with his wife, but only now and then.
Marisa proved to have a natural talent for crime.
Off nefariously to work, in the twilight.
Ransom at the keyboard.
Where he spends virtually all his waking hours, working on his novels (and ignoring guests; that's Peran over for a visit).
Another bestseller.
These are worth lots of aspiration points, but they're far between.
Marisa flourished in the underworld; she started at Bank Robber, but with the skills developed in her previous Hall of Fame sports career she had no trouble rising in the ranks, and after getting more or less daily promotions for awhile, she Arrived.
The Big Time
Ten thousand influence points for the Lifetime Want (twenty-five thousand aspiration points not shown; platinum plumb-bob permanent).
This is the sort of thing that gets Fortune sims all frisky.
Hubba hubba indeed.
Marisa has always been more social than her husband; I wish he would get aspiration points from meeting people and stuff the way she does.
Discussing hats in the front yard.
Sandy could perhaps use some fashion advice.
Greeting someone in the dusk.
Yikes, who is that?
Ransom, still at the keyboard.
"You should come out and socialize sometimes."
Even when his son comes for a visit.
He does get up and socialize once in awhile; maybe if I had him do that more he'd spin up more socialization-related Wants. But I've tried that now and then without great results. (Note Marisa's typical Fortune-sim thought bubble.)
But Marisa can still stir him up.
Whoa, even scarier in the Criminal Mastermind getup! But he likes it.
Just before we installed Nightlife, I had Marisa painting pictures that Ransom could then sell (during novel-writing breaks); fortunately selling someone else's painting gets the same aspiration as selling your own.
Working on another masterpiece for Ransom to sell
I figure she's indulgently letting him act as her agent.
But then with Nightlife, we discovered dating. An obvious tack to try with Ransom.
"So, handsome, how about a date?"
And huzzah, he did spin up some Wants about her!
Awww...
And a good healthy thousand aspiration points
Awww some more...
The whole date went roughly like this (note that they're in entirely different clothes now). Ransom did eventually stop spinning up Marisa-directed wants, but not before his aspiration was nice and high.
It was a Dream Date.
And Ransom had a high enough aspiration to tide him over for a few more chapters of his novel.
And when those ran out, we did it again...
"So, sexy and dangerous, how about you and me..."
He got things started this time.
It went just like the first one.
And built up Ransom's aspiration pretty well again.
This time Marisa delivered the flowers.
So now there's a nice pair of bouquets.
And that's our story for now.
What's the opposite of "establishing shot"?
I don't know if this strategy will work long enough to get Ransom to his Lifetime Want (or if I'll get tired of it, or it'll for some reason stop working, first), but at least for now I foresee lots and lots of those rose bouquets cluttering up the Zoom residence...
(Various pieces of custom wall art above from The Sim Republic and Sim City Gallery.)