So partly just to test my posting skillz and partly to actually contribute something, here's a story about my family of Romance Sims that I posted to the EA forums the other week, with a picture or two added.

A little background: the second TS2 Sim I ever created was Sally Raptor:

I gave her the Romance aspiration mostly at random, not knowing any more about it than the game itself tells you (ha!), and a quick skim over the Prima guide.

She had fun being a Slacker, and eventually had a kid by Mitch the Fireman (whose number she got that time he came to put out the oven because her mind wandered while making Toaster Pastries or something).

(These pictures are all grainy because I hadn't found the relevant Settings dialog yet.)

The kid was a girl-child, Eleanor (for Ms. Roosevelt), and I made her Romance too, to keep up the family tradition. Then she had another kid by Mitch (I forget why I did that, actually; I don't think it was either a Want or a Fear of hers). The second kid was Gina, and I made her Romance as well.

Sally mostly took lovers from the local female-townie population (I think I've unconsciously imposed my own gynophilic tendencies on her), and of course Mitch. Eleanor had an affair with John Danvers (a happily-married family Sim down the street), and with Kaylynn the maid (who has her own story that I may post later), and Remington the maid, and with Brandi LeTourneau (who eventually moved in, and the Raptors discovered that she was actually a Criminal Mastermind on the run). In general, life was good:

Running a house full of Romance Sims is challenging, but fun (I use essentially no cheats, not so much out of purity as I'm afraid I'll mess up and corrupt the game). There was the incident, for instance, when Eleanor forgot that Remington would be coming to clean at 10, and he caught her with Brandi in the hot tub:

After one very complex afternoon, I decided to write down pretty much all the relevant interactions (this was after Kaylynn moved out and before Brandi moved in). Here we go:

So Sally wanted to have Kaylynn (the ex-maid, now a Celebrity Chef with her own very nice place on the other side of town) over; Eleanor (Sally's oldest) was having breakfast, and Gina (the teenager) was getting ready for school. Kaylynn came by, and Sally went out to greet her (making sure that Eleanor stayed inside, because Eleanor's also in love with Kaylynn, and would have been upset by the greeting). Sally and Kaylynn were making out on the sidewalk when the school bus came, and Gina got mad when she saw them because she thinks Sally shouldn't fool around with anyone but Gina's dad Mitch (the fireman). But then Gina got on the bus and went to school; I'll have to fix Gina's -20 relationship with Kaylynn some other time, maybe.

Sally got herself worked up enough interacting with Kaylynn that she wanted to woohoo in bed (she also wanted to woohoo Kaylynn, but that just wasn't going to happen). Sally went inside to invite Mitch over (Mitch is safe because she's Gina's and Eleanor's father, and they don't mind her woohooing him when they're on the lot). Eleanor wanted to talk to Kaylynn, so Kaylynn followed Sally in. They talked a little, and Sally went outside (to meet Mitch, and to be out of the way if Eleanor and Kaylynn got too friendly). Eleanor eventually wanted to woohoo in the hot tub and in the bed, so I locked the bed one for later, had her say goodbye to Kaylynn (a big smooch), and had her call Brandi (someone that Sally *isn't* in love with, and that she can therefore safely woohoo on the lot when Sally's home).

Mitch came just as Kaylynn was leaving, so I had to have Sally stand there like an idiot not greeting Mitch until Kaylynn was out of sight (because Sally greets Mitch with a huge smooch, and that would have upset Kaylynn). Brandi showed up soon after. Sally and Mitch headed upstairs to Sally's bed, and Eleanor and Brandi headed for the hot tub.

But I suddenly realized it was 10am, so Remington the maid would be showing up, and if he caught Eleanor making out with Brandi again there'd be hell to pay. So I cancelled Eleanor's "get into hot tub" goal, and had her go give Remington a little tip and dismiss him.

"Oh, sweetheart, you look tired; Magic Maids works you too hard! Here, take this and go sit in the park for a couple of hours or something."

"Hey, thanks! Say, you're not trying to get me out of the way so you can be alone with that Brandi, are you?"

"No, no, she just came over to, um, return something."

"Oh, okay, see you!" (It's a good thing that dismissing a maid that you're in love with doesn't involve a smooch, because that would have upset Brandi.)

So Eleanor and Brandi got into the hot tub, and once Remington's van was out of sight we had Sally and Mitch woohooing up in the bed, and Eleanor and Brandi in the hot tub. Lots of good aspiration points there! When things calmed down, Eleanor still had that "woohoo in bed" want locked in, and Sally had acquired a "woohoo in hot tub" one, so Eleanor and Brandi headed inside, and Sally woke up Mitch and brought him downstairs.

"Hey Mom, Hey Dad!"

"Hey Honey, Hi Brandi. Got the tub all warmed up for us?"

"Sheesh, Mom..."

And after two more woohoos Sally and her oldest daughter were both solid platinum, and had earned another jar or two of Elixir of Life. Sally went upstairs to sleep, and Eleanor left Brandi snoring in bed to make some more food. By the time Gina got home I decided to send both Gina and Eleanor to the Energizer (Eleanor being tired out for the obvious reasons, and Gina being exhausted after a long day of school after having snuck out with Randy the night before).

Romance Sims are s-o m-u-c-h t-r-o-u-b-l-e!

But they're worth it... *8)

DC