As we saw previously, Remington London the former pizza-man, after fulfilling Sally Raptor's lifetime want and moving into Casa Townie, became the first Sim to leave the Casa, by moving out with Ivy Copur.
Carrying her over the threshold.
I'm quite fond of this house; nice open livingroom, kitchen, bedroom, bath, space for a garage off to the left. Figuring out where to put a nursery may be a challenge eventually. That's Martin and Jane Stacks' place next door.
To put his complex past behind him, his first major act was to stick his head in the Orb.
Remington London, Family Sim.
His new Lifetime Want is to become Captain Hero. Ivy's, well...
"This is working out very nicely. Very nicely..."
[I suddenly realize that I ought to be posting these stories a little snippet at a time, breaking off at the most suspenseful points and then not posting for days, rather than waiting until I have basically a complete chapter and posting the whole thing. Ah well, too late to change now. *8)]
They spent a day or two just enjoying the quiet, the privacy, and each other.
Another Dream Date.
Although Ivy tends to spin up inconvenient things like "gain a skill point" during their dates.
Then it was time to find new jobs.
"I'm going to apply for this Detective opening. What about you?"
"Oh, just a little of this, a little of that."
Life was good.
I know, I know, blatant cheesecake.
Remington easily qualified for the Detective post.
And they enjoyed skilling together in the evenings.
"So how's a little bit of this, a little bit of that going?"
"Just fine, sweety, just fine."
Remington rose quickly up the ranks.
Thanks to all those skills he picked up delivering pizza.
Remington London, S.W.A.T.
Ivy also seemed to be advancing, although he was never entirely clear what it was she did.
"You know I don't like to be tied down. Different things different days. Got something of a land deal going right now; complicated, but it's under control!"
And then she'd take him to bed, and he'd forget the question, and forget for the moment how she sometimes laughed at the wrong times, and how her eyes sometimes flashed. Anyway, they were happy and prosperous, and that's what counts!
Bringing friends home from work.
Remington's partner on his Special Weapons and Tactics assignment was Tara Fuchs. They served together on one especially messy hostage situation, and formed a special bond.
A special bond.
This surprised me! He has two lightning bolts for Tara, but at this point they'd not only never had a romantic interaction, they weren't even officially friends. But when he said goodbye to her, they did this.
Remington was surprised when Tara pressed herself against him and kissed him full on the mouth when she left that afternoon. But Ivy didn't seem to mind, and Tara was all professional friendship the next instant. So hey, what the heck.
"Mrmmph. Leave the jewels! Just take the cash shsmmuphm."
"She must have been up late watching those True Crime shows again."
Shop talk.
"Yeah, the department's doing pretty well in general. There's this one gang, though, that we haven't been able to touch. We have a pretty good idea who they are, but we haven't jailed a single one. It's like they always know what we're about to do."
"Oh, that's awful! But they can't know everything, can they?"
"Well, I hope not. If they knew how many units we were going to be pulling out of the East Side to handle this mayoral visit, we'd be toast."
Later: Just a little lover's quarrel over some trivia.
Remington's sort of stressed after the big East Side debacle.
Ivy was generally engrossed in her skilling, and her various jobs kept her out at inconvenient hours. Remington found himself turning to his friends on the force for companionship.
Getting the knots out of a fellow officer's shoulders.
More team bonding.
This is another platonic goodbye. Still no officially romantic interactions have occurred, although I think they're friends by now. He kept spinning up wants about Tara in here.
"It'd be nice if you put the books away when you're done, Ivy."
"That's what minions are for."
"Not funny!"
"Ooh, touchy touchy."
More skilling.
"Ooh yes sergeant I'd love to see the inside of that important military installation that you're guarding."
One evening, Tara called from a local spa where the force was covering a diplomatic event.
"I'd like to ask you about these fitness reports, but I can't leave here until Carmichael shows up. Can you come over? We can have coffee or something, make it a date."
"Sure, I'll be right over. But um..."
A date, did she say? Just a figure of speech, surely. (Tara actually did call and invite Remington downtown. And it fit perfectly into the plot!)
"So that's all you had to ask me?"
"Yeah, not much really, was it? Sorry to drag you all the way down here."
"No problem."
"It was fun."
What SimCops do off-shift.
She gave him her usual warm (curvy) goodbye.
But this time it was somehow different.
More crush-like.
Apparently the good-bye kiss after a Good date is officially a romantic interaction...
Just another ordinary day.
Off to whatever it is she does.
Off to make the world safe.
Dreaming of domestic bliss.
Due to extraordinary valor and a well-placed smoke grenade, Remington is promoted yet again.
"Honey, I'm home! Guess what?"
Ivy's home.
"So I'll be there with the car at 2am."
"Keep your lights off."
"You think I'm stupid?"
"You wanna go back to my place after and..."
"Shush! Looks like he's home early today. Scram now."
Chief Remington
"You made Chief? Already?"
"Yeah, isn't it great?"
"Um, oh yeah! Wonderful!"
"And look at this!"
"What's that thing?"
"It's the new high-tech fingerprint scanner. It's satellite linked, so I just push this button like this, and phwoosh all the data goes off for analysis."
"Did you really push the button?"
"Yeah, sure, I'm testing it out for the department. Your prints and mine are winging their way through the ether right now. In half an hour we'll know if either of us are wanted criminals, heh heh."
"Ooh. Heh heh. Half an hour?"
"Yep, at most! Could be just twenty minutes, depending."
"Let me suggest something we could do in the meantime."
"Why, whatever do you mean?"
"Well, Chief, it was fun while it lasted..."
"...but nothing lasts forever."
"I'm outta here."
We interrupt the exciting plot development to note how different Ivy looks with her hair in a cap.
"Honey?"
Someone was passing by outside; Remington threw on his uniform and went out.
"Ivy? Is that you?"
"No sir, it's me."
"Oh, Tara, Officer Fuchs! Have you seen Ivy? She was just here..."
"No sir, but, well..."
"What?"
"There was -- a match on those prints."
"The prints?"
"The fingerprints that you sent into the system as Copur, Ivy, match those of the single print we have from our Primary Jane Doe."
"Our primary -- Ivy -- you mean --"
"Chief..."
"Oh my God."
"Maybe you should sit down, Chief."
"God, I'm so stupid. This explains everything."
"The squad's been through the neighborhood; there's no sign of her."
"I never want to see her again."
"Did she take anything?"
"Just her clothes and... and the Thinking Caps."
"The Thinking Caps?"
"It's just like her. Oh, God!"
"It's okay, Chief, Remington, I'm here."
"Thank you, Tara."
"Oh, Chief!"
"Oh, Tara!"
[Woo, she's even cuter without the glasses and the hat...]
"Tara, you've saved my life. Don't leave me."
"You want me to stick around for awhile? A few days?"
"As long as you want, darling."
Tara Fuchs, here's your plumb-bob.
Miss Fuchs, a Family Sim who wants someday to be Captain Hero just like Remington, brings eighteen thousand Simoleans (I think it was) to the household. (Hey, for once a townie is in an ltw-relevant job!)
"Oh and Chief, I put in a good word for you with Team Hero. My optometrist's uncle is on the Review Board..."
Remington London fulfilled.
This surprised me too; although Tara's only a Detective, some date that they had resulted in the "Tara pulled some strings and got Remington a promotion" message, and now he's Captain Hero (and permaplatinum)! Very odd.
"You look so heroic in it!"
One of those little white lies.
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of town...
"Home sweet lair."
Most of Neighborhood One's criminal masterminds have passed through Brandi LeTourneau's Rooms to Let at one time or another; Ivy should have a good time skilling there. (In fact you can see Peran Nolstovski having lunch in his evil suit through the window if you look close.) One potential complication: Ivy is in love with Brandi's new wife Sandy (and vice-versa), from some time back. I'd forgotten all about that, but hey; it should be interesting... *8)
(So that's the end of that story! Somewhat unexpected; while Ivy and Remington did have a lightning bolt for each other, I never felt that they really clicked (and they had those very divergent LTWs). So when Ivy started wanting to skill during dates, and Remington started smooching Tara before they were even friends, narrative possibilities basically forced themselves upon me. Hope you enjoyed it!)