The Inventing BusinessSimon’s days as a teen passed uneventfully. He’d registered as a self-employed inventor and whenever he wasn’t asleep or at school he could be found at his bench, trying to figure out yet another gizmo. He made time to go to Prom (in his everyday clothes – he’d meant to have a shower and change but this really cool idea had got in the way) and, to his surprise, was voted King.
Before he’d really had time to work out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, the sparkles hit...
...and he was a young adult.
His mother suggested looking on the family website for inspiration. He found an ancestress, Andi, who’d been an inventor. She’d reached the top of the self-employed career but it had taken a long time and he was keenly aware that their lives were shorter now. Maybe he should keep inventing as a hobby and make a living from something else. But what? Inventing was his only skill, unless you counted the smattering of handiness he’d managed to acquire in passing – certainly not enough to be useful in a career.
More poking about on the website gave him his answer: business didn’t require any skills at all, just a willingness to work hard and get on with your colleagues. So, OK, he’d be a businessman. But not quite yet. There were things he wanted to invent before he relegated it to a part-time activity. It wasn’t as though he could start a new job yet anyway, what with the weekend looming and a day of non-graduation holiday before that. He’d already won one award for widget-making. What could he achieve with three days of concentrated, school-free effort?
The answer turned out to be a time machine – and a medal from a grateful city.
He was also aware that he had challenges to complete. Well, one would be easy enough. He drove the Motive Mobile over to the Academy and picked up some of the gems that his mother had left lying around after her last practice session.
Next stop, the military base.
He’d heard that blowing up that huge model plane could be very profitable. He prepared the detonator, threw it and ran.
The explosion wasn’t quite as dramatic as he’d hoped but the result was impressive: 1500 units of scrap. Two challenges done in a few hours! At this rate, he’d be finished in a couple of days.
Except that, of course, he wouldn’t really. He was well aware that his biggest problem was going to be the career requirement. Was he really cut out for office life? He’d failed to think of a better alternative, though. As soon as it was fully light, he headed off to Doo Peas and signed up. As a teaboy. They might call the position ‘Coffee Courier’ but that was just misplaced political correctness in Simon’s opinion. He was still the lowest of the low.
As he was leaving the office building, his phone rang. It was his mother.
“Simon! Haven’t I warned you and
warned you against public disgrace? People in our position have to be so careful. Now look what you’ve done...!”
He stood there and listened meekly, waiting for her anger to die down. How was he to know that blowing up that plane would lead to so much trouble? Of course, he had seen the witnesses across the road but he hadn’t really thought they mattered. Who would have expected a trio of wild horses to gossip to the press?
It was then that he noticed that he wasn’t alone. A family group had come to sit in the sun, chat and read. Doo Peas Corporate Towers didn’t seem like the obvious venue for a family outing but he supposed it took all sorts. He walked over and introduced himself. Of course, they’d read the Sunday papers, so he had a lot of rumour-dispelling to do before they’d give him a civil reply. Once he’d convinced them that it was all a misunderstanding, though, they were ready to be friends. Especially the daughter, Coral...
Simon was instantly and totally smitten. Coral was attractive, athletic and she was even wearing his favourite colour, lime green. Then he asked her about her job and discovered that she was also a Coffee Courier at Doo Peas. He kept her talking long after the rest of the family had left. Then he moved on from chitchat.
She seemed as attracted as he was. He invited her back to the house and they spent the afternoon playing on the water slide.
Then he asked her to move in. It would be good to have a colleague living in the same house. They could share a lift into work and moan about the boss together.
Besides, it would make working on his, ahem, co-worker relationships a lot easier.
For a while, it looked as though Coral might actually beat Simon to CEO: she kept getting all of the opportunities. But after he read an economics textbook and then took to schmoozing the boss at every opportunity, his career progression overtook hers. She didn’t mind: she was contemplating swapping careers at some point. She’d already turned down one offer of a transfer into the political career. If they asked again, she’d decided to accept. Simon had told her about the conditions he had to fulfil as heir and Coral knowing all the same people might be a problem come best-friend time. For now, though, being able to spend all of their time together was wonderful.
And daredevil Coral certainly livened up the household – Simon never could be sure whether his discarded clothes would stay where he’d left them after she’d conned him into yet another skinny dip.
But she was always willing to make it up to him afterwards.
* * * * *
Simon’s personal life might be going well but his dynasty tasks weren’t. In his second week of young adulthood, he received his second opportunity, to upgrade a stereo. It wasn’t a great success, to say the least.
First he got fried (twice), which was bad enough. The lingering currents that kept his right foot twitching for hours were worse. Then the fire started.
Fortunately, Odessa turned up with her extinguisher and saved the day. Coral thought it was excellent fun. Simon didn’t. Once the flames were well and truly out and he’d had a shower and a change of clothes, he called Lee-Roy to say that he was sorry but the upgrade just wasn’t going to happen.
Next chapter
I was about to say that Simon and Coral are the most romantic couple I’ve ever played but that wouldn’t quite be true. Basically, it’s all about the WooHoo. They have occasional wishes to kiss or watch the stars together but you can rely on at least one WooHoo wish from each of them per day, Simon got his first about Coral approximately five seconds after they met and nothing’s changed since. In fact, he often rolls two at once: ‘WooHoo with Coral’ and ‘WooHoo with Coral Goldbeard’. It’s almost as though the game thinks they’re two separate people, although both wishes get fulfilled at the same time
.
Coral was quite a lot older than Simon – she starts the game as a teenager. The day he invited her to join the family turned out to be her adult birthday. Fortunately, in Barnacle Bay, life fruit are ten a penny. She grabbed a couple from the fridge and then, stuffed but no longer about to age up, headed off for a makeover. She’s now a few days younger than her boyfriend.
* * * * *
The original Simon was intended to be a short-term Sim.
I created him for the Crazy Eights Collector’s challenge, which I was playing for my own amusement some time after the event, but he was such a likeable Sim that I kept him on, for other short-term games and now as my primary house tester. Come to think of it, he and the first India have quite similar personalities. Maybe I should introduce them...
Since there’s still space for some more pictures in this update, let’s have some more outtakes.
The family continues to get the benefits of being celebrities, as well as the disadvantages. Some of the bargains are less impressive than others, though:
The odd glitches continue. I thought for a moment that there was a rock in the kitchen but then realised that Odessa had sunk through the floor and it was the top of her chef’s hat.
Oddly, being several feet below the worktop didn’t seem to get in the way of preparing the meal.
Now this has to be painful:
The victim is the Raos’ son (a bump at the start of the game), whose first name escapes me for the moment. He was Simon’s best friend at high school and has just taken over as his boss. He seems to have got over the impaling surprisingly well.
Moe ran into the usual hazard of being a medical Sim in the library, although with a twist. The patient was the resident ghost, Reed Wright.
He seemed to have rather more of a problem than just the usual stomach upset. When I moused over the panicking onlooker, the game informed me that he was also Reed Wright. I’ve heard of split personalities but that’s ridiculous.
Finally, does anyone know what this is?
It looks a lot like a jar for collecting tips but it appeared at a fishing spot and the only option for interacting with it was ‘Watch’. The action cancelled almost immediately, either because the game realised it was an error or because the Sims got bored. After all, it wasn’t doing anything interesting, or indeed anything at all. Could it be some kind of mutant small pet?
