The Bachelor(ette) Challenge

PART 2

At twelve noon every day, the contestant with the lowest relationship score from the bachelorette's point of view, is out. Let's take a look at who that is after the first day.



Not surprisingly it's our well-meaning but completely STUPID ON A STAKE vampire, Nick. Frankly, kind of a relief--he was clearly glitched and never figured out that he had a perfectly accessible coffin right on the first floor. At least in the Sim bin he'll be safe.





So it's good-bye to our hapless vampire contestant who couldn't figure out how to come in out of the sun, as he drives out of everyone's lives on a lovely atmospheric, muted rainy day. For some reason I really like the composition on the second shot.



Next up, the main activity for today is: Hot tub date! You get your lonely Sim into the hottub, pause the game, and then have them tell everyone else to join him/her at the same time. The end result is supposed to be a chaotic, funny rush for the hot-tub as all SIX contestants go for the THREE spots available, "more amusing if there are stairs to the tub", the rules say--and I deliberately put the hot-tub up on a hill for just that reason. But, my Sims are apparently boring...because when I unpaused it, all but three had DROPPED THE ACTION OUT OF THEIR QUEUE! What?! Hmph. Screw you guys.

SO, the three that peacefully--as if this was an ordinary, ordered household instead of a hands-off one--ended up making it into the hottub with our "heroine", were Raistlin the evil wizard, Reginald Shoe the zombie, and Jack Chaney the werewolf. They talked for the "about three hours" they're supposed to be in there, and nothing happened. No major love-swoons or arguments, only a little splashing, no catching on fire and no lightning bolts. (Despite the fact that they were in a hottub...outdoors...in the rain. Seriously, that didn't even occur to me until afterwards.)



Then poor R. Daneel ran out of energy and dashed outside to recharge from the sun. I love the weird freaky glowy effects of this--clearly I haven't played robots very much, 'cos I didn't know the recharge-rays looked this cool.



At night, MORE FUCKING MAH-JONG, only this time Belinda herself joins in. I must've completely wigged out, 'cos now I look at the rules more carefully and it says that on the second night, you're supposed to do 1-on-1 dates where the Lonely Sim checks out each of the contestants, then dances with them. Oops. I swear, I didn't even SEE that line until now. But, she's checked them all out and scoped the room earlier. (On the first day, she went..."Buddy is HOT!" when they were all outside meeting and greeting, but I somehow...lost the picture?! (sad) Raistlin was glowing at the same time, during that Scope, but the only one she commented on aloud was Buddy.)

Ah well, at least SOME of them are interacting with the Lonely Sim SOMEhow, in this picture, right?
...right? (And you may notice that, aside from Reggie, the other two players are among those who DIDN'T get into the hottub earlier. So that's good. More balancing.)



Then Jack decided to serve everybody a meal (trout canapes, looks like?) but more importantly: he managed to get his shirt off. About time. I mean, he's the hot young werewolf. That's his job.
...amusingly, I just NOW noticed that the rules for Day Two also say to call everybody to the buffet table/serve a meal at around 5 o'clock. I plum forgot about that, as it's CLEARLY after 5 in this picture...but at least SOMEbody served a meal at SOME point during that night. See, thing is, I have to do challenges by writing the rules down by hand on paper so that I can refer to them while playing--rather than having to constantly re-check the website or whatever, which is just not practical while the game is running--and so if I am in a hurry, I might accidentally skip some bits and not write them down. And whatever isn't on that paper once the game loads, doesn't get played.



But then dinner (early breakfast?) was interrupted by--THIS!
Hoo boy. So, poor R. Daneel broke down (not ran out of energy--broke down) on only the second DAY, which struck me as unfair as he was about even with a few other contestants in the relationship scores, and so therefore it was still pretty interesting to see who would win. Also, I've had Servos before and I swear they didn't break down after only two days. This struck me as possibly another glitch, therefore not a legitimate elimination. And while this is supposed to be a hands-off challenge...come on. Clearly I'm allowed to step in and take control if the game is messing up!

Also, this is a matchmaker challenge. If was a to-the-death challenge, that'd be an entirely different reality show. :P

So, I had the first randomly-passing by Sim (Raistlin) try to repair him.
...with no Mechanical skill.
Yeah.



As you can see, it didn't go that well! OMG! The night of the second day, and already we've got dead burned bodies on the floor! Wow. When I started this challenge in hopes of "drama", I wasn't expecting THIS...
Everybody (except Belinda, who apparently can't be bothered!) weeps over Raistlin's scorched, electrocuted body as Death comes to claim his soul and R. Daneel's broken-down form flops dorkily like a puppet with its strings cut.

...wow, if this WAS a TV show, talk about ratings--two accidental deaths in one night! I bet they'd save this episode for Sweeps Week.



It's more direct intervention and therefore more against the rules, but SCREW that. I am not having two deaths on the second night because of a stupid glitch. So I have Jack, who was the closest to Raistlin, plead with Death for his friend's soul.
Meanwhile, in the background, R. Daneel kinda ruins the dramatic moment by pelvic-thrusting the air. :P



He picks a hand...
(WHOAH! It must've been really close to 7: am--look, it's still the same scene but the sky changed!)



...and wins!
JACK: In! Your! Face! In! Your! Face!
DEATH: I'M JUST DOING MY JOB...



And Raistlin--still scorched--gives his buddy the traditional you-brought-me-back-from-the-dead hug of gratitude. Awww. Every time I've done this, I've seen the Sim who was rescued try to hug the one who saved them--but it doesn't always go this well.
(Then I had Jack attempt to fix R. Daneel and this time, it worked. Nothing dramatic happened, so I forgot to take a picture of it.) FOR THE RECORD: If this hadn't worked, I would indeed have left Raistlin dead, accepted it as fate and moved on. But, it did work.



DAY THREE: "Before elimination at noon, have your Lonely Sim flirt with each of your single Sims."
I'm using the optional "Drama Queen" rules (AND HOW, apparently, considering we've already had a "death" and a half!) which say that whenever you go to do something romantic, you should always deliberately pick the RISKIEST option available. So, you should try "Caress" instead of "Charm", when it comes to flirting, or go for a Leap into Arms intead of a normal romantic hug, that kind of thing. I'll be using these rules throughout the contest.

So we start the flirting by, of course, having her hit on every guy in a crowded room right in front of each other! Here she just...um...I forget what specifically she did, but she flirted with Buddy and clearly it went well, as you can see from the smiles and plus-signs.



And then she tried a...what is this, Suggestion? on J'onn. It worked as well.



Then, she Holds Hands with Reggie, and as you can see he accepted this too, since he is holding her hands.



Another "suggestion" to Raistlin, which he was also fine with. By the way, in case you're wondering--the reason why she can peacefully flirt with several men in the same room right in front of everybody else is because at this point, the relationship points are too low to cause actual crushes--all the flirts do is kinda make them feel a little more friendly towards her. Therefore, we don't have to worry about jealousy.
...yet.



She has to chase Jack downstairs to Hold Hands with him ("Caress" is not even available with any of these guys yet, which is why I didn't try it) and as you can see, he's fine with that...



And as she walks back up the stairs to flirt with R. Daneel...oh-HO! See that little pink heart floating away up at the ceiling? I spoke too soon about the relationships being too low--we've got our FIRST CRUSH of the contest, on Jack Chaney!
Aha, so THAT'S why she kept ignoring/insulting the advances of Nick, the vampire--turns out she was Team Jacob all along! ;)



In case you're wondering why she's got a screwdriver here, one of the flirts you can do towards a robot is, I kid you not, TUNE-UP. HA! Oh gawd, I died laughing when I saw that and I just had to try it.
Unfortunately I still don't know what happens when the interaction is accepted (in other words...in exactly WHAT way, is "tune up" a flirt? Do I want to know? Is it along the lines of being..."fully functional"? Inquiring pervs wanna know.) because he got all HUFFY and stomped off. Making this the only flirt of the morning that didn't work. Fine, be that way.



It's now noon--time to see who's in--and who's out? Find out on the NEXT: Bachelorette Challenge! See you there!