Strangetown extras: The gardening club and other achievements

[strangetomato]

Between snapdragons, hobby lots, vacations, the new aspiration meters, and all of the associated rewards, things have never been easier for Johnny, Ripp, and Ophelia. Life is good.

Ophelia's garden earned her a membership into the garden club and a wishing well. Sweet! This is the first time I've ever tried to get into the club, and I really didn't expect to do so well. I thought her garden was pretty small, but it seems to have been enough for the elite gardening club. It helps that the plants are in great condition, and I added some extra decorative elements before they showed up, just to play it safe.




This gives you an idea of what the garden looks like. I moved things around a little after this shot was taken to fit the well in there.




Johnny thinks that Phi is pretty hot when she's being all cute and making a wish like that (well, doing anything really... he's a chronic heart sprayer for Phi). Ripp is enjoying his hammock, as usual.




They wait, expectantly, while Ripp daydreams about Johnny. (They do a really bizarre hand gesture when they daydream on the hammock. Just look at it.)




Ophelia clearly does not need any extra friends or romance, so she picked money. A sack of $1,000 simoleans falls from the sky. That will make up for the money she spent on the finishing touches for her garden, so it worked out nicely.

After the wish is used up, the well remains as a decorative item, and sims can also drink from it.








Isn't that a great little animation? Ripp is just drenching himself with that water.




I think it's really sweet that the trio can mostly maintain their aspiration levels just by interacting with each other. They always have a couple of wants for playing with, entertaining, or appreciating each other. Ripp is telling Johnny an inside joke in this pic.




Johnny finally gained access to the Dreamy Fields hobby lot (all that axe throwing in Three Lakes really paid off), so he went for some training. Only a couple more points and he'll have maxed body skill. Some guys might be a little embarrassed to have a petite blonde in a leotard train them, but not Johnny. He's totally cool with that.




Ripp is also quite okay with the hobby leader. He has three bolts with her. *snicker* Oh, Ripp. I think this must be the result of his combined vacation and aspiration romance benefits. So, as you can see, this is the sort of training that Ripp received on the hobby lot.

Johnny and Ophelia seem to be supervising. Nice work, Ripp!




Yes, ladies, he's just a force of nature. Do not attempt to resist.

But wait... even the guys seem to be catching on.




Johnny: Okay, so maybe I HAVE noticed that you seem to be getting a lot hotter lately.

Ripp: It's about time you admitted it.

Comments

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

"Johnny: Okay, so maybe I HAVE noticed that you seem to be getting a lot hotter lately.

Ripp: It's about time you admitted it."

That made me laugh so much. Johnny is amazing!

That garden is beautiful! Part of me wants Ophelia to accidently get turned into a PlantSim. Of course that would be a strange/unrealistic twist in the story, but she'll be green like Johnny. PT would have to approve. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Johnny is just full of surprises. I think he was actually congratulating Ripp there, though I'm not sure about that. He makes me laugh because he really does behave quite prudish about certain things, but then he rolls wants that add up to "ravage Ophelia" if you follow through on them. Here's a little evidence of the prudish side of Johnny (just to prove that I didn't make that part up):





Johnny: Noooooo! The horror! Stop with the sexing!

Ripp was woohooing in a photo booth (that I added to their home lot temporarily - who can be bothered to go to community lot for that want?), and Johnny was not impressed. *snort*

Thanks. The garden did end up pretty nice once it was all decorated and filled in. I had just enough room there for a little garden because that lot came with a driveway, and I saw no reason for them to have a car. So I'm doing the eco-friendly thing by replacing the vehicle with an organic garden. They're hippies.

Plantsim Ophelia would be funny. I'm not sure if/how I could work plantsims into this story, but it IS Strangetown, so who knows. That's so true about the green thing. Wouldn't that be interesting?

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, Johnny is uptight and it's hilarious. He's so appalled by the situation, he's jumping up in the air.

When you send Ripp to a community on a date, does he roll a million woohoo wants? Like, woohoo in car, woohoo, woohoo in photoboth, woohoo in hot tub? It seems like a very Ripp thing to want. If Johnny tags along he can react to all the woohooing by jumping in the air with horror!

Yeah, I'd imagine it would be hard to work that into the story. I can imagine Johnny saying, "She IS an alien. She's green, she just has a bunch of flower tattoos! She likes flowers!"

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I think the jump that Johnny seems to be doing is an optical illusion, based on how far away he is, but we can pretend that he's jumping. It's funnier.

Ripp rolls wants for woohoo in all available locations, and even some that aren't available (like the hot tub on him home lot). It is a very Ripp thing to do. He's always looking to get his rocks off. Maybe Johnny is just tired of it. He's all like, "Oh, not again! We're here to go swimming, not to woohoo in the hot tub..."

The hammock is a real draw for woohoo wants. Ophelia has wanted to woohoo in the hammock a couple of times too.

It could make a cute little side story. I'll probably try it out just for fun, at least.

[indigoleo.livejournal.com]

Noooooo! The horror! Stop with the sexing!


LOL! LOL! LOL!
Maybe when Johnny gets to be an elder you can let him hang around downtown and he can smack around sims that engage in too much PDA. He could take over Crumplebottom's job. :D

The garden is very pretty. As for Johnny heart-farting after Ripp now, well, Ripp just works the Grunt magic on everybody regardless of color or sexual orientation. Nobody is safe from him!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Johnny Crumplebottom. *snicker* Like Johnny Appleseed, except he spreads standards of proper behaviour, and dishes out the pain with his "man bag".

Now I'm really looking forward to old man Johnny. I'm going to have him keep his signature hairstyle, so he's going to look like an old geezer who couldn't let go of the hair gel. I don't want him to grow old, but that's going to be pretty awesome.

With the new romance benefits, Ripp really is unstoppable. He'll have no trouble achieving his LTW once he's out of college. He certainly has the "friend" requirement for promotion.

I can't wait to see how often this "Ripp is hot" topic comes up in conversation now. I'll bet that everyone will start dreaming about it too. :P

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

That's SUCH a PT reaction.

*snort* (yeah, Paul gets cat butt face-y over loving, too)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to think that Johnny is actually a lot like his old man. Well, not so much the lazy, slouchy part. P.T. has a slouching problem.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

NICE new banner!

(I forgot what else I was going to say)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It must be pretty good, if it erased your memory. *snicker*

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Just caught me off guard (since I hadn't hit my flist yet and was responding via email).

I'd never have the patiences to prettify my journal (though I am going to change up the "title" stuff to include Peculiar, since it's now just as big as Nocheat)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Does the banner show up in your email? I wouldn't have guessed that.

I've wanted to have a banner since I first joined livejournal. In my previous experiences with blog host sites, it's been easy to add a banner to the page. As for prettying it up, the banner is all I really need. I'm liking the new layout pretty well. It's nice and clean, and the colour matches the Strangetown sand.

Yeah, it makes sense to update your title to include Peculiar, and that's really enough to do.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

The banner doesn't show in the email, but when I reply, it brings your journal up.

I like the color of your journal, too. It's easy on the eyes.

As for mine, it'll get a little makeover when I have the Nocheat link roundup complete (and Peculiar character stats). Then I can put them along the side, for easy reference.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Easy on the eyes is key if you want people to spend time reading something. It just makes sense.

I love adding links on the side like that. It appeals to the side of me that wants to organize information like a librarian. I'm going to do up a new character profile page too at some point and link to it from the sidebar, and also a resource list.

[x-illegal-x.livejournal.com]

I love when Sims gossip about how hot someone is!

That really is an odd daydream gesture...is he raising his hand?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. I never stop finding it amusing, especially now that sims are gossiping about how hot Ripp is. It's good stuff.

Yeah, he's raising his hand and doing this little flourish with his fingers. Here's another pic showing it:

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

I also love it when Siblings congratulate each other on their hotness.
*twitch*

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

You mean you don't do that in real life? :P

Too funny, since even if a sibling thought that, they'd NEVER say it.

[hidden-kitten.livejournal.com]

lols all over! That was so great! Poor bisexul Johnny, who knew?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's amazing how much funny crap these guys do when I'm just playing the lot.

Yeah, Johnny seems to be keeping a secret (but not very well... admitting it right to Ripp's face like that).

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

OMG I love that icon!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :D I'm a pretty big fan of it too. swhedonberry came up with the caption.

[saunasims.livejournal.com]

... Man, that well animation shot is making me thirsty! Mmm, sweet fresh spring water.
And the last shot of Johnny cracks me up, so stern and stiff upper lip like he's making his admission through the side of his mouth so Phi won't overhear. It's perfect. XD

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It looks like that well water is very refreshing, doesn't it? I LOVE the wishing well. It gives me all sorts of little story ideas. It would be great for a fairytale.

That's so true. Like it's very serious, top secret business. *snort* Oh, Johnny.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I love how Ripp is totally missing his mouth when he's trying to drink the water. :P And yay for "training" with the blonde! Hmm, another three bolter for Ripp! I bet he'll have a ton of them now.

I love it when sims start discussing how hot another person is. I have a great picture of Ripp in college where he's talking to some girl about how hot he is, but the girl is not interested at all and keeps swooning over Blair. Too funny.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I agree. The sloppiness is perfect for Ripp.

Ripp has at least three or four sims that have three bolts with him now. Isn't that crazy?

I think I remember that. Did you post it in the extras? I love that he was talking about himself. *snicker* So Ripp-like. It seems like three-bolters bring it up in conversation like that. Johnny was definitely congratulating Ripp for being hot in that shot. I saw him do it again. So funny.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't post it in extras. It actually happened AFTER that, when I was attempting to make a chapter after Gen 1.4 Part 3 before I did the time skip. It was hell though, because I had to make clones of Abe and Blair and had to have all of them actually know the people that I wanted to have them interact with in that particular chapter. I will put it up in the extras eventually, I think... After I get finished with at least chapter 2.

[music-simbol.livejournal.com]

Did Ripp get any water in his mouth, or did it all get on his shirt? :P

Johnny: Okay, so maybe I HAVE noticed that you seem to be getting a lot hotter lately.

HA! It's about time! You can't deny it! (especially since your gf agrees, but that's another story)

Is there anyone Ripp doesn't have chemistry with?

The garden looks really good, and it would be kinda cool if Phi became a plantsim. It wouldn't have to be permanent, but a fun little twist! (Not that this story needs anymore :P)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I know. It looks like Ripp just poured the water over himself on purpose. :P

Yes, that is another story, isn't it? *wink* I'm pretty sure that Phi is the one who informed Johnny that Ripp was hot in the first place, and now he feels the need to congratulate him for being hot all of the time.

Johnny: Hey Ripp! You're hot - keep up the excellent work.

There are very few sims that Ripp doesn't have chemistry with. He's so easy to play as a romance sim.

I agree. I might be able to make the plantsim thing work somehow. I'll probably save it for later on, though, if things get too stable and boring.

[lovelysims.livejournal.com]

You do still have more wishes on the wishing well. But the more sims that wish in a certain time period the more likely you are to get something nasty.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. I didn't know that. I thought it was a little crappy if I only got the one wish. So does it keep on giving forever, if you don't overuse it?

[lovelysims.livejournal.com]

It does keep on giving! But say, Ophelia wished for money, an hour later Johnny wishes for more friends. And than two hours later Ripp wishes for a new love. Ripp is very likely to have old Crumpleface crawl out and beat him with a purse. Snootysims has all the info on that. But yes, it keeps giving so long as you only have so many wishes in a time period.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Getting into the Garden Club is so easy! I thought it was going to be a grueling exam from hell, but it was easy. I also got the Wishing Well on my first try, high five to us who-got-in-on-our-first-try! :D

Poor ladies, now that Ripp is a sex magnet will they be able to control themselves? ;)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I know. It was almost too easy. *high fives* We rule.

Yes, the man is unstoppable. Nobody is safe from Ripp. He bathes in pheromones.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

LOL. Bathing in pheromones! Thats something I'd like to see. (Especially if it's Ripp.) *cough*

[sofieamalien.livejournal.com]

The sloppy way of drinking from the Wishing Well seems to be made just for Ripp! :) - And the hammock must have been made with Ripp in mind too! :D

The garden looks wonderful! Does Ophelia have a Golden Bagde? I bet she does - otherwise I find it hard to keep my plants happy... What aboiut Johnny? He seems to be helping her a lot with the garden.

Johnny's trainer looks really cute! But maybe she is more like a ballet instructor type with that outfit ;) :P

Can you only wish once with the wishing well? I've never had a 'real' one, but one I got with boolProp; but that one gave me all the wishes I wanted..

[mysimcalledlife.livejournal.com]

I just found your journal today, I hope you don't mind me friending you!

[80sfiend.livejournal.com]

Hee. :D