Chapter 7: Gnomes, Continued

Randi rises through the ranks of criminals. They trust her skills as a getaway driver, and then as a bagwoman. Eventually she has done enough to be called a true con artist. And then she is known, in whispered tones, as a henchman. A lackey of the emperor of evil himself. Or herself. No one is quite sure WHO the emperor of evil is, but everyone is sure that person is bad news.


Randi hasn't been arrested in a long time. She's too good. But while Fiona doesn't know much about her mother's career, she knows there's something about it she doesn't like. She gives Randi the typical glowering pout of teenage angst.


Leona, on the other hand, tries to learn from her mother's skills.

Not the best idea she's ever had.

A paparazzi waltzes over to snap pictures of Randi's epic ball-throwing abilities. Randi finds this threatening. While she herself is two stars, she has worked hard to keep contact with celebrities to a minimum. She doesn't want her daughters to catch what she calls "the fame virus."

I'm going to !@#$ing kill you! Randi's body language seems to be saying!

The paparazzi slowly lowers her camera and backs away.

Randy can hardly keep away from his garden, but tries to leave a little work for Leona each day, since Leona is developing a strange neurotic interest in food. She won't eat his hamburgers or macaroni & cheese anymore; she only consumes the direct produce of the garden. She knows where those potatoes and tomatoes have been.

Lesson one: gardening is best done in pajamas.

Every appliance you touch, Randy...

...Well, Leona needed to learn this skill anyway. (Recap: she wants to be an astronaut).

A bit meta.

"I want to get out of this house," Fiona tells the duck. "I swear these gnomes are watching me."

The laundry room, slash computer room, slash stereo room gets new wallpaper. Fiona ignores it, listens to the music and pretends she's at an awesome dance club, which Riverview doesn't have. A wish pops up in her mother's mind: detonate the stereo. Randi seriously considers it, but restrains herself.

In other news, Randi's boss Rhoda passes away, instantly sending her relationship with the boss down to "bad." No new boss appears on her relationship panel, but we can be sure one is there... lurking.

The gang wanted Randi to learn sim-fu. A book picked up at the consignment shop helped, but to get to the desired green belt, she must search on the Internet for more techniques. Unfortunately all the websites tell her to go to China.

Since even at orange belt Randi knows more sim-fu than any other worthless criminal in Riverview, she is quickly promoted to evil sidekick. Though she finally makes enough money to live on, and she's so very close to being an awesome supervillain, she doesn't enjoy her work anymore. Rhoda's death sent the criminals into petty arguing, thus spoiling the work environment.

 "WHO BROKE THE DAMN BATHTUB AGAIN, RANDY?"

"The gnome!" Randy cries. "I swear!"

While Leona stays inside reading up on various skills she may need later in life, Fiona gets a job at the spa, serving drinks to people. Oddly enough, the now-teenaged Cleveland Ivanov was attracted to the same part-time job. He and Fiona rekindle their fairweather childhood friendship.

Chatting on the phone about how much the boss sucks, I presume.

Distracted from work, Randi remembers what's actually important in life.

And then the kids get home and the paparazzi appears.

Fiona is an odd duck, inviting her school (and work!) friends over all the time after school, even though she must leave immediately to attend to her job. Today Fiona invites over Cleveland before skipping off to work.

Cleveland apparently decides to skip work today and dance with Leona.

During a major thieving operation, Randi secures some of the loot for herself. Nothing like ensuring your own raises! She knows whatever is in this bag is worth at least 1000 simoleans. When Randi gets home, she eagerly takes a peek inside, and... it's...

...of course it is.

______________________

Other notes: Fiona and Cleveland have the exact same job and so I assume the exact same hours, so I'm not sure why the game allowed him to stick around. In my experience, sims invited over will zip away the second they have to "be somewhere else".

I intend to add a night club to the town at some point down the line, but R&R's kids will likely just have to suffer through Riverview being a boring small town for their entire lives because I am lazy.

Randi is truly a gnome-magnet. She's found no less than four magic laundry gnomes. She invented one. And now she stole one. I sold the extra laundry gnomes since those are my least favorite.

Also, I love childish sims. =) I've had many childish sims, and it's always amusing to note that they don't all display the trait in the same way. One childish sim will play with toys, while another will constantly be at the mirrors making stupid faces and annoying sounds. I also once had a childish sim who preferred to "scare" her family members every five minutes. One would think every childish sim would do all of these things, but no, many sims seem to have a favorite hangup, and rarely do the other actions.