1.3 Of Crossing Frozen Lakes and Others Weird Things

 Another day in the life of runaway teen, Christopher Steel.

That rare sunny day in autumn was used to scour the vast expanse of Sunset Valley land in search of collectibles to help increase our young hero's funds.

In the afternoon, the young man had the difficult task of searching through the rubbish thrown by the town's residents...

Chris: Enough with the melodrama, we already established that this isn't that kind of story.

Here is our killjoy, Christopher Steel.

Chris: I don't understand why I'm doing this, it takes a lot of time and it's not very lucrative.

It's something that those who have tried this challenge have done many times, so I wanted to do it too. Plus, it's fun to stop following you for a few hours and focus on the townies around here.

Like Vita Alto and her pregnancy clothes.

Judy: That brown belt doesn't go very well with the rest of the clothes.

Vita: Yes, I know, the downside of not having a watcher.

Judy: But the advantages are greater, so I think it's better to have a brown belt that crashed with the rest of the clothes than being controlled by one of those humans obsessed with us.

Vita: Definitely.

I didn't expect this from you, Judy. From Vita, yes, to be honest. We, watchers, are not so bad.

Chris: Can I go home now? My legs are cramping and I can't move my arm anymore.

Judy: I rest my case.

Since I've been making him work too hard and not have enough fun, I let him carve a pumpkin or two get his fun bar up.

Chris: Her idea of fun is making me work on a pumpkin. The key word here is work.

Beyond Chris' grumpiness, the pumpkins now decorate the front of the house.

Chris: And that's the real reason she made me carve pumpkins, not for me to have some fun, of course not. It was just to have something to decorate the front without spending money.

Well, now you can't say you're not doing something fun.

Chris: I better not say what I'm thinking right now.

I must admit that my great idea of having Chris's lot away from the rest of town was not the best I've ever had. When I chose the remoteness of his house I didn't take into account the weird ways this game decides the sims routes. Serious mistake on my part after playing this game for over a decade.

Chris: For some reason, I find that slowly crossing the frozen lake is less effective than going around it.

He had finished crossing the lake and was only a few steps from his house when the game decided that the police had to arrest him.

And so, begins a sequence worthy of this game.

Cross the lake again to reach the nearest street, running through the long path between the slopes.

Chris: If only this counted as working out.

Get to where the police were waiting for him, get in the car without the agent doing it.

Cop: Now get out of the car, we've already reached our destination.

Chris: This is ridiculous.

I know.

Chris: The tires of your car are not well positioned, Mrs. cop.

Cop: Strange.

No so strange. The game did a weird thing where the policewoman got into the car for just a second and immediately got out, while the car turned slightly and then stayed in the same spot.

Cop: What is not strange in that?

In that it's a typical sims 3 behavior?

Cop: Yeah, you're right.

Chris: I hate this lake!

Christopher finally got home at about 3 a.m.

The next day I expanded his house a little more and added a bedroom upstairs. I bought him an easel and he spent half the day painting.

With that new addition to his house, Chris can now use the cell phone per the rules of the challenge.

The first thing I did was invite Lisa over. 

Chris: What do you think? Not so bad for a poor runaway teen, right?

Christopher hasn't shown any interest in Lisa so far, so for now I'll leave their relationship as a simple friendship, plus she has the infamous VJ Alvi as a boyfriend. If later on he starts to have some wishes about her, then I...

She took the decision out of my hands, the pro and cons of the inappropriate trait. At least he seems to enjoy it.

She stayed the rest of the day, and Chris even invited her to stay the night.

I made a very noob mistake and bought a double bed so they could both sleep, completely forgetting that teens who aren't from the same household can't share a bed.

Chris: Why do you make these mistakes? Now Lisa is occupying my bed and I will have to sleep on the sofa.

No couch for Chris tonight.

Chris: The stupid game is going to makes me cross the lake again, right?

Do you want me to lie to you?

Of course, since it was past midnight, the police arrived. Because Chris being abducted by aliens doesn't seem like enough for this game.

Cop: I am very tired of this. This boy makes me work overtime that I don't get paid for.

Meanwhile the alien got tired of waiting for Christopher to slowly cross the lake and preferred to go kidnap another townie. Making all of this totally unnecessary.

Since the alien was gone, Chris was sent home by the game, making him cross the lake for the umpteenth time in two days, where he ran into Lisa on her way out.

Of course, as soon as he got to the door of his house, he had to go back. YES, he had to go all the way back to the policewoman.

Chris: Can I sleep in your car, please?

Cop: No, now get in the car so I can do that weird thing of moving the car's tires and then I can go home.

It was morning by the time Chris got home.

Chris slept a little during the morning hours and then I let him stay at home all day taking care of his plants and doing a little painting.

Of course, life can't be easy for Christopher. An hour after he went to sleep, I heard the music of a thief approaching. I looked for him around the house but I couldn't find him, Chris' lot is so small that the game generated the burglar inside the house. The criminal had to get out first so he could get back in and steal something.

The thief stole the sofa, I didn't even bother to wake up Chris and call the police, with the time it takes to get there the police were going to arrive hours after the incident.

The next day was a dumpster diving day, Chris was able to use it a couple of times before a piece of furniture appeared.

Chris: I thought you forgot about this activity.

I did not forget, I just do not want to abuse it because it really is a good way to make a lot of money, which makes this challenge very easy and then I lose interest. But since your sofa was stolen, I wanted to see if we could get one back this way.

Lisa was nearby and she approached Chris to ask him to build a snowman together.

Lisa: I direct and you build.

See Mortimer Goth approaching?

That innocent snowball throwing interaction with which he approached Christopher didn't turn out to be so innocent.

Mortimer had a secret agenda that I was not aware of at the time. And no, it wasn't posing together with Christopher as if they were in a winter vacation commercial (in bad clothes).

Mortimer: On the other side of the theater there is more room to play with the snow. Come with me?

And that was how Chris left with Mortimer, leaving Lisa alone, who had no choice but to start doing her homework in the middle of the snow. I was baffled.

Between snowball fights and conversations, both boys became friends.

Chris asked if he was single and Mortimer told him that he was in a relationship with Darlene Bunch. 

And you see Darlene in the background thinking about Chris, well this is why:

The Bunch family seems to want to appear in my story, I'm starting to suspect. After this awkward moment, Chris said goodbye to Mortimer and went to spend the last hours of the day at the winter festival.

At least living next to a frozen lake has its perks. Chris did a couple more spins before going home.

He was already leaving when he received a call from Mortimer.

This took me totally by surprise. It is true that both boys went from strangers to friends in just two hours, but with both in some kind of relationship with the Bunch sisters it is not something I would have expected, also out of curiosity I used the consider attractive interaction and that yielded an attraction of 1 of 10. So there was no indication that this would happen.

I said yes, of course. I love when the game throws me those types of curveballs, it usually makes me change my plans and that's great.

The next day I invited Mortimer over so they could ride together in the limousine to the prom.

Chris: Why am I considering a guy sticking out his tongue to taste the snow attractive?

Because you're that kind of guy too, I guess.

Unfortunately, my strategy did not work and Christopher traveled alone in the limousine.

While Mortimer was stranded at Chris's house trying to get in to do his homework.

Mortimer: The door is blocking my path.

You just have to open it. Very intelligent this boy, I see why Chris is interested.

Meanwhile, Chris has been crowned prom king, which doesn't make sense because he never went to school and most teens don't know him. 

Another thing that doesn't make sense because I know for a fact that Mortimer wasn't at the ball.

Mortimer: You don't understand how this is, Chris and I are at the dance together even though you see me here.

Er...

Chris: Yeah, we're having the time of our lives. I really like spending time with you, Mortimer.

Mortimer: Me too. 

I think I'm just going to give up on this game logic.

But like I said I love this game, illogical and all.

Chris said yes and now he has a boyfriend with which I had nothing to do with. This is really great!

Here's proof that even though I followed Mortimer home and he never came near the school, he was somehow there and took a picture with Christopher.

I'm going to say it a third time in case you missed it: I love this game.