In the last segment, Larch regained a position in his LTW career path, and entered into a depressing cycle of promotions and demotions. Arvi had a series of dances with a lampshade on his head, while Anne stalked him for attention. Penelope and Oz's relationship deepened, and Miranda made a move on Theo--despite Aria having staked the most recent claim, and being in the room when Miranda went in for the flirt.

I'm sure you recall that, though, having just read it!

Yes, 'Randa and Theo are in love.

And yet, Aria is not jumping out of the tub for some slapping.

Then it occurs to me that since I've masked off the tub with room divider, Aria can't see what's going on in the rest of the room, despite it happening directly in her line of sight.

Theo is therefore safe from slapping.

...For now.

Arvi: "Congratulations on getting busy with your girlfriend in front of your other girlfriend and not getting the crap smacked out of you!"Anne: "Can I have some of that romancing action?"Theo: "Really, this is not normal behavior for me."

'Randa's not wasting a lot of time here. Not a lot of time at all.

Anne's maxed her Creativity, and Arvi's gotten better at dancing.

Aria: "Stupid puddle! Stupid roommates! Stupid Asylum! STUPID STUPID STUPID!"

Larch just made $10K in an Asylum. And he's still only just over halfway done with the career path. That is how many times he's been promoted and demoted and promoted and promoted and demoted and promoted...

Larch: "DIE, FAUCET!"Theo: "I am reasonably certain that shouting at the shower will not repair the leak."Larch: "Can it, Heathcliff."

Er...

Banned4Lyfe?

It finally happens.

'Randa does a Leap Into Arms while Aria's in the room, and poor Nummy Theo's in for a world of hurt.

I feel sort of bad for Theo. If I were a Sim, I wouldn't want Aria Bohemian mad at me.

Happily, Aria is too tired to make any more trouble.

Anne: "Waaah! My Aspiration!"Arvi: "Waaaah! My Aspiration!"Penelope: "Oz is hot!"Oz: "Mmmmm... omelets..."

Arvi is not having a good day. Theo makes Besties with Arvi while Arvi has an Incident on the floor.

Arvi: "Who had an unshrew moment in the kitchen? THIS GUY!"

Have I mentioned how much I love See Wolf? I LOVE SEE WOLF.

Official Nummy Theo wanders by! Hiiiiii, Official Nummy Theo!

He cracks me up.

Why did you have to be all heir-y and die? WHYYYYY?

...

Whaaaaa?

...

I don't even know. I cheated and checked 'Randa's memories to see if Arvi did anything to her, and he didn't, and his relationship to her is still friends/best friends, but she is FURIOUS at him for seemingly no reason.

Arvi might be a little angry at Aria after this, though.

Penelope: *plink plonk donk cloing plub*Oz: "That's... nice, sweetie. Real, um... Peter Glass or something."

NO LARCH BAD LARCH THAT IS A VERY BAD LARCH! *swats on nose with rolled-up magazine*

Larch still needs more friends, so I had him invite over SimNerd and a couple members of the household--Stacie and Cassidy.

I did not count on how Larch was going to say "Hi" to SimNerd.

I also forgot that SimNerd was in the middle of a complete break with reality. It's not a pretty sight.

Cass: "Oh, hey, bird!"Pequod: "Rawk! Squeaky pants! Rawk!"Cass: "Squeaky!"

SimNerd has a volleyball. Aria has hunger pangs. Cass has a cockatiel. Larch has a very pressing need to make friends.

Water balloon fight! Stacie and Cass are more than happy to join.

I have to say, Cass does a better job of autonomously getting Aspiration Points than some of the patients.

And I think I totally forgot to put Stacie on the Thank You slide. Er, just a blonde moment, not a slight! Stacie is awesome, mwah Stacie! Go read Whedonberry and marvel in its goodness, everybody!

Aria's one-track mind may be why she's still starving.

Um...

Banned4Lyfe?

Theo: "You look very familiar..."SimNerd: "I am ignoring the fact that you're standing there in your undies. I have Official Nummy Theo waiting for me at home."

Penelope becomes the second plate-napper!

Theo's skilling Charisma on his own again!

Theo: "I imagine you feel quite safe in that cage."Pequod: "Rawk! Gimme the sunflower seeds and no one gets hurt!"Theo: "Perhaps we shouldn't have let Larch teach you to talk."Pequod: "Rawk! Tu hermano Raul esta durmiendo con los peces! Rawk!"Theo: "What?"Pequod: "Rawk! Say hello to my leetle friend!"Theo: "You're beginning to scare me."Pequod: "Take the shotgun, leave the cannolis! Rawk!"

Stacie: "I feel really bad for Penelope."Cass: "Should we wake her up or something?"Aria: "We could kill her."Cass: "Or, you know... not."

'Randa went and picked a fight with Cassidy. Bee Vetinari is a nice-point-deficient Pop Sim, and she didn't have NEARLY this much trouble making friends with people.

Also? Picking on Cassidy normally leads to death, Miranda. You are exempt because you are visiting and also crazy, but WATCH IT. I can Smite you without killing you.

Safe to say that Penelope is not enjoying herself a whole lot. I finally ordered Chinese food so that the doorbell would wake her up and then she could eat something reeeaaally filling.

Larch: "Listen up, birdbrain, you can be replaced. That's all I'm sayin'."Pequod: "Rawk! NO, Mr. Bond. I expect you to DIE."Larch: "Well played."Pequod: "Heeeeeere's Johnny! Rawk!"

ARGH PENELOPE! LESS STALKING, MORE BATHING, EATING, AND PEEING.

Penelope finally goes for some moo goo gai pan. So does Arvi. Miranda would rather complain about Penelope's BO, and Theo is in dire need of a wee.

This is the last Charisma point Larch needs! Sweeeeet!

Lea was a walkby, so she got recruited to be a contact of Larch's.

Lea: "Wooo, that Oz is one hot cookie!"Larch: "Why don't you just kick me in the groin next time? At least that's not a blow to my ego."

Lea: "Hey, Aspiration points!"Larch: "YES!"

That was the last Cleaning point Larch needed! He's fully skilled now, so no more fixing electrical appliances! The trash masher's been busted for a while, but I don't want to risk making him fix it.

Oh, and Lea/tlhs0 writes the Barsoom Legacy.

Aria has maxed Body. Theo should be very afraid.

Arvi: "...Hey."Oz: "GO AWAY."Arvi: "But you're standing in front of the window I want to clean."Oz: "NOW."Arvi: "But... dirty window."

Arvi's the next plate-napper.

Larch still needed friends (13 in total to become Education Ministry), so he invited over Stacie and a couple of household members the next day.

SQUEEEEE!

Cass: "Stacie's playing with the bird!"

Gil: "That's nice, hun."

Uh...

Banned4Lyfe?

MOAR SQUEEEE!

Larch Wanted to gain a skill point to get up into platinum, and this was the fastest way to get him there. Then, more meditation.

Aria: "Look, I know the lamp is sexy, all right? But it was MY lamp first."'Randa: "Air-Bear, I'm not sure I grok your metaphorocity."

Aria: "...Call me 'Air-Bear' again and your future won't look so bright."

Aria: "Frammit, who replaced the bricks with feathers?"

The Knowledge crew finally turn to the sauce.

Arvi's still passed out on the table.

This does not end well for Miranda and Penelope.

Theo: "I believe you have some salad on your nose."Arvi: "Nope, that's just the shrewness!"

Theo isn't plate-napping. He's getting an omelet facial.

Let's see... Theo's getting a beauty treatment at the end of the table, Penelope and Anne are eating, Arvi is stalking Anne, Miranda's waiting to talk to someone, Larch is meditating... Even if we assume that Aria's sleeping, that still leaves FOUR open beds! And yet Oz crashes on the couch.

Miranda and Arvi complain about their Aspirations. I keep inviting people over, hoping that Miranda will get points for Meet Someone New, but she either isn't rolling that Want, or doesn't actually Meet the guests.

Heee! Larch can teleport now! I spent an entertaining few minutes zapping him all over the lot.

Gin's the next walkby to get suckered in. I believe her Spider Jerusalem Fangirl shirt is still up on her SimPage.

Oz goes and picks a fight. BAD OZ! We do not fight with the SimSelves around these here parts!

Gin: "Grrrr, Aria, no beating up my shrew!"

Aria: "DIRTY CHEATING SCUMBAG."Theo: "Sorry."Aria: "YOU WILL BE."

More cuteness from Penelope and Oz.

...Whaaaa?

This won't end well.

Nobody else even cared, but Penelope had to run out and watch the tree burn.

I'm betting we'll be seeing the volleyball again.

Larch just made $20K. He's so close to the top of the career ladder I can taste it!

Oz: "All I'm sayin' is that 'rub me the right way' is totally a metaphor!"Aria: "Duh."Larch: "Can't I just drink my coffee in peace?"

Aria: "GET OUT."

Oz: "You're sexy when you're angry."Aria: "Kiiiiiiill."

Miranda: "Lalala, maxed Creativity, lalala!"Penelope: "Hah! I am outside looking in! SUCKERS!"

Aria: "Haaaaate hiiiiiim. And also you."Oz: "Hooray for rage!"

Penelope: "What? You say two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time? How am I shoving you through the window, then, hmmm?"

#9

#10

Wren'll get points for Meet Someone New, at least.

I had Larch invite Cass and Gil back over in the hopes that someone was rolling Wants to interact with them.

Cass: "You're hot."Gil: "I am totally rolling a Hot Tub Want right now."

They are so adorably stalky.

Larch: "All right! Platinum! Time for more meditation!"Cass: "Okeydokey. I'ma go stalk my boyfriend now."

#11

Oz: "How's it going?"Penelope: "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?"

#12

#13

Arvi: "Shrew incoming!"Anne: "You should be glad I've gotten buff!"

Aria seems to have forgiven Theo.

Really, REALLY forgiven Theo.

'Randa: "My pancakeulating skills are flipperiffic!"

Oz: "I'm not sure whether this is rain or pee, and I kind of don't care anymore."

It was a rain puddle, but lightning strikes the tree again.

Anne comes out too, but Oz is the only one who takes an Aspiration hit.

Only the third shrink visit, so this isn't actually a horrible track record for an Asylum.

Arvi earns some bonus points from me for serving up a platter of sandwiches.

Theo's playing with Pequod. In his undies.

Anne: "I've had enough of the fires. Kitchen fires, tree fires, TOO MANY FIRES."Penelope: "Plus they make you smell bad."

Arvi: "You're hot when you're talking about fires."

Tandem volleyballs!

#1 for Oz.#14 for Penelope.

They try to boost each other's spirits after they're done with the volleyballs.

Maybe you shouldn't have laughed about Larch getting electrocuted, Anne. Karma, baby!

Fortunately, her motives were pretty high, so aside from a bladder accident, she survived.

One more for Penelope. We're up to 15 now.

#2 for Oz.

Aria: "I NEED WOOHOO."Arvi: "Anne's hot when Aria's crying."

Aria: "Anne's a Romance Sim!"Arvi: "Anne's a Romance Sim!"Oz: "Anne's a Romance Sim!"Anne: "Mmmmm, booze..."

Penelope FINALLY gets some Aspiration!

'Randa: "I don't want to do that right now!"

She's really lost it. Now she's torturing HERSELF!

I finally filled the fridges. It was about time.

If you have a bar, they can keep themselves alive, though.

Larch does a lot of this. Get his motives back up, push his Aspiration to platinum, then meditate until it's time for work.

One more promotion, and he'll be PermaPlat.

YESSSSSS! My man Larch is Permaplat, and this Asylum is OVAH!

This is the layout of the Asylum, BTW. I needed a garage in case there were any back-to-back promotions Larch could get. The car's a white recolor of the custom Mustang. Kitchen at the front right, with room divider in the doorways and marking out the stoves (which seems to be a "six of one, half-dozen of the other" situation), with a separate room for the sink in the corner, which also had enough room for Larch to meditate and be out of the way. The phones were surrounded with room divider. TV, bookshelf, chessboard, bar, Pequod, and Dance Sphere in the main room, piano in a separate room, toilet stall and dresser in one room, shower in the other room marked off with room divider, five beds, and a little fountain outside in case of patient attrition.

Yup, more gratuitous Cassbert.

We start with 100 points, then subtract 30 for days in the Asylum, which leaves us with 70. But we get 20 for never using Influence, and an additional 14 for the number of family friends, for a subtotal of 104.

Larch also managed to earn enough that the Asylum has over $42K in the bank, although that doesn't count towards any points.

Only three patient-set fires, which isn't bad at all. None of them even ever caught fire. 3 Shrink visits, plus 2 volleyball chats for Oz, 15 for Penelope, and 20 lampshade-dances for Arvi. Well, that I caught, anyway.

I'm suddenly jonesing for some cheesecake...

One point for each skill point the patients have:Miranda has 35 (7 Cooking, 3 Body, 9 Logic, 10 Creativity, 6 Cleaning)Anne has 32 (7 Cooking, 6 Body, 7 Logic, 10 Creativity, 2 Cleaning)Aria has 31 (7 Cooking, 10 Body, 1 Logic, 10 Creativity, 3 Cleaning)Theo has 28 (7 Cooking, 6 Body, 2 Logic, 10 Creativity, 3 Cleaning)Oz has 26 (7 Cooking, 5 Body, 2 Logic, 10 Creativity, 2 Cleaning)Arvi has 19 (7 Cooking, 5 Logic, 4 Creativity, 3 Cleaning)Penelope has 14 (6 Cooking, 2 Body, 1 Logic, 3 Creativity, 2 Cleaning)

For a total of 185 in skills, and a subtotal of 289.

OK, fine, eye candy for the guys too...

One point for each 1K Aspiration points the patients have:Theo has 45,350Miranda has 38,100Oz has 36,500Aria has 29,500Anne has 17,200Arvi has 11,350Penelope has 8,250

Rounding up gives me 187,000, so that's 187 more points, for a grand total of 476. Not bad, if I do say so myself!

And thus this particular Asylum adventure comes to a close. Thanks for reading, everybody!