To recap: This is my attempt at a Polyamory Project Challenge, created by princedeej28. The point of the challenge is to romance more than one Sim and earn enough points to make Hugh Hefner jealous. Last time, we found out that strawberry juice works as advertised. Vanessa tried to get romantic, but despite the lack of Furiousness, Bertie wasn’t interested. Albert became the proud father of twins, and I gained fifteen points. Now that you’re all caught up, on with the story!

Bertie is not currently interested in any romantic interactions with Vanessa. But Red Hands is just fine.

And because Bertie and Vanessa are not currently romantically involved, this interaction provokes nothing more than an indulgent smile. BERTIE: Ow, Cowey! My back! It was at about this point that I decided to be largely hands-off for this round and see how my Sims would manage.

There were rather a lot of pillow fights. Fittingly enough, since I personally consider “Pillow Fight” to be something of a low-level flirt. I find that Sims who have bolts for each other are far more likely to pull out a pillow and whap each other in the face with it. It’s actually the interaction of choice for my Sims who awkwardly have more bolts for an in-law than for their spouse.

Which is probably why Bertie looks so nonplussed at this. Bertie may like men and women pretty well equally, but Corey is quite definitely and exclusively gay. So what else does the household do when I’m not micromanaging their lives?

Well, there’s an awful lot of this. BERTIE: Hey Cowey, congwatuwations on making aww those fwiends in cowwege.

COREY: Thanks, Bertie! Hey, congrats yourself on getting that promotion a while back. BERTIE: Which one? COREY: Meh, does it matter?

BERTIE: Nah, I guess not.

Left to his own devices, this is Corey’s favorite activity. You have no idea how sick I am of the music that goes with the “Perform… Jazz” option right now.

This is Corey’s second-favorite activity. BERTIE: Ow! Cowey! My back!

This is Vanessa’s favorite activity. She’s in front of the TV, but it’s not on. She’s not even thinking about anything. She’s just sitting.

This is Vanessa’s second-favorite activity. I’m not entirely sure why I moved her in anymore. I think I thought she was good-looking, but she hasn’t aged well.

Bertie is partial to telling Dirty Jokes. BERTIE: …“Weww, thewe go Sundays!”

Now, although I’m being very hands-off this round, I’m not playing an ISBI.* I do monitor everyone and tell them to take care of major needs like eating, going potty, and going to bed. Plus, I stop them doing things sometimes. (“Perform… Jazz,” I’m looking at you.) I also have them take care of smaller needs if they haven’t got anything better to do. For instance, having multiple phones makes clearing up everyone’s “Talk to Albert +100” Want very easy. (If a Sim joins a preexisting conversation, they get the points as if they’d made the phone call themselves. It’s much faster that way.) *An “I’m Surrounded By Idiots” challenge.

I exert even less control over the other Sims in the house. Mostly, I try to make sure that they go to bed: when everyone’s in bed at the same time, the game automatically kicks into Speed 3 and stays there until somebody wakes up. Beverly and Professor Arianna played chess for so long that I thought they might actually starve to death or wet themselves. But apparently a Ph.D. allows Sims to stop playing right before they hit one of those critical marks.

When I finally remembered to check on Gerard, this is what he was doing. This surprised me, since he tends to paint instead of clean.

Zenon goes to work and comes back from work and that’s about I could tell you. He doesn’t seem to do much of anything on Free Will. Mind you, his Want panel is full of things like Call Albert To Chat, Kiss Professor Arianna, Flirt With Professor Arianna, Play With Professor Arianna, and Give Backrub To Professor Arainna. Gerard, Beverly, Professor Arianna, and Corey have similar Want panels.

The only one who ever does anything about it is Corey. BERTIE: OW! Cowey! My back!

He may not be particularly creative, but he’s not shy about getting what he Wants.

Come on, guys! This is entirely doable with autonomous interactions! Stop moping around and do something!

Whoops. I guess it’s too late now.

Professor Arianna Miguel, 71 years old. Although Professor Arianna was Zenon’s teacher for most of his college career, there was absolutely no improper behavior between them until after graduation. Then, of course, things got very improper very fast. Professor Arianna had a “thing” for drummers, which may or may not have contributed to Zenon’s decision to play the drums. She also helped Albert with his homework well into high school. Goodbye, Dr. Miguel.

Zenon took her death very hard. I know they’re only pixels and not-terribly-sophisticated programming, but it’s always hard for me when Sims start sobbing. So I suppose it’s just as well that this was the end of the rotation.

Last time around, I earned 15 points. This time, Corey earned 35 for me. How pathetic is it that my Sims are better at this than I am? Until next time, Happy Simming! Score for this round Assorted romantic interactions x 7: 35 TOTAL: 35 Score as of last round: 515 GRAND TOTAL: 550 Relationship standings (Daily/Lifetime) Bertie > Corey: 100/100. Best friends. Married. Bertie > Vanessa: 98/85. Best friends. Corey > Bertie: 100/100. Best friends. Married. Corey > Vanessa: 96/96. Best friends. Vanessa > Bertie: 98/77. Best friends. Vanessa > Corey: 82/66. Best friends.