Day One

Welcome to Hudson House! Kind of creepy, huh? Please excuse the blue cursor in the middle of the picture. Gadwin print screen decided it just had to be there.

My name is PetTech and this is my first published bachelor challenge using a spare from my legacy story, A Corporate Conspiracy. If you are not a current reader of that story you are in luck as this is a separate story in itself and requires no previous knowledge of the James family.

This update will consist of a tour of the house, an introduction of the contestants and the photos and events from day one of the challenge. I am working on a story to go along with this but it may be a while before it is posted.

First, the house. Hudson house is a building of my own imagination and based (loosely, I might add) on the American Gothic style of construction. It's one of my favorites. American Gothic is known for it's steep pitched, rambling roof lines and architecture that reflects some aspects of Victorian style.

This particular house has been vacant for quite some time. Even some of the windows are broken and boarded up.

The shed is just as dilapidated and junk has begun to collect nearby.

There is a lot of custom content in this house. In fact, everything you see here except the roof color and the gray shingles are custom. The list is huge but I will try and point out a few special things. If you see something you are interested in that I didn't identify just leave me a comment or a PM and I will find a link for you.

The very awesome false doors were made by Tinkle over at Black Pearl SimsThe destroyed fridge is by Aikea Guinea at Garden of Shadows

The hot tubs are by Holy SimolyThe concrete recolor is by Crab of Doom at Garden of Shadows using Pooklet's color actions

The weed choked pool. I was surprised to find that even with all the plants in there it is still usable.

Inside the house we have the foyer. Most of the furnishings you will see are by Adele from either MTS or her own personal site.

The dining room with mandatory buffet table.

The kitchen with functioning dishwasher, sink and espresso machine. The stove was omitted and the fridge is laying out in the yard. The stairs go up to the second floor.

Cabinets are by Adele.

The downstairs bathroom consists of toilet and sink fixtures only. Because this is a BC there are three toilets, each divided by walls and floor strips.

Bathroom set by Adele. I love this set despite it's grungyness. I will have to find some cleaner recolors for my neater homes.

The parlor with two chess tables, a dart board and a loveseat. Vicky PA's rules call for five chess tables but in my previous plays of this challenge I didn't require that many, so two it is.

This window set is also by Adele.The floors are by Crab of Doom using Pooklet's color actions.

The living room. I've included a poker table, bar and stereo for additional social activities.

The landing. Where all good stairs come to a stop. Behind those two doors is the master bedroom and the shared upstairs bath. Behind you is another door and a hallway.

The master bedroom is spacious but a little empty.

The upstairs bath includes two tub/shower combos and one stand alone shower.

The tubs were replaced with stand alone showers before the challenge started as I decided too many distractions might not be a good thing and I have some very playful sims in this challenge.

The other room on the second floor is now used for storage but it seems that someone once planned a nursery to be in here.

The hallway and back stairs. Go down and enter the kitchen. Go up...

And find the dormitory for the challenge. With the beds on the third floor I suspect there will be a lot of sleeping on sofas, so I provided four sleep-able pieces of furniture on the first floor.

All the stairs are modular so there will be minimal routing issues and while the rules call for the hot tubs to be on the second floor, I think being outside and requiring the fellows to go down a set of stairs out either the front or back door is acceptable. Those guys who choose to use the front door had better run.

Now for our contestants...

Starting with our lovely bachelorette, Brooke James. Now, if you do read my story please do not get this Brooke confused with Brooke Rose, my third generation heir. This is Brooke Number Two. Adopted daughter of a second generation spare and far too pretty to be pawned off on a boring townie.

Brooke is an Aries ( 5 neat/ 8 outgoing/ 6 active/ 3 playful/ 3 nice). Her aspiration is Romance/Fortune and her life time want is to be an elite athlete . I don't really see her as sports pro as she is a excellent violinist, so maybe rock star is really more her thing. Turn ons were slightly adjusted to Plant Sims and Werewolves (there will be none of those in the contest- so an even field) and her turn off is cologne which no one has access to.

Now for the contestants who have each been donated by other players. Their turn ons have been adjusted so that they all like brown hair and are not turned of by makeup or anything else that make negative bolts. The one turn on that was not adjusted was left as the donating player suggested or if not specified, randomly rolled.

Bernardo comes from joandsarah77's The Mobacy legacy story where he is a spare. Just a little too nice to be a good gangster and as Jo put it, a bit clueless about women. His turn ons include brown hair (as set by me) and makeup. His turn off is full face make up. It seems that Berni likes a little eye liner on a girl but if you look like a clown he has no intrest.

Connor Vetinari comes from the Vetinari Dualegacy by DrSupremeNerd. Two legacys for the price of one. Connor is the grandson of simself Dicreasy and prettacy spare Indy. While the original version of Connor is married and has children in his base universe, here he is single, young and looking for love. Turn ons are brown hair (set by me) and athlete (random roll). Turn off is hard worker (random roll)

Pause. I actually can spell 'another' properly. It was very early in the morning when I made these intro pics and GIMP doesn't have spell check. Sorry about that.Continue.

Jay comes from fireflower314's Morgan legacy where he is co-heir along with his brother Brighton. He too already has a little family in his universe. Turn ons are brown hair (set by me) and good cooks. Turn off is hard worker.

Fred made some brief appearances in BlueBerryPie's Bearly Alive Apocalypse but has never been given a public voice. I already have three children descended from my version of BBP in Pleasant View. Will there be a fourth? Turn ons are brown hair (set by me) and vampires. Turn off was make up but was re-rolled as Brooke wears makeup. It changed to witches. Though in reality, Fred would probably not dislike them.

Juno Jones comes from Lorinsv60's Romancing the Apocalypse where he is the male twin of an alien abduction. Juno is promised to a sim self in his world but here he is free, from many things. Including all those annoying restrictions. Turn ons are brown hair (set by me) and stink. Turn off is plant sims.

Another sim self's grandson and potentially the third descendant of my version of tlhs0 in my Pleasant View should he win. Will is still a baby in her game, but as she commented and I agree, he grows up to be a cutie with a crooked little, ever present smile. Turn ons are brown hair (set by me) and athletes (random). Turn off is witches (random).

Byte is from mountainshade1's OWBC The Measure of Things where he is a child of first generation spare Bushel and Meadow Thayer. Having a sharp temper and a huge ego, Byte might be in the wrong place but he surely isn't unwelcome because when you can get him to smile, he's really cute. Turn ons are brown hair (set by me) and plant sims (random). Turn off is stink.

And those are the contestants. A huge amount of thanks to everyone who loaned me their boys for this. I will do my best to match up characters as I can. For the following section though, it's really about the sims and not their created persona's.

So, day one...

A few things to point out here as we see Byte Pinch be the first to head in to join Brooke who choose to start the morning with a game of cards. I approve of the initiative, by the way.

Why is it so dark? Well, I moved Brooke into the house the day before to deal with the welcome wagon and make sure that everything was accessible and what not and I exited the lot at about 6:30 am. Rather than play her a little farther forward, I choose to give the boys a few more hours of unsupervised time. It turns out, some of them are going to need it.

Another cause for the darkness is my Gunmod's light radiance mod and a neat item which I recently found that makes the sky cloudy.

Juno Jones was second into the house.

Followed by John David “Jay” Morgan and Fred Pie.

Everyone's relationships were zeroed out and ACR was turned off for the lot. The last thing I need is the two romance sims humping like bunnies on the double bed upstairs. I also set all gender preferences to straight for everyone on the lot using The Blender.

See how it looks like the sun is just coming over the top of the horizon? I love that. It's so moody.

The three left outside at the moment are (from left to right), William “Will” Loste, Bernardo “Berni” Mobacy and Connor Vetinari. This will become a problem for two of them.

Byte, Juno and Jay make it to the table with no problems.

And where did Fred go?

He found the dart board in the parlor. Fred, I know you missed out on getting a seat at the table but you could watch and build up some relationship points.

“Naw, I'd rather put holes in the wainscoting”

The award for the first heart fart on the bachelorette goes to Byte... Though he doesn't look very happy about it.

This group plays for quite a while.

And where are the other three?

Still standing on the side walk jaw jacking about random things. Well, Will and Berni are. Connor hasn't been able to get a word in edgewise yet.

See the cloudy sky? Neat, huh?

Hello? Pretty girl just waiting to be ogled inside the house. Not even 20 step away. Anyone?

“I heard that Brooke goes both ways, if you know what I mean.”

Will that is not the way to get on my good side, or hers for that matter.

“Oh that's not nice. You haven't even met her.”

Thank you Berni. See Connor waiting for his big moment?

“I bet I can beat you in this competition easy! Look at you, your chin has no character and I'm the grandson of a sim self. I can win this babe with one arm tied behind my back!”

Not if you spend the whole thing standing on the sidewalk you won't!

“Berni, I like you.”

Popularity sim Will and Berni became friends within an hour. The first friendship of the challenge.

“But, I don't like you. Get away from me. And just for your information, I'm the grandson of a sim self too and I bet I stay longer than you do.”

“Was it something I said?”

Connor pulled this brag interaction with pseudo Goopy in my picture lot and got the same reaction and the same pout face. Might I suggest you not start every new relationship talking about yourself.

It's a cute sad face though.

Will left the sidewalk gossip fest looking like he had a place to be, so I followed him.

Right to the poker table to watch the game. The place were Fred should be but he's still puncturing the plaster lath in the parlor.

The game went on for quite some time before Connor and Berni decided to come indoors.

And what did they come inside to do? Toss a football around in the foyer underneath the antique glass shaded chandlers.

“Hey! I think I like sports.”

That's great Connor. Good job. What about you Berni, do like sports too?

“Umm... Can I get back to you on that?”

Berni would later discover that he likes music and dance. As I mentioned before, Berni isn't really cut out to be a gangster.

At this point, Brooke is needing to use the bathroom pretty badly along with almost everyone else but no one is moving to do so. So I send Brooke to the potty and figure the others might take the hint.

No one budged. They kept playing and they talked about Brooke while she was away from the table and their need bars continue to decline. I was debating on just how far I was going to let the situation go before I acted.

Normally, I'm a micro manager. Take a screen shot of my game at almost any time and you will see my sims have their needs well met, but I wanted to stay out of this for as long as possible.

Fred at least gave up on the dart game while Brooke was in the bathroom because his social was plummeting fast but does he go take her seat at the table? No. That would be silly!

“Guys? Guys? Guys?”

“What?!”

“Can I play too?”

In unison, “No!”

These two played football so long that Connor earned his membership card for the sports hobby lot and they were so close to bladder failure it wasn't funny anymore. Well... okay bladder failure is funny as long as it isn't you with the problem but these aren't my sims.

Brooke choose to come back to the table since it appeared that Will was more than content to just stand there and watch. Byte and Juno couldn't stand the pressure anymore and cashed out.

Bernardo and Connor had finally given up the game and headed for the three stall bathroom but Connor was a little slower than Berni.

Byte charged past him, “Out of my way! Coming through!” Huh, Will is a popularity sim.

Juno was right behind Byte. Oh man! I can't pee my pants right in front of the girl. How embarrassing would that be?

Connor kept getting knocked out of the line for the toilets by his own need failure animations and Byte and Juno took stalls 2 and 3, so he couldn't get in at all.

“Why doesn't this house have more bathrooms! I really need to pee! And my arm is stuck in this wall!”

Because it's an old house. Be glad I gave you more than one toilet at all. Also, get your arm out of my wall! It's an antique.

Connor managed to hold on until a stall was free and there was no bladder failure. And I resolved to be a little more proactive with these morons.

Since everyone was also getting hungry I had Brooke get up from the table again to stock the buffet. Fred was the only one who chose to join her.

That's great Fred. A little one on one conversation could really help boost your score of zero.

Ah, the standard cliche kissing conversation. Not a bad opener for a knowledge sim really. She should like that topic.

“So at some point I get to kiss you, right?”

Not so smooth there Fred but she was happy to discuss it with him anyway.

The next topic however, didn't go over quite so well.

“I really like growing daisies and other flowers. They smell so nice and make the yard really happy and colorful. Don't you think so?”

“Flowers? Really? We could talk about anything and you bring up flowers?”

I don't know what to say Fred. She is usually a bit more receptive to any talk about environmental stuff. It's one of her higher interests.

See Berni throwing the football in the background? This is after the bathroom break. He and Connor went right back to their game.

“I'm hungry.”

Well, go eat!

“There's no refrigerator”

I know. Brook's been wanting one of those to since she moved in. Go use the buffet. Both he and Brooke would continue to want that stupid fridge until the very end.

Fred! Get out of there! I just got done saying that I rarely have sims use the pool autonomously on Live Journal! You're making me look like an idiot.

“Body points. Girls love guys with muscles.”

Get Out!

I deleted the diving board and ladder after this. If anyone falls in there now they are on their own.

It's around 6 pm and where are Bernardo and Connor?

So exhausted from all that football throwing that they had to go to bed. At 6 frickin' pm!

Since I wanted to give everyone as much of an equal opportunity to interact with Brooke as possible, I had her drink some espresso to get back some energy. That way when Berni and Connor wake up she will still be functional.

At this point the boys are starting to swam Brooke and Will pulls her and Byte into a game of Kicky bag. I used to play this game back in high school and let me tell you, playing around a stair banister like this would be very hard.

Fred is still in his swim suit I see.

Jay managed to pop Brooke out of the game for a tickle which she accepted.

Juno takes kicky bag very seriously. Either that, or he has never seen it before. I'm not sure what is allowed anymore with the new rule additions for an apocalypse.

Plus, for having absolutely no nose, he's kinda cute.

It's a little after 1 am and Berni and Connor finally get up. Connor went to eat and Berni came to watch the game.

It seems I failed to recolor the cabinet over the sink. Opps!

He gets a little too close to Jay.

“I'm not a fish Berni. I need those lungs to breathe.”

It's late at this point and everyone is getting tired so I break up the game and send everyone to bed except Jay who I have clear up the buffet table. I sent Brooke to the bathroom and intended to send Jay up to bed but he acted before I had a chance.

He follows her in and goes for a 'Hit On' flirt. At this point I double check that my ACR is off (it is). This is all Jay and the high attraction that Romance sims have for one another.

He spends the next few minutes congratulating her for being hot and gets in another tickle before I send him up to bed. He's was about to pass out anyway and I wanted to give Berni and Connor a chance to talk with her.

Yeah, they had no interest in spending time with her. Here you see Bernardo talking about the time he killed pseudo Heidi (a stand in for a character in my legacy) and resurrected her. I was testing out a functional gun mod.

I finally sent Brooke to bed.

They did this until 5 am when I made them stop and get some coffee so they would be fresh for the day.

Morning comes around and I take a peek at the numbers. Two sims have zero relationship with Brooke! Can you guess who?

I made up my mind that I would make sure each sim had a chance to at least converse with her once before the noon elimination. It only seemed fair. I wouldn't start the interaction. I just made sure Brooke was conveniently available that if they were doing something engrossing I would click the action off. That's it. The rest was up to them. I needed to break the zero tie somehow.

To be honest I actually had three zeros when I checked but Brooke choose on her own to come down and join Berni for a game of darts. Their conversation was kind of back and forth though and despite Berni's marathon football game and general ignoring of Brooke, he still had collected some points.

Fred came down and started a solo chess game. He is one of my zero pointers.

Fred! Go join them.

“I don't want to be pushy.”

Sigh. Click off action. Brooke go stand next to him. She and Fred had a short conversation and I was happy. Now where is Connor?

She did find him and they too had a short conversation. Of which I failed to get a picture. Oh well.

I apologizing for the extremely bad picture and I'm not even sure what happened to incite the double crush. I looked down at my notes for just a few seconds as they were finishing breakfast and bang! By the time I hit P the little hearts had gone higher than the ceiling.

Jay brought his A game for this challenge.

The dishes were cleared up and I continued to keep Brooke available for my two remaining low scorers to talk to but they really weren't motivated to do so.

Noon! Time for one of you to clear out!

Connor, it's you hun. I'm sorry but you just didn't follow through on all your bragging. Brooke has two bolts for you too, all you had to do was try.

Final Scores

Even I'm at a loss. Fred you are going to have to do better tomorrow if you want to stay.

Contestant Total Score Modifiers Attraction Jay 116 Double crush 3 boltsWilliam 55 2 boltsJuno 33 2 boltsBernardo 31 -1 boltFred 7 1 boltConnor 6 2 bolts

Bachelor Zodiac Aspiration Personality differenceWilliam Gemini (+) Popularity (+) 5Fred Aries (Neutral) Knowledge (-) 6Connor Gemini (+) Popularity (+) 10Bernardo Aries (Neutral) Family (-) 10Jay Capricorn (Neutral) Romance (+) 18Juno Leo (Neutral) Popularity (+) 19Byte Virgo (Neutral) Fortune (Neutral) 23

Above you see a chart of attraction positives and minuses of each bachelor from Brooke's point of view. Before I started I wanted to try and predict who would have the highest attraction scores for her and therefore, who she would seek out more actively over others.

The personality difference score is Brooke's personality scores minus the bachelor's. This is part of the games process of calculating attraction.

As you can see, there are four with fairly low difference scores. And the front runner at the end of day one isn't one of them but I attribute that to them both being romance sims. If Jay were some other aspiration, would he be in the lead right now?

Based on this information, who would you pick as winner? There are two Gemini's in the bunch and there are three popularity sims that all get big bonuses with romance sims.

As you saw from the day one elimination, having the right zodiac will not win this game. Connor was too distracted by Bernardo to earn any points. But Bernardo managed to squeak out 31 points from various activities and he has negative attraction.

Who is my favorite? Since I know who wins already I'm gonna keep that to myself for now. Just know that I had picked out three that I was a little more biased towards because I had almost instant ideas for their characters in my legacy though any of them would have been great with a little thought and discussion with their creators.

There was a whole lot of this going on. I'm gonna get real tired of that sound real fast.

Thanks for reading. Day two should be up pretty quickly so make your bets on who will be on top and who will leave now.