Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Chapter 24: Rejection Rodeo


Nina asked Coby to meet her for a lunch date at a local bar by the beach. For her 'lunch' seems to be more about drinking than food. She engages him in idle chat about her job, and Coby begins to think this is going nowhere.


"So, I have about 20 minutes until I have to be back at the office," Nina says, putting down her empty glass as she gets up, "Shall we get to it?"

"Get to what?" Coby asks. She had plenty of opportunities to order food if she actually meant for this to be lunch...

"Sex," she says simply, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Not that Coby has anything against meaningless sex, but this comes as a surprise, like life has suddenly turned into one of those pornos where a guy is just delivering pizza, only to be jumped on by the hot babe who ordered it. "You want...now?"


She takes his had and leads him under the pier. "Hurry up," she says, "I have to be back at work." She claws at him desperately, wanting something, Coby is not sure what. He just knows he might as well be a cock on a stick; this isn't about him, it could be any guy. When she heads back to her car without another word or a backward glance, he can only wonder if she got what she was after.


"I'm bored. I want to go out somewhere," Stina says, pulling Rainier's attention away from his computer.

"I can't go out now, I have to work," he answers.

Stina sighs dramatically, "You're always working. You work at work, you work at home. Or maybe you work at home so much because when you're at work you're really fucking your secretary."

"No, I'm not fucking Nina," Rainier laughs, "There's too many legal issues involved when you start fucking your employees. Seriously, Stina, I have a lot of work to do. This game will make our company. But we have to get it made, first."


Stina is not about to give up so easily, and gets between Rainier and his work by sitting on his lap. "What's that? It looks like one of those crappy beach bars Coby likes."

Rainier smiles, "That's exactly what I'm going for here," he says.

"What kind of game is this?" she asks, trying to be more involved with what's important to him. Rainier swivels his chair around and lifts her off his lap.


"I need to get back to work now," he says, not answering her question, "Come back later tonight."


Rejected by Rainier, Stina turns to Coby. But he's not home when she shows up at his apartment. Having nothing else to do, she decides to wait for him.

"You don't live here," the blonde girl says, coming out of building.

"I'm waiting for Coby," Stina explains, "He lives here."



So now they're ganging up on me, Coby thinks with a resigned sigh as he comes home to find the door barred by Hayley and Ti.

"Coby! Hi!" Hayley greets him brightly, "I was just going to the beach," she says, her voice suggesting he invite himself along. Since she kicked him out, he thought that was final, but she's been hanging around him whenever she sees him, probably expecting him to try to make it up with her. Coby has always been a bit careless about whose bed he falls into, but he doesn't set out to hurt anyone. And he knows getting back into this one's bed will just end badly, so he does his best to avoid her.


"Coby, I was just..." Stina starts to cut in.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Ti," he says, using a faked date with her to get away from Hayley, "Let's go upstairs. See you later Hayley," he waves at the blonde and gives her a friendly smile as he grabs Ti's arm and pulls her inside.

"Were you fucking that girl?" Ti giggles as the reach the second floor landing.

"I'm not talking about that," Coby says firmly as he unlocks his door.


"You got new furniture," Ti remarks, sitting beside him as he fires up a game. Coby figures she'll get around to telling him why she's here when she's ready.

"Yeah, with the money from your French guy's company, I was finally able to upgrade my shit. Real couches."

"What are you talking about?" Stina asks, "Why are you getting money from Rainier's company?"


Coby puts down the controller, "You don't know? They're doing a surfing simulation. I'm a licensed character in the game. They're even naming the game after me."

Just an hour ago she was looking at the game in development, asking Rainier questions about it, but he never told her Coby was involved. "Rainier never tells me anything," she says, and her eyes start to tear up, "He never has time for me. Sometimes it's like I don't exist."


"You deserve better than that," Coby says, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders, "Why do you even stay with him?"

"I don't know," she sighs, "He's just so...when he actually is paying attention to me, it's like I'm the center of the universe. He makes me feel special."


"And didn't I do that for you?" Coby asks.

"Yeah, you did," she sighs, "You still do."


"I want you," she moans, clambering up onto his lap, locking her lips against his. And it feels so good, so right to be with her. But at the same time, it's just wrong, and he pushes her away.


"I can't play this game with you anymore, Ti," he says, his voice hoarse as he keeps himself from crying. He's not going to cry in front of her. "This has to stop."

Stina slumps to the floor, ever dramatic, "Coby, please," she gasps, "I don't want to lose you."

"You broke up with me! What did you think would happen?"

"I don't know, I just..." Stina trails off, not sure what to say.

"You are just too fucked up, you know that? And being around you just fucks with my head. You have to go."


"We can't even be friends?" she asks as he leads her to his door.

"Not the way it's been between us, Ti. I'm still too tangled up in you, and I need to break it off. Unless you want to leave your other guy and come back to me?"

"I...I can't do that," she says.

"Then it's over. Go," he says, allowing himself one last caress before he shuts the door behind her.


Stina leaves Coby place to go cry on Eleanor's shoulder. Except, of course, Eleanor's shoulder is already occupied. It's impossible to get her at moment where she's not with Justin. So instead of crying, she joins them for dinner and bitches about Rainier's inattention and being kicked out of Coby's apartment.

"I don't understand," Eleanor interposes, "Which one of them do you actually want to be with?"

"Well, both of them, I guess," Stina says.


Justin shoots Eleanor a look, expressing his deep contempt for her friend. Luckily for them, Gavin comes in at that moment, happy to see Stina and tell her his big news.


She follows her ex-boyfriend up to his room.

"I've been cast as Dream in Carey Burden's upcoming Sandman movie," Gavin tells her, remembering how fond she was of Gaiman's Sandman comic series. As he expected, Stina squeals with delight at his news. "I was thinking you could help me practice my lines, since you know the material so well."

"I would be thrilled," Stina enthuses, "I'm so excited. It's like I'm getting to meet Dream in person."

Gavin laughs, "You already know me, Stina. You knew me before I was cast as Dream."

"Don''t spoil it!" she says, laughing with him, "Let me have my fangirl moment."


"Gavin, I just want to say, I'm sorry. About the way I broke up with you," she says softly when their laughter dies down, "I don't know why I did it either. Sometimes, I just get so..."

"I never understood it, either," he says, "I thought I was good to you."


"You were so good," Stina says, moving in close to him, caressing his arm. They sit together on the floor, wrapped in an embrace. Stina caresses his cheek, leans forward to kiss him.

"Stop," he says, pulling away, "I'm with Tori now. I can't do this."


Stina collapses, laying her head on his lap, exhausted from the rejection rodeo she's been riding in all day.

"I just want be loved. Why is that so hard?" she says, crying softly.

"You're the one who makes it hard, Stina," Gavin says, stroking her shoulder.

"I shouldn't have left you," she whispers.

"I'm not the one you want, and I think you know that," he says.

20 comments:

  1. Coby breaks the 4th wall. But WOW, the scenery. That place looks just like the beach where I'm from. <3

    Rainier is my favorite character for some reason. I don't know. He's not a great person, but he just seems like he's liable to stand up any second, flip off the camera and waltz out of this blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know that this is very different from what I was doing in my legacies. I hope you don't feel in any way obligated to keep reading it if it's not your thing. I understand completely.

      Delete
  2. Aw, Calisims, I didn't mean for that to sound... uh... like that. :( I am sorry. :( I read your blogs for your writing style, which is amazing. :)

    Like, consistently amazing. I have my moments of decent writing, then meh the rest of the time.

    I could learn a lot from you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. *hugs* Thanks, I must have read your comment the wrong way.

      I think your writing is pretty amazing too. : )

      Delete
  3. Everyone learns a lot from Cali, myself included. Every time I read one of her updates it makes me want to do better. We Are Stardust is what inspired me to kick my writing up another notch and throw rules out the window in favour of plot.

    The way you use poses is just so... fluid, you couldn't tell they're poses and not animations if you haven't played the sims before. (Does that sentence make sense?)

    As for the story itself I really feel for Stina since I am/was exactly like her ever since I discovered what boys were good for. I met the love of my life last summer and then broke his heart because it was too much too fast and regretted it for months until I ran into him again in February and he gave me a second chance. Now I'm finally happy again, and I hope Stina realizes what she had with Coby was special. You only get that "true love" feeling thing once.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have you thought about unshackling yourself from legacy rules altogether? Having the time to develop characters outside the normal lifespan, not having a focus on constant breeding, it's quite liberating. I'm laughing at that because I'm restaging stories originally made in Sims 1, where there was no aging and the baby/child stages were awful and to be avoided at all costs, so in some ways the way I'm playing now is complete regression.
      But I'm loving the fact that in any of my legacies, by the time I hit chapter 24, I'd be on like the third generation at least. As much as I like seeing how the genetics merge in Sim offspring, I'm really enjoying my freedom from having to write such a breeding centered story.

      Delete
    2. I have considered it and am currently working on a plot using characters from an old story buuuut my stories, especially my older things are so convoluted and confusing that it just wouldn't work out as a chapter by chapter update.

      I might still do it one day, if my Sari Legacy begins to bore or stress me out then I might just have to give non-legacy writing a shot again. It might be... fun, to have time to really flesh out characters again.

      Delete
  4. Oh, Stina...she brings it on herself, but I still feel bad. Perhaps some time away from all three of the men in question might do her some good?

    That bit with Nina was rather unexpected. Will we get to learn more about her in the next chapters at all?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had a friend that used to call Stina 'The Ruiner' during the Sims 1 era. She does wreak havoc on herself and everyone else, but I do feel for her, too.

      As for Nina, yes. Something is going on with her that she hasn't told Coby, so at the moment we're only seeing a bit of what's going on, and more will come out later.

      Delete
  5. Oh, gosh. Ti, what are you doing?! She's never happy, never satisfied. It's like she's looking for something in these guys, some sort of fulfillment, but it's never enough. I agree with the above comment; I feel like she needs to focus on herself a bit more, as an individual. Who she is without Coby or Rainier or any other guy for that matter.

    I hope Stina doesn't ruin Coby. That would break my heart. I mean, I secretly want them to end up together, but not if it's unhealthy for her. If they don't wind up together, hopefully Coby can move on relatively undamaged by the whole thing. I somehow doubt it though.

    I want to reply to your comment to Cece, if you don't mind. =) So you find this style of writing/playing to be liberating? Interesting. I was curious what you thought about this kind of story versus a legacy. I'm not going to lie, I'm very tempted to do something like this myself (a non-legacy Sims story) simply because I love this blog so much. But doing a legacy is nice because there's a clear beginning and end, and it helps you form your characters (especially with the random legacy rules). I'm not trying to talk you into starting a legacy (at all! I love this story too much! lol), but I just want you to know that your comment is helpful for me as well. I've never been much of a story teller or writer before I started the random legacy, but maybe someday I'll bite the bullet and get up the courage to start a non-legacy story. What can I say? You're a trendsetter Melissa! Haha.

    Also, I second Cece's/Becky's comment about learning from you. I know I say this all the time, but your an awesome writer and I love your stories, legacy and non-legacy alike! Can't wait for more! =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...And I wrote you a book. Sorry!!

      Delete
    2. Thanks, Colleen, I don't the mind the book.
      What I've found bothers me most about legacy story writing is the constant focus on breeding the next generation. You barely get time with your Sims as YAs before you have to start them breeding.
      I prefer having the time for Sims to explore multiple relationships before settling down, to have lives of their own before they have families. I've enjoyed playing legacies, and writing the stories, but I'm tired of always having my female characters be mothers, and my males as fathers, if that makes sense.
      Sims 1 pretty much prohibited any kind of generational play, since there was no aging. I haven't decided how I'm going to carry on with this story in terms of seeing these characters settle down and have kids, and whether I'll follow those kids through to stories of their own.

      Back during Sims 1, there were no legacies or other challenges really. In part because the game itself was just harder than Sims 2 or 3 in terms of keeping Sims happy (without mods). And also, no aging, no generational play. So back then all Sims stories were free form. Sims 2 introduced the legacy challenge and its derivatives, and that somehow became THE way to tell stories with Sims, and you saw a lot less free form stories. So, I'm not so much a trendsetter as I'm just going back to the way things were done before you kids starting coming onto my lawn. *shakes cane*

      Delete
  6. Good lord that stina. She is just bouncing around leaving guys going back to guys. I'm glad both Colby and Gavin turned her down.

    That game is what Stina had pitched to him right? Wasn't it her idea or was hers something different?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stina is a little out of control. Okay, a lot...

      The game Rainier is working on is a surfing simulation game, but it does have some Sim like elements between surfing competitions, where the character can hang out in a bar and hit on girls to acquire a girlfriend.

      Delete
  7. OMG! STINA?! REALLY?! That's THREE guys in ONE day!!!!!!! WTF?!? I'm seriously raging over this shit! That girl needs to figure out what the hell she wants and leave these men in peace. Maybe it's guys she's not into since she can't seem to be happy with them. She wants something none them are able to give her apparently! UGH!

    Gavin is right, she's the one making things hard on herself and for everyone else. BACK OFF STINA!

    P.S. I love Justin's reaction to her LOL

    ReplyDelete
  8. Stina would like to keep all her guys in a harem, I think, and take them out to play whenever she feels like it. She would be a lot happier if she could just make up her mind, it's true.

    Justin is completely repulsed by Stina, it's true. The very first words he ever speaks to her in the first chapter are to tell her to fuck off, and his opinion of her hasn't budged since then. He hate her more if she had any kind of influence on Eleanor.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Big fat reject for Stina. hahaha I can't stand her. The girl we love to hate.
    Justin got it *LOL*
    I sort of expect Gavin to fall flat on his face on the movie thing. He's too conservative.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I admit I had too much fun writing this chapter having Stina get turned away by all three of her love interests in one day.

    Gavin will have some difficulties in his new acting career, though I only recently started really writing about this storyline in any depth,

    ReplyDelete
  11. Again I say, Stina has some serious issues. She needs some therapy. She wants to be loved but she pushes every man who treats her right, away. And then she gravitates to the ones who treat her bad. Please tell me she gets help. Please!!!

    ReplyDelete