A Free Will Dynasty

[mariant]

A FREE WILL DYNASTY


Part One – Hans Hooley


I come in peace. Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.

My name is Hans Hooley, and I am the son of Robin and Marian Hooley. You might have heard of them under a different name.


I don't have a good picture of my mother. This is what my father looked like:





And this is my baby picture:





I was named after the author of One Wolf, Two Wolf, Where Wolf, There Wolf. My parents died in a crash in Dragon Valley, and I was sent to the Bin. I grew up fast there, so fast that I don’t even know what school I graduated from. Maybe I’ll hang my diploma on the wall and see what it says.


When I was a baby, I loved the outdoors and loved the cold. Now that I’ve moved to Sunset Valley, I’m also avant garde, family-oriented, and a mooch. I figure if Dad was the Prince of Thieves, I can be the Duke of Beggars.


I’ve been given the option of founding a free will dynasty or legacy or something. According to most of the other sims in the Bin, this is an opportunity I should take because the Watcher is always ordering people about and squashing all their really fun wishes. There are a few nay-sayers, however, who claim that the Watcher is such a control freak that things won’t be any different for me. We’ll see.


Our first clash of wills came over hairstyles. There’s more to being avant garde than wearing your hair differently from everyone else, but the Watcher went way overboard when it came to finding something different for me. This was the first look she chose for me:





I reminded her that there weren’t any red-haired samurai, and added that I wasn’t about to wander around in a kimono. The second look was your basic mophead:





I said that I liked to be able to see where I was going, so she swept my hair up into a do that I think I saw in The Wizard of Oz:





Finally, she agreed to the style I chose. She let me pick out my own clothes, but she “forgot” to take pictures of some of them. Here’s my formal wear, nightwear, and outerwear. My favorite color is spiceberry, but I’ll accept gray.











I think the Watcher expected that I would want a job in the arts, but I surprised her by expressing the desire to join the military. And she surprised me by granting my wish.





In my opinion, this plane lacks something – some spiceberry paint, I’d say.

[PeregrineTook]

Nice! I enjoy his hesitation in viewing whether or not the "free will" aspect will actually happen. Trust issues as storytelling device. Nice!

[NotJustaBook]

This looks to be neat can't wait to see more!

[Jane.Eyre.Force]

I'm really enjoying this so far, great stuff!

[Squirt]

Looking forward!

[KaseOfHearts]

Hans facial features are so interesting! Keep it up!

[mariant]

Chapter Two – Be Careful, etc.


My lifelong wish is to become a great street artist; I can’t remember what the exact name is. So I’ve started decorating the rather bland interior of my house.





While I didn’t really wish to make anything for supper, after a while I started to get hungry, so the Watcher “pushed” me to eat. I decided to try making macaroni and cheese (something we were given frequently during my childhood in the Bin), and this was the result.





At work the next day, I started meeting people. I quickly became friends with my boss, Jack Bunch, and a few days later managed to mooch 10 simoleons from him by telling him that I wanted to buy a set of blocks. Jack’s a great guy, but he’s not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.





The Watcher and I had our first disagreement when she ordered (ordered!) me to unclog the toilet. It wasn’t something I particularly wanted to do when I first came home from work. In fact, I was hoping she might just replace it for me. But no, she pointed out that I did have the wish to get a promotion (true), and that improvement in the skill of handiness would aid in getting a promotion (I guess), and unclogging the toilet would build handiness (whatever). I did wish that she wouldn’t photograph me in the act, but she pointed out that my wishlist was full so she couldn’t honor the wish. Like I was warned, she’s a control freak.





I do have to admit that the Watcher can be pretty obliging, especially when it comes to romance. With the weekend coming up I expressed the wish to go to a dance club. “Great idea,” said the Watcher. “And take Erin Kennedy with you.” I then realized that Sunset Valley doesn’t have a dance club. “Not a problem,” said the Watcher. And she went into Edit Town and transformed something into a dance club. Now that’s power.


Unfortunately, there weren’t any sparks between Erin and me. Maybe it’s because we work together, and she wore her uniform to our date. Maybe she was upset because I was invited to Jack Bunch’s Spooky Day party and she wasn’t. Maybe it’s just that we’re not compatible – I don’t know.





A few days later, I got the opportunity to do some spray painting somewhere in the city. I was looking to improve my skill, so I went over to the Fall festival grounds.





I was hoping somebody cute would come along and watch, maybe put some money in my tip jar. But that didn’t happen. So far the only lady I’ve been attracted to in Sunset Valley has been Blair Wainwright, and she’s a vampire. Her favorite color is the same as mine – I wonder if that’s enough for a relationship. Anyway, she wasn’t at the festival, but her parents were. I tried to become acquainted with them, but it’s difficult to strike up a conversation when your mouth is full of apple.





Before leaving the festival, I wished to have my face painted. As the saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for.” The Watcher started laughing when she saw me, and wouldn’t send me to wash my face or anything because my hygiene need wasn’t low enough. Low blow, Watcher, I won’t forget this.

[NotJustaBook]

Neat, always nice to see more of it. Loving the lack of a Fourth Wall

[mariant]

Chapter Three – Romantic Progress



The Watcher keeps encouraging me to get involved with someone. I’m not getting any younger, she says. It’s high time I got married. I’m family-oriented, she points out. Don’t I want a family? Well, it’s complicated.


First of all, there’s Blair. I like her, and she keeps sending me presents and notes saying that she’s interested. But when I invite her over, she doesn’t seem to want to spend any time with me. And although I’m okay with her being a vampire, I’m afraid to hang out with her for too long in case she gets hungry.





Then there’s Pauline Wan. We really hit it off, but she’s already engaged to Hank and doesn’t want to break up with him. She’s willing to kiss me, but that’s it.





Blair invited me to a party over the weekend, and I met a few more of the unattached women of Sunset Valley. Tamara Donner was very friendly, but someone warned me that she has a fierce temper.





It was all very frustrating, so I had to do something to relieve my feelings. I tried getting calm by watching a deer.





That didn’t help much, so I beat up a snowman in the backyard.





I’m not proud of what I did, but it did make me feel better.





The next day I called up another girl I met at the party – Tori Kimura. She agreed to go to a movie with me. We saw Somber Blooming. It wasn’t too bad for a chick flick, and Tori was really impressed when I critiqued the director’s use of lighting. She said it was her favorite movie of all time, but the last few guys who’d gone to see it with her had fallen asleep while the heroine told her boyfriend that she loved him but was dying of leukemia. “Insensitive ignorami,” I commented, which she loved.





After she left, I had a sudden wish to kiss her. I guess it’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder.


The next time we met, I acted on the wish.





Shortly after that, I proposed.





Strictly speaking, I don’t think my proposal was legitimate. I only wished to go on a trip with Tori, not necessarily to marry her. The Watcher pointed out that I couldn’t go on a trip with anyone who wasn’t a member of the household, and since I couldn’t ask Tori to move in, I would have to marry her. I thought about it for a minute and then wished we could get married.





And that was followed by the wish to woo-hoo.





Once we were married, Tori decided to get a new hairstyle and wardrobe. I like her nightgown best, but she assures me the formal and her everyday dress are the ultimate in chic.





I think we’ll be happy together, even though she does have strong opinions.

[NotJustaBook]

Yay, what a nice looking wife Hans got himself! Looking forward to the babies

[PeregrineTook]

Such funny stuff! I'm loving how the Watcher twists the wishes to her own desire. Well played!

[mariant]

Chapter Four – Honeymoon


Since the main reason Tori married me was so we could take a trip together, the first thing we had to do was to plan our honeymoon. (I tried suggesting that our “trip” might be our journey through life, but Tori wasn’t buying it.) France sounded like the perfect place for us to go, but I had a dream that night that made me change my mind.





We went to China instead.





We spent our first evening watching the stars and discussing our plans for the future. Tori was much intrigued by the notion that her wishes would be of paramount importance to the Watcher. She had been under the impression that people who became spouses to dynasty founders had to spend all their time painting or fishing or doing ice sculpture. “Can I really do whatever I want?” she asked.





I assured her that she was free as a bird, so the next morning she went off to raid explore a tomb.





I paid a visit to the Scholar’s Garden, which was very peaceful.





I then visited the market where I was “seduced” by all the empty white stones. The Chinese didn’t seem to mind my decorating some of them, although none of them gave me any tips.





Soon after we returned home, Tori had a negative reaction to some of the foreign food we’d eaten.





She eventually cleaned up the mess, but it was not an enjoyable experience for her.





That evening, during our star-watching session, she confided that she wished we had a maid, one who could be available all the time instead of just during the day.





“Watcher, make it so!” I commanded. Perhaps I should have specified that I wanted a “live-in” maid, rather than one who appeared to be “die-in.”





Luckily, Tori was delighted. “This way I won’t have to worry about whether you’re flirting with the maid while I’m working,” she giggled.





I assured her that I would never have eyes for anyone but her, and one thing led to another, until the next thing I knew, Tori was changing into maternity clothes.





We decided to follow the tradition that my parents had started and named our baby girl after the first female author we found at the bookstore. She loves the heat and loves the cold and has inherited the pale rainbow skin that I got from my mother.





Here she is, little Jezebel Hooley.

[Jane.Eyre.Force]

Another great update! Really good stuff.

[mariant]

Chapter Five -- Maids and Murals


We have had to let Bonehilda go. One of the conditions of her employment was that she would help take care of little Jezzie (we’ve decided to call her that, as Jezebel seems a heavy burden for such a small creature). Unfortunately, when Jezzie would cry, Bonehilda would just stand at the crib. She wouldn’t pick up the baby, and she wouldn’t move when Tori wanted to get at the crib.





And when she wasn’t cleaning, she would stand in front of the bathroom mirror and primp. I think it annoyed Tori because she likes to do that herself.





In Bonehilda’s favor, I pointed out that she was very good at doing repairs, especially the dangerous ones. Wouldn’t it be better to have somebody already dead tackle the dishwasher rather than have me risk my life? I asked Tori. She gave me a look and reminded me that doing repairs around the house would help me get a promotion at work. Besides, she added, we needed the extra room in the nursery.





I agree that we need more space, but neither of us has wished for a larger house yet, and the Watcher won’t move us until we do. The result is that I’ve been developing my skill as a muralist on the living room carpet. As long as I clean up afterwards, Tori doesn’t mind – most of the time.


The first mural I did was of a recreational vehicle or mobile home. “That might be nice for family vacations,” she remarked.





The next one was a landscape. “Oh, how pretty!” said Tori. “It kind of reminds me of when we went to China.”





And then I blew it. “Who is THAT?” Tori inquired suspiciously.





“No one in particular,” I said nervously.


“She’s very pretty,” said Tori. “Is she your ideal woman?”


“No,” I said. “You’re my ideal woman.”


Tori didn’t say anything; she just looked at me through slitted eyes.


“Actually, she would look a bit like you if you wore your hair that way,” I added.


“So you don’t like the way I wear my hair?” Luckily for me, the conversation broke off at that point when Tori ran to the bathroom to throw up. Yes, she’s pregnant again. We both want a little boy.


To my relief, she didn’t make any comments at all on the next mural I did, and I didn’t ask for her opinion. It’s not my favorite, but it did win me the opportunity to do murals around town for City Hall.





I will now turn my attention to the other “maid” in the house – Jezzie. It seemed to both Tori and me that she was taking a very long time to become a toddler. Other sims in the bin said that their infancies lasted only a day or so or until the baby became best friends with both parents. “Three days max,” was what I was told. I asked the Watcher about it. She explained that Tori and I had a longer life than most sims, and one consequence of that was that the stages of a life were longer. But she did confide that we could hasten Jezzie’s becoming a toddler by wishing to have a party for her. Out came the cake, and we could finally see what our little girl looked like.





"She's beautiful," I said to Tori. "She looks just like you."

Tori laughed. "Dear, she has your hair and ears, and I'm pretty sure she inherited her skin color from your side of the family."

"But her eyes are the same color as yours," I said. "Beautiful, just like you."

I’m not sure what the future holds for her. She might become a gourmet cook.





Or maybe a scientist.





Right now, it looks like her main wish is to be a bunny.

[PeregrineTook]

Love how you played the idea of the irrationally jealous wife from the painting of (GASP) another woman. Nicely written, as always.