While waiting for springtime to arrive, I had to fast-forward through a lot of days so the game could change seasons. Something really rich happened in that time though, so I have to go back to one last winter tale I like to call:

The One Where Constance Held A Party

The invitation was a matter of divine intervention, really. Arcturus didn't get a call or a letter and he hadn't left the house in days. He just understood that a party was happening. Moments before the party started a message came up on the screen asking me if Arcturus was allowed to go, like I'm his dad. So, I signed his permission slip and Arcturus walked to Constance's house across the street.

As soon as he got on her property though, he turned around to go back home. The message on the screen basically said, "That was a great party!" I suppose he thought I wasn't paying attention to the fact that he never went inside and was really just trying to avoid the awkward interaction with his former love interest. Maybe he looked through the window, saw the other attendees and realized this is just not where he wanted to be all night. But I made him go back to that party and actually go inside this time.

Red shirt: Robert Newbie, Ponytail man: Jon Lessen,
Fat lady in living room: Cathy Crews

Striped sweater: Lorraine Cantina; Man in kitchen: Sherman Bagley;
Woman in glasses: Constance, dummies!

Arcturus went right to the kitchen and picked up a plate of food. He had not yet talked to anyone, introduced himself to the group of strangers, or even said hello to the host of the party. He just looked at the old people around him and wondered how he managed to not know a single person other than Constance. He's been living in Riverview for a while now and this town really isn't that big.

This house isn't that big either and Sherman was pretty pissed that Robert took his seat. He went into some pretty extreme theatrics over no seats being available and Arcturus's face pretty much says it all here. Still not yet having said a word, Arcturus went into the living room to eat his plate of spaghetti.

"Livin' in Yumsville."

As he ate, people started leaving. Sherman left first. The seating arrangement destroyed his day and it could not be fixed. Robert, Jon, and Lorraine followed shortly after. An odd thing happened to Jon when he got up to leave. He went through an unexpected and unexplainable transformation.

Ok... Ok... So, what is happening here?

Arcturus didn't seem to mind that Jon had obviously shrunk and was now sashaying by with a baby's cane. Didn't even look up from his plate. That's how much this guy loves his spaghetti.

Eventually everyone but Cathy left and Cathy wasn't leaving until there was no more food in the house. She would clean her plate off, wash the plate and fill up a new one. Arcturus had a choice of continuing to watch Cathy stuff her face or talk to Constance. He chose to corner Constance in the kitchen.

"This is a party?"

"Oh, I fight ghosts now!"

Cathy. Slow down.

Arcturus and Constance chatted for the length of time it took Cathy to finish three more bowls of food; about ten minutes. Cathy eventually managed to break the sink with all the plate washing she was doing. It was shooting water all over so Arcturus started to fix it. There was something in the way that he was doing it that Constance disliked though and she started to scream.

She had snapped. With no mind left, she headed for bed. It had obviously been a long day for her. She left Arcturus and Cathy alone to figure things out for themselves. I can't blame her though. The party had pretty much ended a few hours ago when everyone left.

"Do you think maybe someone left a sandwich in the trashcan?"
"I'm going to burn this place down if I don't get to bed soon."

Now that they were the only two people awake in the house, Cathy thought it would be a good time to talk to Arcturus. Arcturus was a little angry though. Probably because the person who had broke the sink and ran away from it to eat a bowl of chili was now dancing in front of him like it never happened.

Arcturus was just taking it in...

...but he was not impressed.

Shortly after finishing the trash sandwich she was craving, Cathy left. Arcturus was ready to finally go home too. He started to walk upstairs, which confused me slightly. I assumed he didn't realize that Constance had gone to bed and he was trying to find her to say goodnight. He wasn't doing that though. What he was doing was looking for a good place to go to sleep too.

Keep quiet. Don't want her to wake up! Oh, also, your house is
across the street so you could just go there.

Oh, no, that's a better place to spend the night.
How's your house look from there?

Spring Has Arrived In Riverview! 

Too bad Arcturus won't get to enjoy it though.

He died.

...Who You Gonna Call?

"Arcturus. I hear you're a Ghostbuster now. You have to come over to my house. There are spirits about." That's a typical phone message for Arcturus these days from the townsfolk. It pretty much ignores the fact that he's just a tarot card reader. Anyway, this latest call came from the werewolf bud, Gordon Leavitt. It seemed to be an emergency. Arcturus got on his bike and head for the hills... because that's where Gordon lived.

Arcturus saw the house and said, "Scha - wing!"

A quick scan around the yard didn't reveal any ghosts. I didn't really know what to expect because this was the first time I've done this kinda thing in this game. Arcturus went to the front door and rang the bell. Nobody came to answer, so Arcturus just walked in. When the inside of the house was revealed, the signs of a haunting were almost immediately apparent because everything was glowing green.

Maybe they just liked green light bulbs though. Not sure.

Arcturus sat down to watch TV, forgetting why he was there. He was messing with the color settings ("They can't really watch TV this green, right?") when Gordon walked in and said, "Watching TV, huh? Maybe I'll take the electric bill out of your paycheck. Get back to work." (I didn't make that up. The game gave me that message.) Arcturus turned the TV off and followed Gordon to the kitchen to discuss the haunting in progress. Gordon said there he saw at least five wisps flying around his yard but Arcturus informed him that his yard was empty when he walked up. "No, no, you can see them now that I told you about them. That's how things like this work in video games," Gordon explained. After Arcturus threw out his new catchphrase, "Bustin' makes me feel good!", he walked out the back door to get his hunt on. Gordon looked out the window, watched Arcturus stumbling around in the snow and grumbled, "What did I do to get hooked up with this guy?" Very Planes, Trains, and Automobiles of him.

There's a ghost right outside that window, actually. (I just noticed that.)

A progress bar came up indicating that five ghosts needed to be collected before Arcturus got paid and was allowed to leave. There were more than five ghosts hanging out though, so I suppose Gordon just wanted to "generally clean the area up". Unfortunately, the process of capturing ghosts was... pretty stupid. I had to click on a ghost, select the option to vacuum it up, move on to the next ghost, and repeat that five times. Arcturus's "Poltergust 2000" wasn't the best ghost vacuum either. It kept shutting off mid-stream and he would have to shake it a bit before it started to work again. It was an animation that made me go, "Ah, sure," the first time it happened, but it happened multiple times per ghost so it got lame fast.

This is the first time Arcturus sucked a ghost. Ya with me?

After the fifth ghost, Arcturus went in to collect his paycheck. When he walked into the kitchen, Gordon freaked out on him. Werewolf stuff. He can't help it. Arcturus got scared though and ran out the front door like a child. I was all, "The paycheck, kid! Come on!" but he was already basically home by the time I tried to get him to go back.

"I require money for the service provided?"

"Ahh! No I don't! Bye!"

*ZOOM!*

The next morning there was a letter from Gordon in the mailbox. It said, "I don't know where those spirits came from but thank you for getting rid of them." There was also a check for $140. That's better than the $0 he settled for the night before, but did you know that a single meal costs Arcturus $32?  He'd be dead by the weekend if this was his only income. He'd be dead by the end of the day if people didn't kindly mail him checks he screamed and ran away from.

"We're Still Friends, Right?" 

Arcturus had to have to start solidifying his group of male friends because he's going to eventually have a bachelor party. It would be weird for him to have a bachelor party alone but looking through his cell phone contact list, it might actually be less weird than inviting the guys he knows.

The first male name in his contact list was Trigger Broke. Slide Man. Arcturus was pretty good friends with him but they hadn't seen each other since the Winter Festival and even then the friendship had been cooling off. Arcturus called him and invited him over for dinner.

Party? Someone's about to be disappointed.

When Trigger got to the house, he had parties on the brain. Finally realizing that this was going to be a one-on-one dinner, he began to look uncomfortable. Arcturus asked him inside and started to make some burgs. Trigger wouldn't take his outerwear off and was starting to sweat a little. What was he trying to hide?

Once dinner was served, Arcturus told Trigger to just relax a little bit and "take your coat off or something, you look like you're dying". Trigger did just that, only to reveal a full tuxedo. Arcturus kinda laughed a little. "What were you expecting to happen here tonight, dude?" Here was Arcturus eating a burger in an unbuttoned onesie with his chest hair hanging out and Trigger was dressed like he was going to a ball. What did Arcturus tell Trigger in that phone invitation to make him judge the situation so incorrectly?

Look at the fear in Trigger's eyes.

He wore blue slippers though. To balance out dressy with causal.

Trigger ate quickly and then ran out of the house in embarrassment. I followed him as he ran across the backyard and into a house almost directly behind Arcturus's. Hmm. Interesting. I did not know they were neighbors. Trigger must have moved out of the family trailer park. Good for him.

"Don't look back, Trig... Is he following me?"

A message popped up on my screen:

Few individuals have experienced an outing so excellent, so delightful, so titillating as the one just concluded.

Whoa, what? But I saw the whole thing. And it was actually really awkward.

How To Make Money 

With a new job and a serious drop of his steady income, it was time for Arcturus to invest in local business. If you take your Sim to City Hall, you can purchase any business in town and start to profit off of it weekly. If you invest in a good percentage of the town, your Sim pretty much never has to work again. If Arcturus ever has children and gets too old, he can hand over his property ownership paperwork to the kids ensuring financial security for generations.

Well,... off to City Hall, m'friends!

Arcturus put his coat on and walked out the front door. Didn't close the door behind him because it's automatic, if you remember. The paperboy didn't realize it was automatic though and thought he was going to be able have some fun inside while Arcturus was out. They both gave each other shifty looks as Arcturus walked by. Then the door closed and Arcturus said under his breath, "Sucker."

"Is that dude kidding me?" *door closes* Yes, he was kidding you, kid.

I wasn't allowed to look at Arcturus deal with stuff in City Hall. He went inside and I stared at the building for hours before he finally walked back out. A blizzard had started as he was going in and he was in there for so long that there was about a foot of snow on the ground when he was all done. Did it really need to take half a day to get through all the paperwork? Probably not. Obama's America.

Imagine having to walk around an igloo in Center City.

So, what business did Arcturus buy? Let's follow him to find out as he goes to collect his first payment.

We remember this place, right? It's Aleister's Elixirs and Sundries! Arcturus walked inside and went straight for Rainer.

Arcturus: "You owe me $10,000."
Rainer: "No, I don't."
*Arcturus pulled out the recently signed documents.*
Arcturus: "Uhm, BAM! Ya sure do, shithead."
Rainer: This shop has existed for about a year now and I'm confident in saying that I've yet to even make $10,000 in profit.
*Arcturus picked up the cash register.*
Arcturus: This is mine now but I suggest you get a new one before I come for payday next week. I don't want to break your legs.

I would've liked for Arcturus to staple the paperwork to Rainer's chest, but he only had one copy.

Staring contest!

Anyway, from now until the end of time, the Mengsk family would be making $10,000 a week from this magic store. It's pretty cool, I guess. Arcturus breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he could just relax and ghost hunt while free of financial troubles.

If There's Something Strange In Your Neighborhood...

It was time. Arcturus was making a lot of money and had over a hundred thousand saved from his work as a "star news anchor", but he was bored with being on television every night. (That's something I don't think about a lot; Arcturus is Riverview's Jim Gardner.) With all that cash in the bank, it was the perfect time to start from the bottom of a new career track.

He looked at the phone. This was going to be a difficult call to make. Hunter Cottoneye was not going to be pleased because giving 'two weeks notice' is not an option in this game. You quit one job and get another before the hour is up.

The phone call went really well. Arcturus was smiling and laughing while chatting. It was either an amicable split or Arcturus really wasn't on the phone with anyone. I was suspicious when he hung up, looked through the screen at me and nodded, "Yeah. I did it." Whatever though. Now, get to the computer and start looking for a fun new job! NOW! *whu-PSHHH!*

In this image, you see Arcturus searching Craigslist.

Some of the jobs in this game are very interactive. You can be an architectural designer and redesign your neighbors houses or a fireman and put out fires around town. I considered setting him up as a fireman but I was sure that would lead to a premature death. That's when I came across a perfect option: Ghost Hunter! Arcturus both hated and feared ghosts. What a great way to both conquer that fear and calm that hatred. He applied and was hired instantly... via email, I guess? I'm hoping this job will one day lead him to traveling around town and collecting spirits in traps. True Ghostbusting action. But for now, he has to start at the bottom: Tarot Card Reader. Yeah, I don't get it either, but you try to think up 10 tiers of promotions in a "Ghost Hunter" field of work.

A day after he took his new job, Arcturus got a call from the police station. The message was:

The case of the missing Golden Llama is getting ice cold and the local police could sure use your Sim's help. Only a psychic can dissect the scene of the crime to reveal the criminal mastermind.

Arcturus told them he would be right over. Can you imagine being so desperate in a criminal case that you contact a guy who was just hired as a tarot card reader the day before with no prior experience? Anyway, he went into his bedroom and came back out in his new work uniform. I took one look at him and just knew that this wasn't going to fly down at the station, but I let him walk out the door anyway.

Well, I didn't tell him to Jackson Pollock that outfit with neon green paint.

Once he got outside he put on his winter coat, covering up the April O'Neil jumpsuit. (That's a start.) He biked (boke?) to the police station and went inside. I don't know what happened in there, but I like to imagine he went to the front desk, told them he was there to solve a case using tarot cards and was met with THIS reaction.

Arcturus walked out a few hours later, pleasantly satisfied with his police work. I guess they caught the Golden Llama thief or something. The game never told me. It kinda glitched out and I had to force quit.

Riverview Has A Crime Problem 

Betty invited Arcturus to eat with her and her sister, Roxie, at a fancy restaurant by the name of "Little Coriscan Bistro". Schwing! While waiting for Betty to show up, Arcturus's boss, Hunter, spotted him and started to chat. Hunter is getting old and has gray hair now. I will admit the sight saddened me a little. These two guys used to be pretty good friends, but had drifted apart in recent times. I think it was when Arcturus discovered that one of Hunter's character traits was actually "evil".

Arcturus, Betty and Roxie finally joined up and disappeared into the restaurant. I didn't get to see them eating though. Some buildings the game won't let you go into. The game is just like, "Trust me, dude, they're eating in there." When they finally came out of that rabbit hole, they were all dressed up. Arcturus was wearing a white suit coat and black pants because he was all class non-stop, Betty looked like someone's mom and Roxie was dressed kinda trashy. Arcturus and Betty must've been embarrassed by her in that place. 

Why is that old man standing on his chair?

Roxie was tired so she just went home. Betty caught a cab a little while later. Arcturus just took a seat and started to read. Pretty odd since the temperatures were below freezing and he wasn't wearing a coat. Dat's mah boy!

Later that night, as Arcturus slept, a prowler sneaked across his lawn. Dressed for the occasion, she tip-toed in an extremely exaggerated manner to the front door. All the theatrics across the front lawn and then she just opened the front door like a normal person coming home. She didn't try to be quiet about it or anything. I assume she was eyeing the house for a while because it seemed like she knew the front door was a sure thing. Arcturus doesn't lock it. He doesn't give a flip about that kinda thing. I'm surprised the front door was even closed.

The thief headed straight for Arcturus's secret room. To be honest, he's been robbed multiple times before by many different thieves and they've all gone right for his chemistry set. It's actually why I installed a burglar alarm. This stealthy woman was the first to visit post installation. Still, maybe Arcturus should lock his front door.

Anyway, I woke Arcturus up as soon as I saw the woman coming across the lawn. I wanted him to call the police in case the burglar alarm wasn't enough. But the alarm did go off and all the lights turned on. Even though Arcturus was running around with all the lights on, she still tip-toed around. Get a clue, lady!

She did manage to realize what was happening around her just in time to attempt an escape through the back door. But when she reached the door, she turned around to face Arcturus and then started freaking out about something. At this point, Arcturus was more concerned with making the alarm shut up than he was with the stranger in his house screaming at him. Just then, the front door opened. The police had arrived!

Arcturus is pissed... about that damn alarm.

The way the cop stared at the burglar made me think he was falling in love. But the way the cop tackled her and started to beat her to death proved the opposite. Arcturus started to hoot and holler while pumping his fists in the air. I was confused by the mess.

I mistook this for attraction. It was actually him thinking, "I can take you."

The cop won the fight. Uhm, congrats? Arcturus was egging him on initially but once it ended, he became really sad about the whole situation. The cartoon fight cloud had given the whole situation an air of fun that I guess it didn't really have. The policeman looked like he wanted to die inside, but I saw that little smirk on his face too. The burglar was disappointed about how the night turned out. She was supposed to get a free chemistry set here!

The cop took the robber out to the police car and then told her to stand there while he went back inside to check if everything was as it should be. The alarm was still blaring. I don't think anyone knew how to turn it off. Meanwhile, the robber was very honest and just stood next to the car with her head down. She didn't try to run away, which was odd. That fight really broke her spirit.

Arcturus waved to them as they drove away, went inside, smashed the alarm with a hammer and went to bed.

Aleister's Elixirs and Sundries 

I wondered if there was a way to cure supernatural conditions if you didn't want your Sim to be involved with it. After some internet research, I discovered that it's totally within the realm of possibility. The process involved going to the local magic shop, buying the equivalent of the Hope Serum and giving it to the monster running around your house. Now, I didn't remember the exact steps from the time I looked it up to playing the game but I did know everything started at the magic shop. So, I sent Arcturus to Aleister's Elixirs and Sundries to see what he could turn up in the way of fairy wing elimination.

That sign is supposed to look like that. It's in "Simlish" Uhh, DUH!

The whole idea of Arcturus going behind Betty's back to find a way to get rid of her fairy wings feels dirty. Like, I can't put my finger on it, but if I dug deep enough, I'd find racism buried somewhere in that concept. I can find racism buried in almost any concept though. Anyway, I don't know who Aleister is, but he's not the guy running the store. The guy running the store was named Rainer Kowling. Rainer was a large goof with a chinstrap beard who was into magic. Oh boy.

When Arcturus stepped inside and saw only Rainer staring back at him from behind the counter, I imagined one of those Jaws-type dolly zooms on Arcturus' face. This was awkward. Arcturus walked around the store trying to act like he knew what he was doing there. He kept looking over his shoulder at Rainer who hadn't stopped staring yet. Arcturus would give a weak smile, slight upward nod and go back to cracking the covers on spell books that were lying around on the tables. "Gotta try that spell out," he said kinda to himself but just loud enough for Rainer to hear.

Arcturus walked up to the fireplace and stared at the painting over it. "Yep. Neat," he said. As he turned to Ranier for approval of his comment, he looked at the chair he was standing next to and, whoa!, when did that werewolf get here?

Boss.

Gordon Leavitt, one of the few wolf people in town, stood up and started to dance to the store music. Arcturus joined in out of fear of getting mauled if he didn't follow Gordon's lead. Meanwhile, Rainer watched from behind the counter, nodding. This pleased him. People walked in, saw what was happening and just walked right back out.

What did Arcturus get himself into here?

The oddness of the situation finally got to Arcturus and he ran outside and into the corner of the store's backyard. Gordon stalked after him. Once they were face to face again, Arcturus pulled a stick out of his coat pocket (that's normal!) and threw it. Gordon chased it down and brought it back. Do wolves act like dogs? Whatever was going on between these two, it seemed that Arcturus was making a new friend. "I'll call you Gordie!" Arcturus laughed. "Don't," Gordon sighed. "Oh," Arcturus said.

They both went back inside and had a nice chat about things. Then, Gordon laid on the floor and Arcturus did whatever this is to him.:

Arcturus? Where's your other hand?

Gordon was loving the experience. Rainer shouted at them from the counter, "Guys! Come on! Cut that out!" Arcturus snapped out of it and stopped. Gordon went into a rage and started scratching the hell out of a nearby cabinet. Rainer ran over, hit him with a broom and told him to leave. "Come back when you settle down, Gordie!"

"I wonder what he would look like as a human," Arcturus thought.

As Arcturus waved goodbye to his new buddy, he noticed a giant book on a pedestal decorated with candles and remembered why he was here in the first place.

This was the infamous "Aleister's Alchemy Station". Hey, why was everything in this store named after Aleister? Well, he's a very mysterious sir, I know that much. 

The alchemy station is used to build up your 'alchemy skill'. I think a higher skill allows you to start making spells of your own and might even lead to the ability to change supernatural characters into humans. Arcturus spent some time reading the giant book, messing around with the attached cauldron and scratching his head a lot. When he was definitely bored as fudge, he stopped. It would require so much work and research for Arcturus to develop this cure on his own, so I sent him to ask Ranier if there was something in stock. We were getting dangerously close to this whole trip being worth nothing.

Arcturus: "Do you have something that turns a fairy into a normal person?

Rainer: "Are you a fairy?"

Arcturus: "What!? No! I was just rubbing Gordon's stomach over there cause he's like a big dog. I dunno."

Rainer: *throat clear* "Are you a homophobe? You don't have any wings, man."

Arcturus: "Wait, but you asked... I... Yeah, alright, that one's on me, friend."

Anyway, Rainer didn't have the cure but he had heard of such a thing before. This was a consignment shop though and Rainer couldn't promise he would ever get some in. I thought about where to go from here and figured there was only one path Arcturus could take. He would have to invent the cure himself. I had Arcturus buy a ton of magical items from Rainer, including beeswax, wolfs bane flower and a "bottled mummy's curse". For Arcturus's final request: "Can I buy that alchemy station off of you? I might need it."