2. Hey everyone, and welcome to the first day of the Bachelor Challenge I promised in Chapter 2.2 of my legacies. My bachelor, who this challenge is rather unimaginatively named after, is Galahad Merton, my generation 2 bisexual romance sim spare. He decided to take on a bachelor challenge in his last semester of college after looking back on his love life so far and finding it lacking to say the least. The seven lucky ladies and gentlemen who are vying for out bachelor’s attention are all maxis premades, aged up where necessary and given aspirations based on their bios. And just who are they?

3. Going in no particular order, the first of the contestants is Natasha Una, a Grilled Cheese sim from Desiderata Valley who comes with Free Time. Natasha is an aspiring artist, hoping to make a living from cheese themed art. So far things are going pretty well for her, and she hopes that she’ll be able to find love here. She has a personality of 2/8/2/6/7, making her a kind, outgoing, lazy slob.

4. Next is Georgia Newson, a bin sim. Georgia’s part of the family of orphans who came with Apartment Life, specifically one of the toddlers. Her bio suggests to me that she grows up to become a pleasure sim, which is what she is here. Georgia has a personality of 4/7/8/3/3, making her a Gemini and the meanest sim in the house. Galahad has 2 bolts for Georgia.

5. This rather serious looking sim is is Tina Traveller. She’s a bin sim that came with Bon Voyage as a child with her parents. She has a personality 4/6/7/4/4 making her an active Gemini. Her bio suggests she grows up to be either a knowledge sim or a popularity sim. To give her a better chance of wooing Galahad, Tina’s a Popularity sim here. Galahad has 1 bolt for Tina.

6. Oh, Puck. Puck Summerdream comes with the base game and lives in Veronaville. He’s a popularity sim and a Taurus with a personality of 7/2/6/2/8, making him one of the shyest, nicest and most serious sims in the house. Galahad has 2 bolts with Puck.

7. Next up is Stella Terrano, a bin sim from La Fiesta Tech. Stella’s an alien, and a knowledge sim. She has a personality of 7/2/6/4/6, making her a shy Cancer. She also randomised bi with ACR, and I decided not to change that. Galahad has 2 bolts for Stella.

8. The sixth sim in the house is Ripp Grunt. He, like Puck, is a base game sim. He lives in Strangetown with his father and two brothers, his mother having left some time ago. He’s a romance sim, with a personality of 1/8/1/7/8, making him messy, outgoing, active, serious and nice. Ripp also randomised bi on ACR. Galahad has 2 bolts for Ripp.

9. And the final contestant is Tara DeBateau. She’s the adopted daughter of Armand DeBateau. She came with Apartment Life and lives in Bellladonna Cove, initially a teen when you open up her lot. She’s a knowledge sim with a personality of 4/4/4/6/7, making her an Aquarius with a middling personality. Tara was the third sim to randomise bi on ACR, which could spice things up a little bit. Galahad and Tara have 2 bolts.

10. And finally we come to the bachelor, Galahad. Galahad was a surprise ACR baby, conceived on the last possible day his mother could have conceived him and born a matter of hours after his sister became a teenager and his father an elder. His life hasn’t always gone according to plan, but now college is over with things are looking brighter. Galahad’s a romance sim. He has a personality of 6/1/6/6/8, making him a sweet and shy Cancer. Now, let’s get on with the show, shall we?

11. Galahad waved off the last of the crew. Since his arrival here at the bachelor challenge a few hours ago he’d been given a tour of the house and introduced to everyone he’d need to know – mostly the people who’d work on the exit interviews – while the rest of the crew finished setting up all the hidden cameras. As they drove around a corner and out of view, Galahad’s shoulders slumped and he finally could finally relax. The past week had been hectic, to say the least. First he’d graduated, and then he’d had to move back home and had to check that everything was in order both for the Bachelor Challenge and for the apartment he planned to rent afterwards, as well as everything else. Between all that and making sure he got here in time, Galahad had hardly had a moment to breathe in the past week.

12. Once the last of the vans had vanished around the corner Galahad’s dropped his hand. Stifling a yawn, he turned and headed inside. He was exhausted, probably down to a combination of stress and jetlag. It was getting late in the day too. The sun was due to set in less than an hour. Galahad was already dreading tomorrow, when everyone else would arrive and the cameras would be turned on remotely. The prospect of having his every moment filmed was not a pleasant one, nor was interacting with so many strangers at once. Today alone had drained him, and the next week would only be more tiring. But at least the hose was nice, and right by the beach too. Shaking his head, Galahad headed to the stairs to find his bedroom. He didn’t think he could stay awake much longer and hey – who knew? Maybe this whole show would be less daunting in the morning.

13. Morning dawned bright and early for Galahad. He grabbed a quick shower and made himself a plate of salad from the buffet. He had just finished and was washing up the plate in the bathroom when he heard a car pull up outside. Sighing, Galahad finished up washing the plate before heading out the front. Time to face whoever the network thought would make a good match – or just plain good television.

14. By the time Galahad finished up and got outside there was no sign of the car, and Galahad was greeted by the sight of seven strangers all getting to know one another. He could hear snippets of conversation, all of it the type of small talk Galahad had heard a thousand times before but had never quite managed to master. He watched them all for a minute or two, not making a sound. They were all... Galahad supposed interesting was the right word for them. An alien, an elf and who knew what the other five were.

15. The first one to notice him was a men was brown hair, talking to a pair of redheads – one with pointed ears and the other with long hair that cascaded down her back. He looked over in Galahad’s direction and smiled. Excusing himself from the conversation, he headed over to Galahad. The pair he was talking to just shrugged and carried on their chat with one another.

16. “So you must be the bachelor. I’m Ripp,” the other man greeted Galahad with a grin. “I’m Galahad,” Galahad replied, just as nervous as every other time he’d met someone new – why had he thought this would be a good idea again? “Cool name,” Ripp nodded. “I hear you got to spend last night in the house, to get settled in and all that. What’s the house like? It looks pretty cool from here.”

17. “Oh, yeah, I um, kinda went straight to bed,” Galahad replied. He felt like an idiot – a tongue tied idiot, which was even worse if you asked him. “But, er, when I got the tour it seemed like it had everything we could want.”

18. “Really? Didn’t think they’d actually put a bubble blower and a bar in here, but cool.” “Uh, they didn’t-” “I know,” Ripp shook his head and grinned at Galahad. He was a vary smiley person. “I’m just kidding. This whole show’s meant to be a bit of fun. Relax and enjoy yourself!”

19. “Relax. Sure, I can do that,” Galahad gave an uneasy laugh. He paused. “... I think.” “Riiight,” Ripp drew the word out as he eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. “I’m gonna check out the beach. You... Try and stop being so nervous. It’s not like any of us are gonna hurt you or anything.”

20. Ripp stepped around Galahad and around the house, down to the beach. Galahad watched him go, his eyes lingering on where the other man disappeared around the corner before he turned back. When he did he saw that half of the others were gone, the him and the other three redheads left at the front of the house. The one with glasses and pigtails smiled and walking over to him. “Hey, I’m Tara,” she said. “Galahad,” he replied. “Where’d the others go?”

21. “Georgia and Tina heard what’s his name? Ripp mention the beach and decided to go play,” Tara shrugged. “Stella followed them to,” Tara paused, and frowned, “’observe the recreational activities of sims in an oceanic environment’.” “Huh?” “She went to watch them make fools of themselves – for science!” Galahad was still slightly on edge, but he was somewhat relieved to see that Tara was probably a geek. He could handle talking to geeks. Most of his family were geeks. He chuckled politely at what he could only assume as a reference to something. “So where you from?” Galahad asked. He decided to stick to the easy topics. At least for now. It was safer.

22. Galahad stayed out the front of the house with Tara and the other two redheads, Puck and Natasha, for some time, just talking to them. He was starting to feel at ease with the three of them – after growing up in a house of geeky knowledge sims, Tara’s own geekiness reminded him of home. Natasha’s presence, after he got over his initial nerves, was soothing and almost motherly, especially when she asked if he had enough calcium in his diet. Puck too wasn’t all that intimidating after he got a conversation going with Galahad. But mostly Galahad stayed out of the chats and let the other three get to know each other over the course of a couple of hours. He was content to just sit back and watch, only talking when they drew him into the conversation. It was nice. The hose sped by, until eventually Galahad’s stomach gave a loud grumble. He blushed. “I’m starving,” he informed the others, pushing himself up with one hand. “I’m gonna head in for lunch.”

23. It didn’t take long for everyone else to get the same idea and soon enough the entire dining room was filled. Ripp was one of the last in, and he did not react well to the snickers that greeted his new lobsterish appearance. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Ripp said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll have you know that it’s impossible to get a tan and not burn in this weather.”

24. Someone in the room might actually believed him if, at that exact moment, the final resident appeared. “Hey, check out the tan I just got!” Georgia said happily as she walked into the room. “It’s the perfect weather outside for sunbathing!”

25. The chuckling and teasing has died down by the time Georgia sat down at the table with a big plate of turkey. She looked around the table thoughtfully. “I always forget how much I miss having so many people around,” Georgia said, stabbing her turkey with her fork. Tara glanced over, swallowing a mouthful of salad. “Oh?” Tara asked. “You grow u with a lot of siblings?”

26. “What? Oh, no,” Georgia shrugged uneasily. The whole table’s attention was on her now. “Spent most my life in Belladonna Children’s Home – got adopted once, but that didn’t work out so well so I ended back in the dumping ground. Only escaped it a couple of years ago. Been living on my own ever since.”

27. “You were in the children’s home too?” Tara asked quickly, before anyone had the chance to say anything. “Yeah. I got stuck in D wing from when I was about 6 – hey, what do you mean, too?” “I was there, ages 5-8,” Tara shrugged uncomfortably. “I was over in F wing though.”

28. “Really?” Georgia let out a laugh as her eyes flickered over Tara’s appearance. “You don’t look like the mental case type.” “No, I, err, the psychiatrists didn’t like it when a 5 year old told her the tests she was using were discredited twenty years before,” Tara admitted with a blush. As the rest of the table chuckled, Tara looked to the other side of her. “What about you, Stella?”

29. “Me?” Stella blinked owlishly. “I spent the duration of time between my birth and maturation on the birthing colony planet XII. Upon my maturation I elected to further my species’ knowledge of earthlings social structures and was assigned first to La Fiesta Tech, and then here to Belladonna Cove.”

30. “Really?” Push asked. “You decided to work on a whole different planet, and you manage it?” “Yes,” was the succinct reply from Stella. “It was a necessary task and I saw myself as suited to it. My superiors agreed.” “Yeah, but – I couldn’t imagine doing anything like that.”

31. “I kinda can,” admitted Tina from the end of the table. At the inquisitive looks, she shrugged. “What? My ‘rents were the biggest nerds you’d ever meet. They were crazy for other cultures, the more exotic the better. If they could’ve gone to another planet they would’ve, and I would’ve been dragged along for the ride, as per usual.”

32. “I guess, just can’t imagine it myself,” Puck said. He shrugged a shoulder. “I grew up in Veronaville – otherwise known as the arse end of nowhere. I think this is the first I’m I’ve ever been more than one hundred miles from home.” Puck paused, then a huge smiled broke out over his face. “My kid sister Bo was so jealous when she found out I got to be on TV and leave Veronaville for a couple of weeks.”

33. There were chuckles from all around the table. All of them had some experience with the sentiment – either irritating siblings, a boring home town or just the desire to leave the lifestyle you grew up with behind. No one said a word for a minute or two as the eight of them just ate. Then, as Tina swallowed a mouthful of turkey, she focussed her gaze on Galahad. “What about you?” she asked. “You’ve been pretty quiet about the whole family thing.”

34. “Me?” Galahad squeaked. He was like a deer in the headlights as all the attention at the table focussed on him. He swallowed hard around the lump in his throat. “It’s, ah, complicated.” “Oh come on, there’s got to be more to it than that!” Georgia grumbled from across the table. “I guess,” he said. “I’m a legacy spare. Grew up in a canyon in the middle of a desert. The youngest of four – or not. Like I said, complicated.” “That’s a cop out!” “I don’t want to get into it, Georgia,” Galahad said, looking down at his plate and pushing his food around with his fork. He looked up and across the table. “How about you, Ripp? What’s your family like?”

35. Rip paused momentarily from wolfing down his lunch. He looked up at them, a dark expression passing over his face. “I don’t want to talk about them,” he said through clenched teeth. “I don’t even like thinking about them.”

36. The rest of the table exchanged nervous glances, wondering how badly Ripp would react if they pressed the issue. Probably not well. An uneasy silence settled over the eight sims, each slowly chewing on their meals. Tara finally broke the silence after a few minutes. “So what about you, Natasha?” “Oh, nothing interesting.” She shrugged. “I was an only child growing up in suburbia who liked art way more than most kids my age.”

37. “Well, I don’t know about you guys,” Natasha said some time last as she finished off her last bite of lunch, “But I think I saw a rec room across the hall. I’m going to check it out.”

38. Galahad was far from the last person to leave the dining room, but by the time he made his way over to the rec room three of the spots on the poker table were already filled, leaving just the one. He briefly considered walking past and either turning on the jukebox to dance or playing pool, but that would mean either showing off his hilariously bad dancing, or his equally bad pool skills. Besides, as daunting as sitting down at the poker table was, it was probably more in the spirit of things that dancing or playing pool by himself was. Anyway, he had to talk to them all some time, so he might as well. Taking a deep breath, Galahad pulled out a seat and sat down.

39. “Nice of you to finally join us, Red,” Tina smirked as he pulled his chair under him. “Don’t call me that,” Galahad grumbled. “Unless you want me to call you Blondie.” “Wouldn’t mind, I like their music.” “Ignore her,” Ripp stopped any further barbs from the pair of them. He had a shirt on now, but somehow his sunburn looked even worse than at lunch. He began to deal out a new hand. “She’s just trying to distract you so you don’t catch her cheating.”

40. “Oh, not this again,” Tina hid a smirk behind her hand. “I didn’t cheat!” “Of course not, dear. That’s why you had five aces in one hand,” said Natasha, rolling her eyes. She turned to Galahad. “If there’s one thing I can’t abide it’s bad cheaters. So if you’re going to cheat, don’t get caught.” “Thanks, I’ll, uh, keep that in mind,” Galahad said uncertainly.

41. “Right, enough chit-chat. Let’s get this game going.”

42. When the others saw that there were no more seats at the poker table and their chances to get to know the bachelor a little better over the next few hours was diminishing to next to nothing, they each headed off to do something. Georgia headed outside to shoot some hoops. Tara and Stella retreated down to the beach where they just sat and chatted, watching the waves. Puck, on the other hand, was ever hopeful. He took up watch over the poker game from the pool table. If one of the others left the table at any point he’d be able to swoop in. No such luck, though.

43. The afternoon wore away into evening and the sun set by the time the poker table finally gave up on the game. One thing was apparent to all of them – while Natasha and Galahad were able to come out of the game with as much money as they took in, Tina was even worse at poker than she was at cheating at poker. Ripp took her to the cleaners, until Tina was finally down to ten simoleons and they decided to call it a night.

44. Exhausted and yawing from what had been an incredibly long day for them all, everyone in the house finally headed upstairs to bed around ten at night. There was some brief squabbling over who got which room, but that soon settled and within moments of lying down, everyone was asleep.

45. The following morning Galahad and Puck walked into the rec room around the same time after breakfast. Puck, it seemed had an interest in poker and mentioned he could probably teach Galahad a few tricks. Galahad had readily accepted. As they were sitting down at the poker table, both Puck and Galahad glanced over to where Tina and Natasha were playing pool. “Fancy joining us, ladies?” Puck asked. Natasha looked to Tina, shrugging. Tina shook her head. “You go ahead,” she said. “I promised Georgia I’d shoot some hoops with her this morning.” Tina glanced at her watch. “Should probably head out there now, actually.”

46. “Your loss,” Puck said as he started shuffling the deck. “What about you, Natasha? Maybe I can show you a few tricks before Ripp gets down here.”

47. “Sure, why not,” Natasha said as Tina put down her cue and headed outside. She walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. “So what do you think you can teach us?” “When I was playing pool yesterday I noticed the two of you have some pretty obvious tells,” Puck explained, dealing out the cards once Natasha was seated. “Since you two are pretty new to the game,” Puck paused, waiting for their reply. They both nodded, “then we’ve probably got time for a couple of hands before Ripp gets down. I’ll try and point out your tells to you as we go.”

48. Half an hour later Ripp finally came downstairs just in time to be dealt into the game. “So what did I miss?” he asked as he sat down and accepted his cards.

49. They played quietly for a few minutes, none of the foursome saying anything more than was necessary for the game. Galahad liked that, but he knew it couldn’t last when the others were either outgoing or popularity sims. Sure enough, after about five after Ripp sat down Natasha spoke up. “So have you given much thought to who’s going today, Galahad?”

50. “What? Oh.” Galahad’s face fell as he was reminded of the reason why he was here in the first place. “Not much, I guess.” In truth Galahad hadn’t given it any thought at all since the morning before. He’d been putting off thinking about it. Galahad had just been trying t get through the day and not freak out too much about the fact that he was in a house with seven strangers – something he hadn’t had to face since his freshman year of college – and that he was going to be on TV. Actually, when he thought about that, signing up for this show seemed like a bit of a mistake, really. He’d done it on a whim, really, and he’d managed to talk himself into it more and more. Now he was here he was wondering how he’d convinced himself not to pull out of this thing.

51. The conversation soon moved on, but Galahad’s thoughts didn’t. His head wasn’t in the game any more and it started to show when after a couple of hands he had lost most of his money, and had to be prompted every time his turn came. It was no use. He needed to give this some actual thought, and cards wasn’t helping him.

52. Galahad declined another game as the cards were dealt out once more and pushed away from the table. “Maybe later,” he muttered. “I think I’m done for now.”

53. As Galahad reached the rec room doors, he turned and looked back at the others. They were already getting deeply involved in their game. Ripp looked up once and smiled in his direction, but immediately went back to focussing on it. Galahad heaved a sigh as he walked away. He was already become fast friends with some of the people in the house, and could happily imagine something more between them. The idea of saying goodbye, possibly forever, to people he was actually coming to quite like, wasn’t appealing.

54. Galahad just let his feet lead him around the house, not really paying attention to where he was going. He needed to find somewhere to think, somewhere where he wouldn’t get distracted by the others. At first he went to the dining room and he figured it was as good a place as any, right up until Galahad spotted Georgia and Tina playing basketball outside the window. He watched them for a while. By the looks of things Georgia was winning, but not by much. He couldn’t help but smile as Georgia cheered when the ball went in as Tina’s shoulder’s slumped in defeat. Georgia stopped cheering, and when she noticed him in the door way, smiled at him as she retrieved the ball. Galahad waved back before turning and heading upstairs. As far as he knew, no one was up there, and he could actually think things through. He already thought it’d be a tough decision, and he’d probably need to next hour or so to decide.

55. Galahad’s eyes strayed out the window as he climbed the stairs. He caught sight of Tara and Stella outside by the waves. Biting his lip, he hurried on to his room. He needed to make a decision, one that could possibly influence the rest of this life, and he needed to make it now.

56. As midday rolled around everyone gathered in the dining room. The house didn’t have anywhere set aside for the farewells, and the only room with enough space and seating was the dining room. Puck, Ripp and Natasha, the first three to arrive in the dining, immediately began setting up the room so it could be used. They grabbed seven of the chairs and put them against one wall, pushing the table and the final chair against the opposite wall. Then they, and the others, took their seats, waiting for Galahad.

57. The wait for some was easy. Georgia and Tina chatted away to one another, each confident that they had made a good enough impression on Galahad to make it through to the next round. In contrast, Stella and Tara sat stock still, each carefully avoiding looking at the other. What was going through their minds was a mystery.

58. Puck was mentally berating himself. Sure, he had spent some time with Galahad that morning – yesterday morning too. They’d gotten on reasonably well, and Puck was definitely attracted to the other man. He just thought he could have done more! He could have spoken up more during the meals, or gotten to the poker table yesterday afternoon before one of the others. But no. He’d missed out on those chances, and he could be leaving today. Even if he wasn’t he’d still be losing one potential friend.

59. Natasha hid her worries better than Puck. She knew that, rationally, she was in with a good chance of staying. Every chance she’d had to get to know Galahad a little better she’d taken. She’d managed to bag a spot at the poker table both times, and she’d been one of the one who’d stuck around out front with him when they’d all arrived the day before. Logically she knew that, but she was still afraid Galahad would call out her name when he got down. She didn’t want that. Natasha already considered Galahad to be a friend, and she could see the potential for more, but she was convinced her weak chemistry with him would hold her back.

60. As for Ripp... He felt terrible, right then. He was still as badly sunburnt as ever. He didn’t think he’d done enough to get Galahad’s attention. And to top it all off? He’d just lost at poker – to Puck, of all people! Puck! Needless to say, Ripp wasn’t a very happy bunny right now.

61. Upstairs, Galahad had finally left his room. He headed for the stairs, rubbing his head and frowning. Over the past hour he’d gone through everyone in the house, all the reasons why each should stay and why they should go. In the end that list had been no use, and there was only one conclusion Galahad could have reached.

62. The stairs creaked beneath his feet. Galahad grimaced. The house was still and silent now, the creaking stairs sounding so loud against it. At the bottom of the stairs and looking into the dining room, Galahad paused. Then, reassuring himself that he was making the right choice, Galahad stepped forwards and into the dining room.

63. Seeing everyone gathered in front of him made Galahad feel even worse about what he was about to do. “This sucks,” he told them. “I don’t want any of you guys to go. We’ve only known each other for a day, and it feels wrong to be saying goodbye already. It was hard to decide, I hardly know any of you, you hardly know me, and I could be sending home completely the wrong person, but...” Galahad trailed off and scanned over each of the others. Some of the were looking anxious, others relaxed, but one of them was looking intrigued. It strengthened his resolve. Galahad took a deep breath.

64. “I’m sorry, Stella. I just... Neither of us really tried to get to know the other, the only conversations we’ve had have been at meals and,” Galahad hesitated, wondering whether he should continue. Probably should at this point. “I think you’ve got feelings for someone else here, and it wouldn’t be fair to ask you to choose if it ever came down to it. I’m really sorry.” “It is fine,” Stella replied, her voice giving away none of her feelings. “I had heard that regret was present on these broadcasts, but did not expect to witness it so soon. Fascinating. I will take my leave now.” As Stella was leaving Galahad heard a car pull up outside. He glanced to the windows – it was one of the cars sent by the producers, to pick up anyone for their exit interviews. It was well timed. Before anyone could say anything Stella was already stood and out the door. After a shell-shocked moment Tara chased after her, but by the time she was outside the car was already pulling out

65. It took a little while for everything to calm down. Eventually Tara came back into the room and took her seat again, looking how Galahad felt. “I think,” he said slowly, sadly, “it’s time for the group dates.”

66. Aaand there we are, day 1’s done with. As you just saw, Stella was the one to go, and this picture probably explains Galahad’s reasoning a little bit. Both Tara and Stella may have had 2 bolts for Galahad, but that was not match for the three bolts they had for each other. The pair of them could hardly be separated all day. Scores for day one were as follows: Ripp: 130 -> 100/30 Friend Natasha: 91 -> 64/27 Friend Georgia: 64 -> 41/23 Tina: 43 -> 22/21 Tara: 39 -> 23/16 Puck: 35 -> 23/12 Stella: 18 -> 9/9