Strangetown, Here we Come

Strangetown, Here we Come is a Sims 2 Machinomic started in 2007 by the pseudonymous Strange Tomato, and continuing. The story tells about the lives of the characters from the Sims 2 premade neighborhood Strangetown, focusing on a trio of friends: Johnny Smith, Ophelia Nigmos and Ripp Grunt. As the story has gone on, characters from other neighborhoods have stepped into the story, too.

The story can be read here.


 * Alliterative Name: Zoe Zimmerman, Beau Broke, and Chloe Curious.
 * Anal Probing: Subverted. It's commonly assumed by sims that the aliens use a probe, but Stella explains (and demonstrates) that their approach to reproduction with sims is more physical.
 * Anything That Moves: Ripp.
 * The Artifact: Jayne Doe started out as something of a main character (or as much as you can get in an ensemble series), even being the focal character of the prologue. Word of God implies that she was originally supposed to but as the series focused more and more on Johnny, Ripp, and Ophelia as a trio, she got less and less screen time. She was eventually put on a spaceship when it became clear that the original plot for her character would not work with the direction the story was going.
 * Bi the Way: Zoe Zimmerman.
 * Chloe Curious (though she seems to prefer the ladies).
 * Ripp seemed fairly okay with One flashback implies
 * Big Beautiful Woman: Lucy.
 * Binge Montage: Ripp has several of these. One is shared with Jaxy Rai, who has similar issues with substance use.
 * Camp Gay: Beau.
 * Chivalrous Pervert: Ripp loves nothing more than having sex with as many women who will have him, but he makes a point of never disrespecting any of them unless they want him to pretend like he is. He just likes women too much.
 * Clones Are People, Too: According to Erin Beaker. Circe and Loki seem to disagree.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Ripp Grunt likes to swear.
 * Coming Out Story: Frances J. Worthington.
 * Creator Cameo: Strange Tomato's simself can sometimes be seen as an extra in the background.
 * Do You Want to Copulate?: Stella is a pure alien, with no prior knowledge of sim sexual conventions. As a result, most of her pickup lines are very direct.
 * Evil Versus Evil: Olive Specter takes on the Beakers.
 * Expository Hairstyle Change: Used on Ripp, Jill, Frances, and Tank to show character development.
 * Fantastic Racism: Toward aliens.
 * Fantastic Slurs: The aliens are sometimes referred to as "ass babies."
 * Flower Motifs
 * Freudian Trio: Johnny = Superego, Ripp = Id, Ophelia = Ego.
 * Heir Club for Men: The reason the Worthington family had three daughters before Frances.
 * Ladykiller in Love: Ripp toward Ophelia.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: The story goes to all three of the main neighborhoods in The Sims 2 and a few of the expansion ones and has a plot for each one. Every character has a story purpose, relationships, a past, and opinions. If they were in the game, there's a 75% chance they'll appear at some point.
 * A Man Is Not a Virgin: Inverted with Johnny, who planned to wait for marriage. This Gender-Inverted Trope is furthered by the fact that it's Ophelia who doesn't want them to wait any longer.
 * Military Brat: The Grunts.
 * Musical Allusion Title: The title is a play on The Smiths' album Strangeways, Here We Come. The creator is a fan and makes other references to the band in the story.
 * My Sister Is Off-Limits: Johnny is somewhat like this when someone expresses interest to Jill.
 * Parental Abandonment: The Grunt boys, Ophelia, and Nervous Subject. This is lampshaded by Ripp in chapter 28.
 * Schedule Slip: There haven't been any new updates of the story since March 2010.
 * Shout-Out: The story gives frequent reference to the gameplay of The Sims 2, works that the author is inspired by, and other sim stories (simgaroop's The Broke Legacy is one example).
 * Smitten Teenage Girl: Jill toward Ripp.
 * Title Drop: The title is used as the last line in chapter 28, from Johnny's point of view.  The expression is more figurative than literal in this context (Strangetown is used generically, much as "crazytown" would be), though both could apply.
 * Too Much Information: Beau Broke is this trope.
 * Tragic Villain: Don Lothario
 * Two Guys and a Girl: Johnny, Ripp and Ophelia.
 * Victorious Childhood Friend:
 * You Need to Get Laid: Ripp's main piece of brotherly advice for Tank.