Hope Wallston—an ex-realtor, single mother, and blogger within The Sims 4— has been living inside of fellow Sims Rodney and Kristyn’s walls for nearly two months. Her captor, the TikTok account @simslicious, has been documenting all the ups and downs of her imprisonment, which includes a visit from Santa and, understandably, a bout of kleptomania, since March 2.
While Wallston is not inside the walls in the same way you might suddenly find a squirrel family chewing on wires inside your house, she is pretty in there. The two-floor house has a normal layout for the most part, with typical amenities like a full-size kitchen, bathrooms, and living room. However! Behind an unremarkable white bookshelf, there is a secret entrance into Wallston’s tiny hovel, which appears to be an L-shaped hallway added to the perimeter of the living room.
It has white wood floors and the same blue wallpaper as the rest of the house, but no windows or electricity. Since this is The Sims, Wallston can see just fine anyway, but that’s the least of her problems. She’s essentially living in a hidden closet with no furniture and a pregnant belly, a bomb that @simslicious drops casually in the first installment of her TikTok series.
“This is Hope,” @simslicious says in the video. “Hope has no choice but to live here […]. There is a problem, however. Hope is pregnant.” At least she’ll save on the delivery room bill.
Wallston spends her days waiting for Rodney and Kristyn to leave the house or fall asleep so she can do basic things like shower and go potty. As for food, @simslicious has Wallston cooking it ahead in bulk, but by the time she’s able to eat it without fear of getting caught, it’s completely rotten. @simslicious makes Wallston eat it anyway. If any of this happened in real life, Amanda Seyfriend would have already acted in multiple Hulu miniseries about it.
I wish I could tell you that Wallston quickly found out that eating stolen, spoiled food while living inside of a wall with Rodney’s bastard son (!!!) isn’t good for anyone. However, that would be a big stinky lie, and I would never deliver you a lie of any size or particular scent.
Instead of exploring her options, Wallston seems to truly believe @simslicious’ assertion that she has no choice but to live inside Rodney and Kristyn’s house, which she actually sold to them. @simslicious never elaborates on whether Wallston decided to live inside the house before she sold it, how Wallston’s plan to live inside a wall connects to her choice to leave real estate, or where Wallston’s pregnancy fits into this timeline, so don’t ask me any of that.
I can tell you this: Wallston is in that wall, and she is struggling. I know it’s The Sims and not real life, but in the process of documenting the day-to-day life of a Sim living in a wall, @simslicious has created a torture dome where viewers watch various horrors with bated breath. On a video where Wallston starts freezing to death because she’s forced to nap outside in a bathing suit, viewers wonder where Child Protective Services is, and pray to the Sims powers above that Wallston soon gets a bed. We also get a TikTok dedicated to describing baby Bruno’s stunted development (which tends to happen to babies that live inside walls), and it made me feel sad. Wallston occasionally writes novels or steals things with the goal of selling them for money, but overall, her economic situation is stagnant. We need a Sims commune ASAP.
At least Wallston is used to #WallLife. @simslicious eventually discloses that Hope and her twin brother Camillo grew up living in house walls together in a Law and Order: Special Victims Unit turn of events. As a silver lining, the sordid backstory seems to have bonded the siblings, and now Camillo happily helps with childcare while protecting Hope’s secret. This is a perfect example of how a positive family dynamic will withstand not only the slow melt of time but also fiberglass dermatitis.
Camillo’s arrival does keep more of Wallston and Bruno’s Sim needs met, but the mother and son are occasionally made to sleep on park benches and bathe in inflatable pools. They also somehow live through not one but two house fires, even though, arguably, living inside a wall is a “fire hazard.” As of writing, @simslicious most recently added a bush inside the wall as a makeshift bathroom for Wallston, which is definitely one way to deal with this whole situation.
Otherwise, Wallston continues to do her wall thing as we humans watch on TikTok in concern and masochistic delight. It’s difficult to judge Wallston without understanding the events that lead to her leaving a life of real estate for #WallLife. However, no matter what happens, I recommend you reach out to your support network or a nonprofit before deciding to raise Rodney’s son in a five-by-10 foot crawl space.
For @simslicious’ next installment of the series, perhaps we’ll see Wallston join a protest for fair and safe housing for all, even in Sims 4.