Mitch Indie: Week 1

We meet Mitch Indie just as he is about to sign the contract to rent an apartment here in New Maximiliania's shopping district, Maximum Shopping, where all the Maxis-made apartment buildings are located. Mitch has graduated Summa Cum Laude in Biology and is an aspiring Education Minister - a common lifetime want for a Family Sim like himself. At university, he had a housemate, Max Flexor; here, he starts out on his own. One of the other tenants in this building is Roxie Sharpe, you can see her in the background just coming out of her front door.

A total view of the house; Mitch's apartment is the top left one.

It is tiny, and it is beige. Tiny, because Mitch does not need much space and is determined to focus mostly on his career anyway, and beige because that seems to be his prefered colour scheme.

The other half of the apartment, with his bedroom and bathroom, is just as beige as the kitchen/dining area.

On Monday, the day of his moving in, one of the first things Mitch does is to put his university diploma on the wall above his desk. Then he logs onto the simternet and visits the job site, where he is lucky: he can start today as an Elementary School Teacher. Work ends at 3.00 pm, which gives Mitch enough time to brush up on his Charisma - a skill he has not been working on much while he was still at uni, but he needs it now in order to rise in the ranks of the Educational career.

When it gets dark, a former co-student, Delilah O'Feefe, rings and invites Mitch for a night out in downtown. The taxi pulls up in front of Sugarcube Bowling, where they hope to spend a fun few hours.

Delilah has not asked just Mitch, but has also invited Ripp Grunt, Guy Wrightley, Kevin Beare and Cornwall Capp to join in. And this is where the trouble starts: Mitch goes to the toilet and then can not leave the cubicle for HOURS because Cornwall Capp stands in front of it, blocking the way and seemingly unable to move. This goes on for a long time; Mitch is locked in that cubicle while his needs go to yellow, orange and red, and I can not do anything but watch helplessly. Since we are on a community lot, I can not even use the move_objects on cheat to remove Cornwall from in front of the cubicle. Eventually, other Sims want to use the toilet, and somehow this gets Cornwall unstuck, and Mitch can leave - close to fainting from being so tired, not to speak of being hungry and smelly, and with his social life and fun both very low.

On Tuesday, time management gets really difficult when, to make things worse, Mitch comes down with a cold. He can stay awake just about long enough after work to prepare Grandma's Comfort Soup, but he does not even have enough time to get the bills from the mailbox, clean the puddle on the bathroom floor or call a friend to get his social life back up.

He would have liked to stay home from work on Wednesday (strangely enough, he does not have the option on the phone to call in sick) but at least he is able to do something about his social life by inviting three Sims who happen to walk by: Timothy Riley, Cleo Dreamer and Peter Ottomas. They all enjoy Mitch's Comfort Soup and a friendly chat. To boost his fun meter, after dinner Mitch goes out on the tiny balcony that is part of his apartment and stargazes with his telescope.

It had to happen, didn't it? Mitch is kidnapped by Aliens! (You know that I do not provoke any of this happening!)

He is as traumatized by the experience as Matthew Hart was, whose family we visited only a short while ago. When he returns from his "visit" aboard the Alien spaceship, he is so tired he almost falls asleep on the pavement outside. He manages to drag himself up to his bedroom, but after only a few minutes of sleep, he wakes up, deeply disturbed by the memories of the kidnapping. This is repeated several times until he finally falls asleep and does not wake up until late into Thursday morning, which means that he misses work on that day. And again, he does not have the option to call in sick.

When he finally gets up and uses the bathroom, he still can not stop thinking about the Aliens.

When he feels queasy for the second time within an hour, he wonders whether this means that he is expecting a half-Alien baby.

His energy level goes down rapidly, and only by having a mug of coffee he can stay awake long enough to eat something and pay the bills.

By 4.00 in the afternoon, he is already back in bed.

When he gets up again, it is early Friday morning, and after a bout of dizziness he realises that indeed he is pregnant with a half-Alien baby. Well, at least this solves his problem with work - he is put on maternity leave (or should it be paternity leave?) and can catch up with housework and his own needs without having to worry about his job.

It is a sunny day, and for the first time this week Mitch ventures out to meet some of the other tenants in the building. When he meets and greets Melody Tinker, he finds out that she is his 3-bolt-lady!!! Well, who would have thought?!

The two of them hang out for a while until it gets too uncomfortable for Mitch to sit on the hard ground. They can't help but wonder how come they never met on campus while they were still both studying.

Mitch feels his life has finally taken a turn for the better after this very difficult week!

The week is not over yet, though: On Sunday morning at a quarter past six, a scared Mitch goes into labour, all on his own, with nobody there to help him when he cries out in pain.

Thankfully, Sim-births are over quickly, and the pain is forgotten as soon as Mitch looks into the big, black, almond-shaped eyes of his little daughter Isabella. Although he never wanted to meet the Aliens and was scared out of his wits by their kidnapping him, he feels that this little girl that grew inside his belly is much more a part of him than of the pollination technician who initiated his pregnancy, and Isabella deserves all the love and care he can give her as her human dad. Isabella has eleven half-siblings in New Maximiliania! (Note: This was written a long time ago - by now, as of January 2013, there have  been 17 half-Alien births in the neighbourhood.)

I hardly ever make use of the aspiration rewards objects, except for the thinking cap, but with poor Mitch being in constant danger of either fainting, starving or having a toilet accident, and being on temporary platinum after the birth of his daughter, I decide to let him enjoy the benefits of the energizer.

It is now Sunday afternoon, Isabella is fast asleep in her crib, and Mitch invites Melody over. They talk... they flirt... they kiss and hug, and Mitch is positive that the future now holds only good things for him.

Before he can take his relationship with Melody a step further, though, his baby daughter needs his attention - no matter what time of the night. 
We leave Mitch here; I can not help but be relieved that he managed to survive this week! Usually, playing a single Sim is so easy that it is almost boring, but Mitch certainly was an exception. 
Will he move in with Melody, or will she join him and Isabella in their tiny apartment? When will Mitch go back to work? Will Isabella get to meet her half-siblings when she grows up?