Cedric Cooke: Week 1

After "Contrary", the next name on my alphabetical list is "Cooke", and the first member of the Cooke family to be played is Cedric, Julien Cooke's half-Alien son.
Cedric is a Fortune Sim who has recently graduated Summa Cum Laude in Biologoy and aspires to become Chief of Staff. He is one of the first graduates I have moved into the Downtown area of New Maximiliania, to add a bit of variety to my game, instead of using the ever-same apartments. As in all this neighbourhood, every house and community lot you see is Maxis-made.

This is Cedric. As you can see, he has arrived at his new house with a cold.

One of the first things he does is to sell all the fixtures already in the house and replace the doors and windows. This is how the front of the house looks now.

And the back.

He still has not bought a single piece of furniture, but is so proud of the modifications to his modest abode that he invites his family over. Julien, his father, married Patricia Wan long before Cedric's birth. Patricia's best friend Cleo Shikibu married Darren Dreamer, a widower with a son (Dirk), and the two couples moved to a spacious house together. Since then, Dirk grew up into a young man with a half-Alien daughter himself, Deirdre. She did not come along to see her half-brother's new house, because she was still at school when he invited everyone over.

The open-plan kitchen and dining area.

Cedric's bedroom is still very bare, because he was fast running out of money.

He has not yet found a job in the Medical career at the computer given to him as a welcome gift from Mr. Humble. Right now, his "fortune" amounts to 244 Simoleons. Maybe he'll have better luck tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the welcome committee has arrived: Heather Huffington, Gavin Newson and one of the Capp Plantsims (sorry, I have forgotten which one - there are so many of them!).

In the evening, Beatrice Monty, a friend of Cedric's since they went to university together, invites him downtown for an outing. The group meet at FM.

Cedric (who is now wearing his horrid everyday outfit - something that I will change as soon as he can afford to buy a wardrobe) impresses everyone with his karaoke skill, most of all Jill Indie (nee Smith). Beatrice is the pale lady at the right.

On Tuesday, Cedric has to pay his first batch of bills and ends up with just 136 Simoleons to his name.

Sanjay Ramaswami passes by and is greeted.

And fortunately, it is also Cedric's first working day: that morning, he found a job as Resident.

One of his first wishes after having found the job was to buy a living chair. Looks like he is happy with his choice, although there would have been more pressing purchases to make, such as lamps for this room and the bedroom, a book shelf and maybe a wardrobe. But we certainly don't always use our money wisely, so why should our Sims be any better at that? :-)

Cedric has the day off on Wednesday, and wishes to roller skate as soon as he wakes up.

It is his very first time at the Rapid Rollers Racing Rink...

...but it looks like he is a true natural, and he enjoys this activity very much.

Back home, he meets and greets Johnny Smith, the only Sim in the neighbourhood with blond hair and green skin.

At night, a skunk comes peering in at Cedric through the floor-length window. I don't know why it has come to Cedric's house; everything is clean, there are no old newspapers about, and the trash can has not been kicked over, either.

Early on Thursday morning, Cedric discovers that a stray dog has dug a hole in his front yard, and fills it in quickly. (That was not there yet when the skunk arrived.)

He has the day off again, and instead of using it for working on his skills (he still does not have the money to buy a book shelf), he goes roller skating once more. When he gets hungry, he makes hot dogs for himself and some of the other New Maximilianians there: Xander Roth (with the dark glasses), who is a close friend of his since university, Elizabeth Aspir and one of Nervous Subject's and Erin Singles' sons (sorry, I did not take note of his first name).

By the way, all that roller skating has made him lose some weight, by the looks of it!
Back home, out of sheer boredom, I have Cedric salvage the bin to see what he finds there. His first "treasure" is a dart, sold for 4 Simoleons.

Second, a toy brick, sold for another 4 Simoleons.

Later, he finds a screwdriver in the kitchen bin, which is sold for a bit more, I think 6 or 7 Simoleons. It would be nice if our Sims could keep the objects they find in trash bins, wouldn't it!

Callum Capp comes by, and when Cedric sees the slightly overweight young man, he decides to tell him of his own experience with getting fitter, and takes him jogging.

On Friday morning, Cedric just finishes his bowl of cereal...

...when he notices Jodie Larson walk by. He is quick to greet her; not only because he wants to greet all fellow New Maximilianians, but also because he has a thing for grey-haired ladies (he has a two-bolt-relationship and is in love with Sharon Wirth, if you remember). The lady of his dreams, though, wears cologne, and so far he has not met any one answering that description.

On Saturday, Cedric invites his family over again, and this time Deirdre can come along, too.
From the money he earned yesterday, he bought a bedside table and lamp and a chest of drawers for his bedroom as well as a book shelf and reading lamp for his study. He is left with 65 Simoleons.

Cedric grew up in a large household and is happy to be surrounded by his family again. The Dreamers are not related to him; neither is Patricia, his human father's wife, but to him, they are all family.

That night, Cedric returns from work with a promotion to GP.

Now he needs more mechanical skill points, and starts early on Sunday morning practicing at his mock-up surgery table. I have not done this in a while, but it can be fun to watch what weird objects our Sims pull out of the dummy patient!

There's that screwdriver again!

And how did a spud end up in the dummy?!

Sunday sees not only the first snow falling, but also once more Cedric's family gathering at his place.

Barry Beaker, who carries a half-Alien baby himself, was invited in when passing, and joins the others for a bowl of chili.

Cedric says good-bye to his Dad late Sunday night, and we say good-bye to him for this Sim-week.

Will he ever meet that grey-haired lady wearing perfume? Is he going to stay at his small house and keep struggling with money, or will he move back in with his family? How long until he'll be Chief of Staff?
(Unlike most of the Sims in my game, Cedric's LTW has not changed.)