The start of a new Sim Brother day, and the clock moved more and more into the early hours of the morning. Margaret finished her book on pregnancy and went to bed, which left Chase dancing oblivious to how late it was getting.
“Whoops!”
At around 02:30 Chase went to the kitchen and made herself some Mac ‘n’ Cheese. Ignoring the early morning chill, she ate her snack outside, placing her dirty dish into the dishwasher after she’d finished. The machine whirred, clunked and then fizzed, as torrents of water gushed out of the doors and sparks shot out of the top”¦ With the dishwasher completely unusable, Chase cleaned her dish in one of the toilet rooms’ sinks.
As 03:30 approached Chase was completely exhausted, but even in her tired state she knew that she needed a bath and she wouldn’t have time for one in the morning.
Obsidian woke and spotted Chase. He granted her a quick glance, and grabbed himself a bowl of her Mac ‘n’ Cheese. As he headed to the dishwasher, he noticed the large puddles of water all over the kitchen floor, and without even being asked he picked up a mop and mopped them. Skulking off to watch some TV afterwards, while everyone was still asleep.
Chase went to bed at 04:30, and then half the household woke. Barbara, Chet, and Diane followed their stomachs and each grabbed a bowl of Mac ‘n’ Cheese that was scarcely even warm. Eddie went straight to the couch, put the TV on and prepared for another action-packed day.
Barbara, having washed all the household dishes in the sink had a pang of environmental conscience and turned off the lights in the music room. Well why not? No-one has gone in there once yet. The thick layer of dust on all the instruments is proof of that.
“Boo!”
Chet made his way to the exercise bay outside and prepared for a big work-out session. Unbeknownst to everyone in the house, Lucifer had already woken and was waiting for Chet in the bay. He was focussing so hard on exercise, that Lucifer scared him out of his skin. As Lucifer headed to the shower with a broad grin on his face, Chet was left angry and a little hurt. It was something that Lucifer had said to him, something that he had spoken to Eddie in confidence when they were watching TV together. Chet with a new direction for his rage, walked up to Eddie interrupting his TV program and yelled at him. Their once blossoming friendship lying bruised.
The other house-guests seemed unaware of what had happened, or were just staying out of the way. Diane carried on playing computer games. Barbara, continued with her housework; cleaning the bathrooms and making the beds. The only one person seemingly affected by the noise, and bustle was Obsidian. He went to carry on his painting, in the empty and quiet Creative Room.
“You had no right to tell him that!”
The animosity between Eddie and Chet continued when Eddie tried to deny that he’d said anything to Lucifer. An argument broke out, and it looked like their friendship could not be repaired. At least not today. Chet tried to take his mind off it by playing darts while Eddie mooched over to the kitchen and licked one of the dirty plates clean before going back to watching the TV.
Lucifer, needed a new target and found Obsidian all on his own painting. Before Obsidian had any chance to prepare, Lucifer had unleashed a tirade of insults. Obsidian tried to engage Lucifer in a conversation about Art, but his yawning indicated he probably wasn’t really into it, the opposite in fact. As Lucifer continued to complain about Art, Obsidian’s enthusiasm for painting became more and more dull. Putting down his brush, Obsidian went for a shower. Lucifer who now felt really rather chipper, sat next to Eddie and played Video games.
Margaret was the penultimate person to wake, leaving only Chase, who quite frankly needed all the sleep she could get. She went to get a now completely stone cold, bowl of Mac ‘n’ Cheese from the kitchen.
Chase woke, feeling so tired she could hardly get out of bed. In fact, if it wasn’t for the paranoid feeling that she’d left a tap running in the bathroom, she probably wouldn’t have. The bus arrived and for once Obsidian headed to school in a much better mood than Chase.
After the events of the early morning, and with the house missing it’s two teenagers a strange quiet descended on the house. Even Barbara, took the time to sit and play video games with Lucifer. Although, she would probably be less inclined to if she knew what he’d said to Chet. Margaret picked up one of the dwindling number of books she hadn’t read, this one called ‘Magnetic Attraction’, and started to read.
Diane, who had tried to stay out of the way to give people their own space, spoke to Lucifer. Just a few probing questions to try to get to know him. Lucifer is not someone who shares unless he wants to, and an insult blasted straight back to Diane showed her that. She attempted to ask about his day, but he wasn’t interested. Once again, Diane had pushed Lucifer away with her good intentions. Lucifer headed to the kitchen. Shaking her head, Diane sighed and went to get a shower.
“Hmmmm, Knight to King 4?”
The book Margaret had chosen to read was not of a particularly high standard, and it wasn’t long before she needed some mental stimulation. Putting her book away, and after making her bed she logged on to the only house computer. ‘Where did the other computers go?’ she thought to herself, before she booted up the chess program.
Chet, who had played darts all morning, took a brief break. Before he knew what had hit him, Lucifer had crept up and scared him again. Lucifer didn’t need anything more than that, he just wanted to remind Chet of the morning, not to engage him himself. With his tension topped up again, Chet put the darts down and played some Foosball to try to relax. While Lucifer couldn’t be any happier, and lounged about in the hot-tub feeling incredibly smug.
“Aaaaah, what a good day, mwa ha ha ha!”
The mysterious disappearance of the computers and arcade games had a profound effect on some of the house-guests. Diane was doing lengths in the pool, Lucifer was bathing in a hot-tub, Barbara was taking the time to have a luxurious bath and Chet was playing Foosball. Only Margaret and Eddie were on the computer and watching TV respectively, everyone else had found something a little different to do.
The sympathy appeared to be with Eddie. Both Margaret and Barbara spent some time talking to him. Margaret spoke to him about TV shows, and asked how his day was. Barbara spoke of films, and inquired about his day before returning to her cleaning. Chet kept out of everyone’s way and took a shower, he knew he had over-reacted but he’s so temperamental and things like that always riled him up.
The school bus arrived with Chase and Obsidian. The last thing on either of their minds was their homework. Chase headed straight to bed for a nap and Obsidian continued with the painting he started in the morning.
A simultaneous need to clear the bad food out of the fridge by both Chet and Barbara, sparked an over-the-top chat about how good the house is. Although, Chet had moved from angry with Eddie to embarrassed about his actions, so all he did was sigh and move to the lounge to play with the fire.
Eddie having taken one of his few actions of the day, in this case a shower, and seeing that Barbara looked a bit upset joined Barbara for a game of Foosball.
“Just get out of my face!”
Diane, now feeling thoroughly invigorated by her long swim, feeling happy and at peace, could sense the inner turmoil of Chet. She had to try to comfort him. Attempting to start a conversation about the new house left Chet bored enough to yell at Diane. Even Diane’s re-conciliatory curiosity about Chet himself was given a bored sigh. Chet walked off to find a good book to read in front of the TV, Diane followed Chet and watched TV. She sat near him but not next to him, she could still keep an eye on him from there.
Chase awoke feeling a little more energetic, but mostly hungry so she went to make a big bowl of Autumn Salad. Obsidian put the finishing touches to his second complete painting, and after hearing the clank of the cutlery and bowl headed to the kitchen to grab himself some salad. Barbara stopped playing Foosball so she could grab a bowl too. Unfortunately, in Chases tired state she wasn’t aware that Lucifer was in the bathroom. She charged through the door, brandishing her dirty plate looking for a sink to wash it in, which left Lucifer quickly zipping up his trousers and shooing Chase out of the bathroom.
Her energy levels dropping once more, Chase knew she had homework to do and did not want to slip behind. She took out her books, and sat at the kitchen table to complete it.
Another chance for Lucifer to irritate someone now presented itself with Margaret. After mocking her appearance cruelly, and sighing loudly when Margaret tried to talk about books, now was the right time for him to tell her his plan. There was no reaction from Margaret so it was either not a particularly clever plan, or she didn’t understand it.
“Obsidians Second Offering to the art-world”
Distracting himself once more from his homework, Obsidian logged on to the computer and played a game.
Chet, Eddie and Diane sat in silence on the settee. Chet was engrossed in his book, Eddie watched TV and Diane pretended to watch but just really keeping an eye on Chet.
Barbara headed to the Foosball tables, but with Lucifer already playing on one of them. She started her own solo-game on the other. Barbara may have pieced together what happened between Lucifer, Chet and Eddie so gave him a very motherly cold-shoulder.
As Chet put his book down and moved to the kitchen to grab some Salad, Diane, who’s still keeping an eye on him, went to the kitchen to make some more Mac ‘n’ Cheese.
At just past 20:30 Chase finished her homework. Putting it away she went straight to bed, even the nagging doubt that she’d left a tap on again was not enough to keep her up.
With Chet feeling a little sorry for himself, he needed to at least make some headway with Eddie, though as he sat down next to Eddie to talk. Eddie got up and grabbed himself a hotdog from the kitchen, leaving Chet watching TV by himself.
At 21:45 Obsidian had played enough computer games so went to bed. Lucifer followed shortly afterwards at 10:05. Eddie, Diane and Barbara all turned in at 10:15. Leaving only Margaret and Chet still awake.
When the last minute of day five was done, Margaret was left washing her dish after eating a big bowl of salad, while Chet was in the bathroom.
Post Day Analysis.
I wasn’t sure whether getting rid of the computers and arcade games would make any difference, but if the following days are going to be anything like this one then it definitely has made a difference.
The biggest surprise on Day 5, was the changes in the relationships. Eddie and Chet went from friends to acquaintances after Chet just yelled at Eddie. There were no moodlets to show why, Chet just decided to yell at his only friend in the house. The second relationship which has also changed inexplicably is between Lucifer and Chase. Unless, I missed something while looking at another house-guest, Chase and Lucifer have had no interactions at all today, yet at the end of Day 5, they were at disliked status with each other. There needs to be some enemies though, so maybe Chase will be Lucifer’s first enemy
The ‘Stir Crazy’ moodlet that I have been curious about started for everyone except Chase and Obsidian today. It’s not a serious moodlet, at least not yet, but it does lower their mood by 15 points, and that’s just on day one of the moodlet. The real question is, will they do anything about it, or will the entire house by driven mad?
The first breakage happened at Chase’s hands. The dishwasher broke. No-one has made any attempt to fix it, so I suspect that it will stay broken for three days, and then I’ll go in and give them a new one. There is still time yet though, I just don’t expect anyone to fix it.
If you want to read more about the experiment, either click on the tab at the top of the page, or click here.
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Jim Franklin
Jim Franklin is a freelance writer, living in Derby UK with his wife and his player 3. When time allows he likes nothing more than losing himself in a multi-hour gaming session. He likes most games and will play anything but prefers MMO's, and sandbox RPG's.
