Friday 4 May 2012

Dial up

Round 33: March 2038 (Autumn)
Mitchell's last update/Tim's last update/next update

Mitchell Carmody is 19 and Tim Lane and Eddie Gentry are 18.
(Eliot is 52, Cordy is 45, Noah is 20 and Lauren is 17)
Narrated by Tim Lane

Mum and Dad were a little dubious about me living in private accommodation on campus but they came to visit and they had to agree it’s been working out pretty well.


Dad did a full inspection and apparently, the place passes the test.

They both thought I’d end up just eating crap all the time but living with a future chef, I’m probably eating better than I would in the dorms.

I’m pretty health-conscious to begin with, so between me and Mitchell, Eddie gets a lot of nagging about his diet.

We could do with a maid to clean up after Mitchell and Eddie but as long as they keep it in their bedrooms, I don’t care too much.

I think I’m a lot more comfortable here than in a dorm too, with just two friends to live with.

Mitchell told me he found the dorms pretty overwhelming at first but he got used to it after a while. If Mitchell was daunted, I would probably be doubly so!

It’s much quieter here and that’s the way I like it.

We do get our fair share of visitors though. Eddie is still dating Lauren. She’s still in school, so she’s only over on the weekends.


She was the grade below me and Eddie, so we had a lot of classes and field trips together. I never knew her that well but she’s okay. She talks a lot, which means I don’t have to.


Mitchell is supposed to be keeping an eye on Lauren when she visits, on behalf of their dad, but he doesn’t seem too fussed about whatever they get up to.

Eddie’s a pretty good guy - probably the nicest of all of us - so Mitchell’s dad doesn’t have much to worry about anyway.


Mitchell’s girlfriend Dixie lives on campus too, so she’s a more frequent visitor.


Dixie is hard to get to know, because she’s quite reserved. Eddie has really struggled, because it’s not really something he gets.


Being a bit like that myself though, I can see where she’s coming from.


I’ve spent a little more time with her than Eddie has too. When Mitchell started college last year, he and Eddie fell out of touch for most of the time, so he and Dixie have really only just met.


Dixie was a little standoffish with Mitchell at first too, to the point where he wasn’t sure she liked him at all. They obviously don’t have that issue any more, so I think Dixie just needs time to warm up to people, before she feels like she can relax around them.


Being the only single guy in the house, I often have the place all to myself at night.


It can get boring but I have so much work to do that I find plenty of things to occupy my time.


Having not studied physics at all while I was at school, the material is all almost entirely new to me, so it’s even more challenging than it might have been otherwise.


I’m still enjoying it though. Noah is really closer friends with Mitchell but it’s been nice to have a familiar face in some of my classes.


Like seemingly everyone else I know, Noah is dating someone. It’s a pretty new relationship but he and Brigit are already seeing each other just about every night.


I didn’t date at all during high school but I really feel like I’m ready to start now.


My grades so far are awesome, due to the huge amount of time I have to spend studying but it does get a little lonely sometimes.


The prospect is incredibly daunting to me though. I’m gay and have only just recently come out and only to Mitchell and Eddie.I didn’t tell them until I got to campus but I’ve been thinking about it for the past year or so.


Eddie was fine about it but really surprised. He’d just figured my complete lack of girlfriends was just because I was so shy.


Mitchell wasn’t nearly as shocked. He actually was starting to suspect as much. Sometimes it seems like Mitchell knows me about as well as I know myself but I guess that's what comes after being friends as long as we have.


Telling my friends seems like a piece of cake compared to actually going out there and looking for someone though. I have no idea how to start doing that.


There’s a guy in a few of my classes who I’m sort of interested in. His name is Marius.


We seem to have a fair bit in common. We’re both thought of as kind of brainy. We spend a lot of our spare time in the library, researching for our papers and assignments.


We’re also both into fitness and are kind of sporty. That goes hand in hand with complaining about Suffolk’s lack of a gym or sports centre.


We sometimes head to Exeter to play a game of basketball or soccer but it’d be nice if there was a place on campus. Indoors, preferably, so even the rain can’t stop us.


Marius has hung out here at the house a little, so he’s met Mitchell and things seemed to go smoothly enough.


That all bodes well for a friendship but I have no idea whether Marius wants anything more than that and if he feels the same way I do.


Fortunately, I don’t feel like I’m in any great rush to start something. I’m hoping I might get a clearer picture about where this could go, if anywhere, as I get to know him better.

Notes:
  • Title is from Dial Up by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.
  • All three boys are maintaining 4.0s right now. Eddie, Tim and Mitchell all either have a Knowledge primary or secondary, so that almost guarantees a want to write term papers and skill, so I suspect they'll all graduate with honours. I guess I should start figuring out what Eddie actually wants to do with his life after that!
  • Tim is fairly keen on Marius!
  • I've known Tim was gay since he was a kid but he was such a weird, non-hormonal teen and coupled with the fact that there were no other gay teens (even among the townies), it made for a fairly chaste existence for him during high school. But the second he aged to YA, he rolled the want for his first kiss. So he's ready now.
  • Tim and Marius have 2 bolts but I'm waiting to see if either of them makes a move autonomously. They're both quite shy but I'm not sure if ACR takes that into account or not. Not, in my experience, but I could be wrong!

18 comments:

  1. Their house is still cleaner than I would expect from three bachelors :p

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, you can credit Tim for that! And Eliot, who decided to give one of the (already clean) counters a quick scrub while he was over. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  2. I had Eddie's reaction, LOL. He was such a nerd and hung around home a lot, so that's what I chalked his lack of a girlfriend up to as well.
    Sometimes shyness can account for lack of a move, even with ACR. That's why Andrew and Rainne never hooked up last time around. In this post (http://nh.infinitynevermore.net/?p=183), Andrew was very forward with how he felt about Rainne, but she didn't make an autonomous romantic move on anyone till after the wedding. At least that was with her new husband.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure plenty of people were in Eddie's boat. Tim just didn't seem interested in dating at all and he is extremely shy so he appears to be the kind of person who would probably be a late bloomer regardless.

      And thanks for the info about ACR and shyness too. It's not something I've paid a whole lot of attention to in game, I have to admit.

      And d'oh, I didn't realise you were updating again! I'll have to catch up now. :D

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  3. Wow! It was a real shock to discover Tim was gay. I guess I always thought like Eddie that he was just a little shy. Has he come out to his parents yet? I hope him and Marius do get together they have so much in common and the chemistry seems to be there so fingers crossed! How do you determine your sims sexuality? Like how did you know Tim was gay as a child? And how do you know whether to townies are gay or not? I'm just curious about your system :)I would have thought Mitchell would have found Lauren and Eddie going out a little weird but I guess he's just not like that. haha. Another great update! Can't wait for the next one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, Cordy and Eliot don't know yet but they'll find out eventually. ;) Maybe he'll even be dating Marius by that point. It'd be nice if they got together on their own!

      There's an option on ACR to randomise Sims' gender preferences, which is what I use for my Sims. There's one to randomise individual Sims but I like to run the one which randomises anyone in the hood who doesn't yet have a preference, because I believe that's the only option that attempts to keep a realistic balance of gay/bi/straight Sims (I think it's about 10/10/80 by default). It includes townies as well, which is nice. I tend to run the randomiser after every baby is born, so I usually know right away what sexuality they are. Except Emma, for some reason. She took me by surprise!

      Mitchell is pretty laid back and he's friendly with Eddie, so he's not too worried about Lauren. If Eddie wasn't such a great guy, I imagine that living with his girlfriend's older brother would be enough to keep him in line. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  4. I hope that Tim and Marius strike up something. That poor boy needs some loving too. They would make such a cute couple.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would love Tim and Marius to hook up. 2 bolts is pretty decent for a gay couple, seeing they generally have less choice available to them. I think Tim would definitely benefit from a little romance in his life.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  5. I really like Tim's haircut (I think I mentioned that in the birthday post). I'll have to see if I have that 'do. Too funny that Eliot and Cordy had to check out his living space before they could approve of him staying there. I don't blame them, though. Two 18s and a 19 year old living together alone can be unnerving for some parents.

    I called it that Tim was gay, or at least bi, from one of the earlier updates of him as a teen. I'm glad he's finally admitting it to himself and the guy he met is a little cutie. Tim just needs to get out more and he'll start to meet more people. I'll be interested to see how things go for him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let me know if you can't find Tim's hair - it's not one I did myself, so I can check it for you in game.

      Eliot is a bit uptight about cleanliness (as is Tim!) but I think Cordy is more concerned about the academic side of things. Luckily it passed muster in both aspects, lol!

      Yes, I remember you thinking Tim might be gay in an update a couple of rounds ago. :) I don't like to force anything on them though, so seeing he wasn't rolling romantic wants very often, I figured he wasn't really in a state of mind where he was thinking about it very much. Late bloomer, like I said to Fini!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  6. Poor Tim! Hopefully Marius is receptive to his advances! ;) It can't be fun being the only single guy in a college house. Time to get out there and explore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope Tim and Marius start to "click" even more. Maybe Marius will make a move. He's just a tad more outgoing than Tim is.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  7. Their house looks pretty clean for 3 boys living together! I expected it to be worse :)
    Living with a futute chef assures you some nice meals, which is great if you have to cook your meals yourself and can't depend on the dorm-chef.

    I'm glad Eddie and Mitchell are ok with Tim being gay, and I really hope things work out between Tim and Marius. Marius seems like a nice guy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's about as messy as my Sims' homes get! I find it really hard to make them look untidy, for some reason. You'd think I'd find it easy, if you saw the state of the room I'm in now, lol! We'll just assume it's Tim's influence. ;)

      I couldn't see Eddie or Mitchell having any sort of issue at all with Tim being gay, so that's gone quite well for Tim. Actually approaching guys is going to be a bigger hurdle for Tim, so I hope he can spark something up with Marius.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  8. I bet it would be pretty overwhelming for a boy like Tim to be rooming and to be friends with people who are dating so much, while he hasn't ever really had those experiences. I'm glad he's rooming with such good guys.

    I look forward to seeing if Marius becomes something serious. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eddie and Mitchell are just a tad more experienced with dating than Tim is! He's definitely feeling like everyone is dating except for him, so if he can get something going with Marius, he'll be a happy boy. I have no idea who Tim will end up with long-term but we'll all find out eventually!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  9. I'm totally surprised that Tim is gay! I started this update thinking, now he needs a girl, because he'll make cute babies, and lo! He's not going that route! Their place is really great, love the look of it, and seeing how Mitchell and Eddie are caught up with their girlfriends. Ahh, I had to click through the link to look at Jesse, such a hot dad, love him!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha, Tim would make cute babies though! I actually won't rule out bio-kids for him, as I'd consider a surrogate situation for a male gay couple. But Tim doesn't really have any close female friends, so I don't know who he'd ask! But that's years down the track, of course. Right now, he'd be happy to go on a date with Marius. ;)

      LOL, I actually think this place needs some work! I was going to redecorate it before I moved them in to jazz it up a bit but I got anxious to play. ;) And now they don't have the money to redecorate.

      Jesse is a hot dad. He's not bad at all for his 50s, huh?

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete