I Hart Space! - Chapter 8: In Her Orbit, Part I

 

Hiiiii! Miss me? ;) Sorry it's been so long. I've had this turn sitting in my saves forever but I've been both really busy and really unsure what to do with a sim as talented and cool as Mae. Obviously she's amazing, but I guess I was uninspired by a prospective sim's lifetime in the acting career, which is pretty one-note even for an active career in Sims 4. Inspiration arrived recently, and I finally have a chapter. Read on...

As a reminder, Mae is our heiress (pictured above) and she's aspiring to be a World Famous Celebrity. She's materialistic and loves the outdoors and is currently a teen. She lives with her parents, Cassini and Ferdinando, and her two brothers, Neil and Yuri. Mae is generation 8 (which makes my long absence especially egregious since we are so close). She's got all kinds of skilling bonus traits and is already a triple threat who has maxed singing, dancing, and acting, among other skills. Is the natural progression to life in Simmywood her destiny, or will she find another way to achieve the notoriety she craves? 

Alice: "I have this deep sense of foreboding."

Dennis: "Yes, it does rather feel both like we've been here before and we really ought to know better than to be here again."

What would a new turn of I Hart Space! be without the Spencer-Kim-Lewis family stopping by to be abused by the Harts? However, unlike past turns, no one in the house is currently evil, erratic, or a plasma-sucking vampire, so they got off light this time. Not too light though: I kicked them out of their nice house and I'm going to move the boys in there when they grow up so they're neighbors with Mae. Sucks to be you, Spencer-Kim-Lewises.

Ferdinando has the appropriate response to a welcome wagon.

Ferdinando: "If I sit next to the globe bar, no one can get in between me and it. Now if only I could reach the clay too, and I'd be set for life."

Our Books of Life got un-bound to everybody in the move from computer to computer and of course Jordon is long gone, so Yuri is going to be a good aspiring Bestselling Author and complete his aspiration before moving out so I can at least get the adults and a kiddo or two to have this OP skilling assist. He's a fair bit younger than Mae, so we should be able to make good progress if I just don't allow him to have a life for a while. What? Don't look at me like that. All's fair in legacies.

As for Mae, I converted part of the useless downstairs party room into a very pink studio for her to start working on media production as a boost to her future fame.

Since the Harts are stupid rich, it's pretty tricked out. She gets started with some insipid SimTube videos. This is a horrifically slow way to get fame, however.

While the kids are at school one day, Cassini finally celebrates her elder birthday with her husband there to cheer her on.

She still looks so gosh darn cute.

Pretty great to have a botanist and an astronaut helping you with your science project.

In a vain attempt to boost that fame, we have added the streaming drone, but it's having a little trouble centering on Mae. Not that she's doing anything exciting. Just editing videos endlessly for miniscule payoff.

Cassini topped her career as a botanist. She just needed this last level as Kristina is extremely efficient with sim success.

Mae is still going to drama club. It keeps her busy, and a busy Mae is one who takes fewer autonomous selfies. It's the little things.

Neil's birthday came around while his dad was at work, and I summarily kicked him out. Poor guy never did get a chance to distinguish himself in the personality department. He just lifeguarded and was, like...there. Maybe when we get to the Spares Interlude something will happen. Happy birthday, Neil, and have a great life out of my house.

Cassini had been upgrading everything and turns out the insta-upgrade from her Nerd Brain aspiration does EVERY upgrade, including the composting toilet, which of course if you don't know it's a composting toilet, it inevitably fills up and catches on fire. Lovely.

Mae ensures her future of bringing in the next generation by fighting the fire from outside the bathroom. She is successful, of course, because she's successful at everything she does.

This did not put a damper on Cassini's mood at all, but I feel like it really should. If something is going to ruin your day, surely being covered in poop char would be it.

After cleaning up herself and the bathroom, Cassini fields a visit from her eldest child. He's welcome anytime, of course, and he does visit quite a bit. Is that a personality? Not quite, but him taking any distinguishing actions at all is promising.

Aww, and Neil helped his little sis with her homework. What a good big brother!

You'll notice Mae is in a club. I wanted one to help her with her skilling and homework, and I hoped it might help her meet a future partner. The only two YAs or teens (who are actually YAs) that seemed semi-eligible (i.e. not playables) are running around the house somewhere doing club-approved actions like cleaning and repairing. The game seemed extremely reluctant to spit out any non-playable teens even as I checked day after day through Mae's teen years. Eventually we gave up on this club since I didn't like either of the dudes in it, so we had to actually hire a maid after that.

Making videos is a losing proposition for actually getting famous, so Mae tries her hand at music production, since she's maxed media production, and that skill is shared by this station too. She instantly scored with the New Tastemakers label, but when they dropped her after a while, she upgraded to Maxis Music Machine like it ain't no thing, despite the game warning that they're an exclusive label. She's still with them at the time of the end of this chapter, but good lord are record labels needy in the sims. You have to release a song like every other day. I feel like she should get more famous from this. You'll notice this is a recurring theme with these activities. She also updates Simstagram whenever I remember, but she's just barely a one-star celebrity after grinding this all week.

Finally fed up, I placed a lot with the trait Teen Hangout on it, hoping that would FORCE the game to generate some teens. And lookie here, what are these but two teens? The girl's really cool-looking but we're looking for guys. This one is okay but we'll keep looking just in case.

Ooh, this one's a teen too!

Teen: "That guy is so cool! I want to be just like him when I grow up."

Mae: "Who, that spellcaster sage? What an oddly specific desire for someone likely destined to be an NPC for all time."

Julien: "That's what you think."

Mae: "Huh? How weird, I know your name now."

Mae: "All right, boys. Bachelor #1, whose name I rather inauspiciously for you did not write down, you come in with a good haircut and an orange hoodie. Bachelor #2, who I remember is Julien for totally not-foreshadowing reasons, you too bring an orange hoodie but you distinguish yourself with no sleeves and great hair, plus an okay personality. Gosh, who to give a chance?"

Mae: "To everyone's surprise, the bachelorette chooses Julien to give a rose to. What a charming and enigmatic woman she is! The fans go wild."

Julien: "Are you...narrating your own imaginary reality dating competition?"

Mae: "Is that a bad thing?"

Julien: "Not necessarily."

Mae: "Wow! We are meant to be."

Mae had been there all day by that point, so after giving the rose and a few flirts (it was Love Day, and that helped her complete her traditions), she and Julien parted ways. A few days later, though, he asked her on a date so they headed back to the same teen hangout and cloudgazed. Judging by the lighting, clouds were not hard to spot on this day. They had a bit of a pink bar and were good friends by this point, and we had learned Julien was a dance machine and a loner, but loner didn't seem to be holding him back from getting to know Mae. This is looking promising.

With the mildest of urging from learning Julien's trait, Mae deputized all available teens into a group and led a group dance. Very celeb of her. That girl with the jumpsuit is here again. We might have a new best friend in the making.

First though, Mae decides to make things official with Julien.

Mae: "Wow, everybody is clapping after seeing my amazing dance moves."

Julien: "Are they though?"

Mae: "Shh, this is just for the benefit of the viewers at home who aren't here to see all the masses of people who are definitely just out of frame of this picture and who appreciate my star power."

Julien: "It's pretty wild that you think people are watching your every move."

Mae: "You'd think so, but little do you know someone is documenting every moment of my life."

Julien: "Mae, you're a character!"

Mae: "No, really! Oh, never mind. Just kiss me!"

Julien: "It's just that it's pretty meta since in our reality we're just living life and no one is watching your grandiosity, but maybe in someone else's reality we're--mmf!"

And then they became boyfriend and girlfriend and if you think for a second Mae didn't document that for social media, what legacy have you been reading?

Not long after that, it was time for Mae's birthday. She invited her several new teen friends and her boyfriend. And the Spencer-Kim-Lewises. No, not for warm bodies to fill out the party. Don't be ridiculous.

Dennis: "Why, oh why, did you hire such an untalented entertainer?"

Julien: "Hey, man. Lay off. It's her party and she can do what she wants. Besides, they're embarrassingly rich, and if they want to economically coerce someone disadvantaged to tell jokes hesitantly at their lavish party, well, that's just the kind of poor taste thing rich people do."

Mae: "I appreciate the oddly specific defense, babe, but maybe Dennis is right."

Dennis: "I am?"

Julien: "He is?"

Mae: "Yes. Why would we need to hire a comedy act when Dennis came dressed with this socks and pants combo?"

Dennis: "You know, I think I need more punch."

Neil: "He does have a point, though. This Strangerville playable is depressingly bad at comedy and I'm already into my third cup."

Once everyone had arrived and mostly made it downstairs, it was time for Mae to get everyone's attention by blowing out the candles.

Mae: "Like I ever don't have everyone's attention."

Fittingly for our mildly famous heiress, it was a big to-do. Her brothers and parents were there, plus a handful of teens. Not bad for a grotesque approximation of an actual party. Mae adds clumsy to her traits, which doesn't wholly fit with her personality as thus far established but...

Mae: "Gasp! A character flaw! All the best femme fatales and charming rom-com characters have a nondetrimental but quirky flaw. Perfect!"

Julien went next. We don't know his trait yet.

So we asked while Alondra (the girl in the jumpsuit from before who looks totally different without her headwrap) blew out her candles. If she's going to be Mae's BFF, she'll need to be a young adult too. Julien's third trait is neat, by the way, so we totally lucked out with that.

I went into CAS with MCCC to makeover Alondra because I wanted her to have a consistent look, but maybe I don't have my settings right because it returned me with her still on the lot but the party was over and I was playing her household instead of the Harts. I fixed this, but RIP our party.

Anyway, once I was in control of Mae again, I had her invite Julien to move in, as he was conveniently still on the lot after all these shenanigans too.

After a makeover, Julien is looking fine. He's got a really interesting look, and he's a bit of a threat to the dominance of black hair in Hart heirs, but we'll see. I really like his eyes and we had to keep his huge hair. Besides the personality we already know, it appears his aspiration is Spellcraft & Sorcery, so our brief vacation from Hart occults is over. You can take the occult out of the family, I guess, but you can't take the family out of the world of the occults. Looks like we're in for a magical journey. Yes, I'll see myself out.

Mae: "Welp, my naïve yet strangely self-aware teen years are over. Time for the big leagues!"

Julien: "Yeah, what you said. I'm going to be a politician, I think. What will you do, Mae? Finally going for that acting job?"

Mae: "Ugh, no. How plebian. The real fame these days is in reality, and with my voiceovers and my creativity, my new show, Mae I Makeover Your Place?, is sure to be all the rage."

As you can tell, Dream Home Decorator was released recently and we're going to see if I can get Mae famous selling the pictures from it and her side hustles, because I'm over acting but they basically made a pack where you go into build mode every day and then get paid for it specifically for me. 

Julien: "Righteous, babe. It's pretty wild how we don't have to work but we all have these paid hobbies. I think I'll like being part of this family."

Dennis: "Son, get out while you can. I tell you, this family is nothing but trouble."

Julien: "Bit too late for that, Mr. Kim, but I see you're not so worried as to not steal their clay."

Dennis: "Its siren song calls me."

Julien: "See? You have more in common with the Harts than you want to admit."

Meanwhile, Mae was getting to know Alondra. She looks much better and more consistent after her makeover. Her randomly generated original outfit was cool and gave me a good sense of personality from her, so I tried to remain true to that. She is outgoing and a genius, and she loves dogs. I also know from the brief moment I was playing her household that she has a Stars Wars aspiration, but that's neither here nor there. I think she and Mae are destined to be closest compatriots as she can be Mae's grounded friend.

That doesn't mean they don't immediately start cutting up, though. Who is a friend but the person you can be your most unpolished self with?

Mae: "But the cameras are off, right?"

Sure, honey. Sure they are.

After the party, it was the Romance Festival, so off Mae and Julien went. The guru had the nerve to say "at least your flaws match" when asked for advice on the relationship. Wtf, dude?

Mae: "Anyway, screw that guy. We're gonna get loaded on punch and try to 'influence' people into taking professional pictures of us in exchange for 'exposure' on our mildly popular social media."

Julien: "Sounds fun, babe. And then they can donate to my election campaign!"

Guru: "It's like I've been doomed to be the Cassandra of people's love lives."

Mae and Julien had a great time at the Romance Festival and now have a full pink bar. In fact, even though it's their first day as YAs, things are going so well that I'm tempted...

...to try a heat-of-the-moment proposal. Mae proposed of course, but it's just surprising she didn't draw a crowd first.

Mae: "This one is a fan exclusive!"

Mae: "Babe, I know this has been a whirlwind, but I love you so much and I feel like our destinies are intertwined. We can be the next gen of Hart power couples, and with a hot and powerful politician/spellcaster by my side, my ratings are going to go through the roof. Will you marry me?"

That slash is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.

Julien: "Babe, you know I will!"

Mae: "Babe!"

Mae: "I was thinking, maybe we ought to celebrate our new life that we're embarking on together."

Julien: "I know just the place."

Mae: "Ooh, a hot new club with a press line out front?"

Julien: "Even better."

Mae: "Well this is not what I was expecting."

Julien: "I just gotta see someone right quick. I'll be right back, babe."

Mae: "Okay, babe. Whatever you say. I'll occupy myself. There's probably someone here that will recognize me since I'm such a big deal, so I'll lay low. For your sake."

Julien: "Here you go, Morgyn. The seven motes that were scattered extremely obviously outside in the same places they're always in."

Morgyn: "Ah! You have the true sight to have found them so swiftly. You must be extremely attuned to the untamed magicks."

Julien: "Yeah, we'll go with that."

Morgyn: "Yer a wizard, Julien."

Wow, Mae wasn't kidding about laying low. To be fair, she's had a big day.

Mae: "Yaaaawn. Whoa, babe, I had the wildest dream while I napped. I dreamed that I became mega famous redecorating people's places and like, I couldn't go anywhere without people fainting from seeing me and being so overwhelmed by my coolness and popularity. Oh, and also you were magic or some shit."

Julien: "Heh. Yeah, can you imagine? Why don't you go get the portal started. I'll be there in just a min."

Mae: "I totally non-suspiciously accept you at your word, even when that word is 'portal.'"

Julien: "Yes, I 'll take a wand and a broom please and all your finest spell accoutrements."

Ghost: "I have a mop."

Julien: "Not a broom?"

Ghost: "There's a ridiculously tricked-out broom that you could seriously hurt yourself with."

Julien: "Oh, that's fine."

Ghost: "It also doesn't match your aesthetic."

Julien: "Yikes! I'll take the mop for now please."

And then they went home and slept separately in the kids' bedroom because I haven't moved Mae's parents downstairs to the elder bedroom yet. Things did move a bit quickly yesterday. Anyway, the next day dawned and Mae was off to her first gig for Mae I. It's at the Goths, and this is  how she shows up for Willow Spring's premier family.

Mae: "Hey, lay off. I was just about to take a nap on the pool float when I got whisked here. We were out nearly all night at that weird club that didn't even have a bar."

That wasn't a...oh, never mind.

So they wanted Gothic and French country style and Cassandra contributed that she liked media production.

Mae: "I'm going to assume she needs a new set for her channel. I mean, this looks like a bedroom!"

It is a bedroom.

Mae: "Well, I'm sure we can do better than that. After my years of suffering in the trenches of SimTube teen circles, I know how much appearances matter for these things."

Mae: "Boom. I even kept it pink for her, but now it's a weird mixture of modern tech, French Country, and Gothic. God, I am too good at this."

I mean, they did like it? Except Alexander. He said it wasn't his taste. Well, good thing it's not your room then, now isn't it???

Back home, Julien was secretly practicing his magic while Mae was out.

He finally got to meet his idol, Simeon, who trained him and his familiar, who we named Stardust.

Another day, another makeover. At the Caliente house, they wanted Mission style (makes sense) and pink and green, which clearly means it's for Nina. I have no idea whose bedroom is whose, so we're going to call this dismally domestic version of the red room Nina's.

How to do successful DHD jobs:

#1 Toss a couple Super Subtle Saucer Lights in all the dark rooms so you can see wtf you're doing. If anyone ever says they don't want Super Subtle Saucer Lights, you're screwed.

#2 Follow the suggestions exactly, no matter how silly.

#3 Spend almost, but not all, the client's money.

#4 Consistently forget what angles you took the before pics from so that your reveal never matches and let your toxic perfectionism gradually gnaw away at your feeling of accomplishment.

That's it, that's the lesson. Success assured.

It's a nice summer day and we're headed to Mt. Komorebi for a wedding. We invited the Calientes because Mae got the polite character trait so she's insta-friends with everyone she meets, and how does her most recent client thank her? BY WEARING WHITE. You're a disgrace, Katrina.

Katrina: "What's the big deal? The bride's wearing red."

Yes, but not for long. She's got a pretty outfit picked out.

Katrina: "Oh, did you want to be able to see that outfit?"

You are on my shit list, Katrina. On another note, wow, did they finally fix people not sitting at weddings? I was not even expecting this. 

There we go. What a great backdrop for Mae and Julien's wedding. They are having a destination wedding like Mae's parents did on the beach, so they dressed for the occasion. They look beautiful.

Julien: "I promise to love and honor you, and always signal boost your posts."

Mae: "I promise to love and honor you, and never disclose where your campaign contributions come from."

Dreamy.

Inside, I was not terribly surprised that Mae had to be center of attention by shoving cake in Julien's face, but he liked it so oh well.

It's a pretty rocking party when the bride's mother passes out on a couch. All of Mae's family plus Alondra and her growing list of acquaintances all came. It wasn't quite a celebrity affair, but she is still just starting out in her career. As the party wound down, Mae sold her before and after photos to a publication, which netted her small amounts of money, and, more importantly, her second fame star. She also picked up the 'no touching' fame quirk right in the middle of hugging Alondra, so that's just fantastic.

Meanwhile, Julien snuck out back in the evening to practice magic with Simeon.

And eventually even Mae tuckered out. Good party, but I think it's winding down.

Cassini: "Aww, really? I just busted out the good stuff."

I swear you did not have that in your inventory when we left. Maybe the Harts have been magic all along. It would ease Julien's burgeoning guilt about hiding his powers from Mae to know that they are all the rare breed of clay mages.

And then just to up the drama (we are all about the drama in Mae's world, and it's all Mae's world), we adopted a baby cat raccoon. I kind of get the "foxes are just orange dogs" since they are canids, but uh, are Maxis familiar with cats and raccoons? Whatever, she's cute and she's ours now.

Félicette (spelled properly there, but I didn't type that into the game - indeed, here I just copied and pasted the e from Wikipedia, so clearly I am too lazy to find the proper key combo) was the only cat successfully launched into space who survived. She was part of the French rocket program in 1963. Our Felicette is clearly NOT a cat, but a raccoon, as you can see. She is friendly, clever, and playful, and we got her from the adoption agency over two normal kittens. What was I supposed to do, not adopt the raccoon kit? I don't make the rules.

And then it's right back to work. Today we're at Johnny Zest's trailer. Remember when the game shipped and he was Zest Johnny? Good times, good times.

Anyway, surprisingly to no one, it is poorly lit in here, but it's also damn depressing considering he has a pretty high budget for this reno. Work your magic, Mae.

Once again, French Country was requested, as well as green and NO MISCHIEF. Uh? Ok. No funny business, got it. I did make him a little performing space for his stand up, however. French Country looks kind of weird in a trailer, but I did my best.

Back home and we're taking pics of Julien with the GTW photography studio for our wall (I seriously just typed OFB, help, I'm old) but we also utilized the Moschino stuff to take some fun couple's poses for him and Mae. These are just a few of my favorites.

Very chic.

And can't leave this one out. Probably my fave but horribly out of character for Mae.

Anyway, we got Julien's official portrait and I put up a pic of them looking very fancy and famous, even though they are very much not...at the moment. We'll see if we ever get Mae there.

They then ran off and I later found them having a water balloon fight. I watched for a while and Julien was at a distinct advantage as he faced the bucket the whole time.

This morphed into a bit more water fun later on. Ooh la la.

Meanwhile, Ferdinando is teaching Felicette not to eat trash, since Marcus Flex randomly rummaged from our garbage can, kicked it over, and then left without ever knocking on the door. Who pissed in his cornflakes?

Back upstairs, we can see that shower woohoo took its toll, and Mae is now pregnant.

Mae: "Babe, I'm preggers!"

Julien: "Babe!"

Mae: "I know, babe!"

Julien: "Should I leak a few photos for bumpwatch 2021?"

Mae: "You know me so well, babe."

Felicette is settling in nicely and I spent way too long watching her play with her toys. Very cute.

She's also obsessed with the downstairs shower. I don't know if it's all showers or only this one since she can't get to other floors yet. Maybe it's because she can almost but not quite see herself in the mirrored back? Dunno. But she freaking loves this shower and just hangs out in here all the time.

Julien: "Okay, Stardust. Let's try it again. I want to get this perfect before I reveal myself to--"

Mae: *sneezes*

Julien: "Oh, babe! How long have you been there? I wanted to learn some special spells for you. I hope you're not mad that I kept this from you."

Mae: "Wait, you think you were hiding that you sneak off at every available moment to practice after we went to the magical realm together?"

Julien: "Uhhhhhhhh..."

Mae: "Well, it's cute, so I'll let you keep it up."

Julien: "Thanks, babe. You're the best."

Mae: "Daddy, I'm pregnant! You're going to be a grandfather!"

Ferdinando: "What?! Does this mean I'll have to wear pants around the house?"

Mae: "Of course not, Daddy."

Ferdinando: "Oh, thank goodness. I love the little bean already, but you can only expect so much from me."

Mae: "Well this is just dandy. You're glowing because I just politely introduced myself to you, but I'm pretty sure your mom back there in the backyard is orange for a different reason."

Mae: "FOR THE RECORD I'M NOT BEING PAID ENOUGH FOR THIS."

Poor Mae. Always putting out mothers on fire. It's just a thing at this point.

Mae: "Hi ma'am. The legal team for Mae I has absolutely forbid me from asking you why you are the way you are, so let me just say your kitchen renovation will be beyond my wildest expectations."

Jenna: "You mean my wildest expectations?"

Mae: "No, I don't trust your expectations at this point."

So here's their kitchen before. This is one of the houses that Simlicy built. I believe, and it's very nice, actually. Almost too nice to have shipped with a game. I feel a little bad making it over, but Jenna the Firebug gave us a purpose for this very long kitchen.

They wanted skiing and comedy, so in the attached dining room behind us are two ski sets (which is the only thing that comes up when you click on that) and a microphone. They do not want mischief (OH??? like trying to set yourself on fire on television???????) but they do want white. Thanks, that is SO MUCH to work with. Anyway, here is a white kitchen and not only did I sell your burned grill, but I gave you only a microwave and no stove because you've proven you're not deserving of heating elements. DO NOT catch the dryer on fire; I'm warning you. Anyway, apparently taking the stove away is not disqualifying because once again, they loved it.

And we're back home with Felicette. Mae has a career, two stars of fame, a husband, a cat raccoon, and a baby on the way. I'd say things are shaping up pretty well for her. That makes this a great time to pause, especially since this is all the gameplay I have at the moment and summer term starts tomorrow for eight weeks. Thanks for continuing to keep up with this family even with these long breaks. Check back later for more updates on Mae, including hopefully her getting famous finally and more house makeovers. Thanks for coming by!