The Asylum in JFadeLand

Meiji's Diary

Well, I know I'm a little nuts, for want of a better word. I mean, what could you expect from the only daughter of an ageing film star and a certain Potions Professor, brought up in care homes and by even crazier aunties and uncles!

So I'm here - they tell me this is an Asylum. So far it's not as bad as some I've heard about. No mean "nurses" or "orderlies"to boss me about, no nasty cousins either. But there was a letter waiting for me on my bedside table. It seems I have a job to do here.

Lee Kee Shipyards

Hong Kong

Meiji!

My honoured descendant whom I have never met, the Great Work you are about to embark on gives me so much pride - because I know you will be able to complete the task I set you.

You, who have never taken responsibility for anything in your life, now have to take responsibility for the lives and happiness of seven (7) Sims.

This house is your home and their prison. They may not leave; not until certified sane. You alone may leave, but only for a day at a time, to go to work.

The house has five (5) bedrooms, currently total seating for six (6), including a three-seater couch, one toilet, one sink, one tub, no computers, one very old television, two (2) bookcases, one mirror. No burglar alarm, no smoke detector and no sprinklers.

There is one easel, one alchemy bench, one guitar, one telescope, and one gem cutting machine in the basement.

No maid, no gardener, no repair person, no exterminator may be hired, and I doubt you will be able to afford one anyway.

For safety reasons, fireplaces have been removed from the house.

Other Sims may visit. But if anyone dies (patient or visitor) their tombstone must remain on the lot; allow the ghost to roam freely.

If one patient should die, you must remove one bed and one seat (until you only have one of each left).

And you will only have pocket money. You rely on the beneficence of the estate, and your own hard work to provide for you.

The other residents - well, you will get to know them. There is good reason for each one of them to be incarcerated.

Your rewards for this task? There is another message for you which you will discover when the time is right.

Your Grandfather.

Lee Kee.

I thought I might look for work at the offices in town. Making coffee all day couldn't be so hard, could it? And I was going to be pretty busy at home looking after the other residents. They had all been committed, after all. I didn't feel at all scared: after years in care I felt I could look after myself.

Started to get to know the inmates.

"But we have no money!"

Josh Smith claims to be God. He claims to have made the whole world, he said. I didn't know what to make of that. Other than that, he seemed pretty straightforward.
Witch is convinced she was a witch. She also made it clear she fancied me. Not sure of what to make of that either. I was later to discover that she's like that with everyone. And I do mean everyone.

LilBrudder plays the guitar, and he's not bad at all.
There is a definite flirt vibe going on, not at all reduced by the fact that most of the inmates seem to live in their undies. The house isn't warm either as all fireplaces were removed and there's no central heating, so that's some proof they are crazy.

Aggie worries about dying.

I had a rummage through the bookshelves and found a book on cooking, one on fixing things and one on logic.

The house looks so pretty in Winter.

Planted a few seeds under the snow.

Then I fell asleep for a couple of hours, before work.

Work was okay - I didn't know it was so hard to make coffee properly. I had to read a BOOK about it?

It's funny, I felt as if some part of me stayed at home. Maybe it was the responsibility of looking after the others, weighing on me. But I felt as if I was still standing in the hall by the front door, all the time I was learning the intricacies of my coffee machine and who had how many sugars.

Kim Smallwood, who is training me at work, calls me acluistic (I never heard that word before, I guess it means I'm new) and Ross Stapleton, who works the shredder. Working the shredder is a Very Important Job, he told me. Maybe I'll get to learn how to do that next. He's not bad looking either. I wonder if he's married?

It was a bitter cold snowy day. My office block is just one among many blocks, in the centre of the great city of JFadeland.

SOooo tired. Straight to bed.

I'm told I slept through a great storm. Blizzard, in fact.

Fishing in the icy road, at the weekend.

Then I got to unclog the toilet and clean up an awful mess. Later: This looks like becoming the order of the day. That toilet blocks up so often! I put a sign up saying Please do not flush paper towels, flannels or bricks, but it doesn't seem to make any difference at all. Every day I have to fix it when I get home.

I decided to order pizzas; everyone was starving. That was... amusing. Not.

"Yes, I know it's 4.22 am. Yes, this is the Asylum. Yes, I have cash. Yes, I am standing here in my knickers calling you. Why do you want to know that? "

Sigh. Pizza never turned up.

But it turned out Rhayden wasn't too awful at cooking. He made some kind of cheesy goop that was quite edible, although it was a bit like baby food.

Someone told me I should look for some warmer clothes for this weather. Apparently there's a full wardrobe upstairs somewhere. Later. No time now; late for work and today I get to meet my boss. Argh!

Dawn Bast showed me she had found a hidden bedroom, with an extra bed. A double bed, in fact. Sheesh. That's not part of the terms. I'll have to get someone to take it away. There's an urn there, someone's remains. I wonder who? Previous owner of the place I suppose. I wonder if that was another of Respected Grandfather Lee Kee's (and therefore my) relatives.

My boss is Lindsay Bullock, and she's cool. She wants to teach me to type. I don't mind, I look at the keyboard and 'hunt and peck', but a bit faster would be nice. She said there's a thing called a 'spellchecker' too. The teachers at my old place were nuts on spelling, so I do know how to spell, but at work the bosses sometimes use big words I've never heard of like - oh - acluistic, which is what they called me my first day, and proceduralize, which I still need to look up.

Lindsay has this way of shouting "Aces in their places!" That means we all have to run back to our desks and "Leverage our core competency". In my case that means start the coffee-machine.

Josh Smith doesn't seem to bother with beds, we usually find him on the floor somewhere. I kind of wish I could sleep that easily, and that deeply.

I dug out some new warmer clothes from the chest in my room. Nice knitted tights, a jacket, a tweed dress. And did my nails. At least I could look nice for work, even if when I get home I'm a toilet-fixing, fire-extinguishing, peace-keeping, bathroom-cleaning, cooking autobot. And maybe, just maybe, it would get me that promotion.

Decided to throw a Midwinter party. Invited friends from work, as I am still hoping for that promotion.

I had hoped to make a good impression, but my roomies soon dashed those hopes.

And why shouldn't I turn up for a party in a wetsuit and flippers? It's COLD!

The visitors didn't think much of the party; I thought it was to do with the fact that Josh and Rhayden hadn't washed for days, or maybe that Witch was being her usual self and flirting with everyone.

Somebody cooked. I think it was Rhayden. Spaghetti. For a Midwinter Party. Sigh. At least he didn't burn it this time.

The party served one (1) useful purpose. I managed to get the bathroom to myself for once! The wetsuit came in useful at last.

The presents at the party were very good. There were two chessboards, two or three easels, two game simulators, a gnome. I decided to sell some of that stuff. After all, the fridge needed filling, and as a Coffee Courier I was earning very little.

Finally got promoted to - filing clerk. It seems the shredding thing was a kind of joke - the accountant was the one who used the shredder most.

Took a day off work to go to a Gardening class, now it was spring, and got an allergy shot too.

Called at the bookstore to buy a gardening book, and met Cadence Fujiwara, a cousin.

Since it was LoveDay, each inmate was allowed one flirt with the person they liked most.

Rhayden with Witch.

Aggie with LilBrudder

Witch with Rhayden.

LilBrudder with Dawn Bast.

Kutto with Witch.

Josh Smith with Rhayden to Rhayden's disgust.

Dawn Bast with LilBrudder.

Me with Witch. What? She's the most attractive one here.

Incidentally, why was Witch cooking in her bedroom?

Ahh. That's why!

And days when we were happy playing with our Winter gifts.

"I can't remember..."

People were still wandering around in undies. That didn't seem so bad now the weather was warmer. Gloves? Don't ask. There are cleanup jobs a polite lady doesn't discuss.