Series 1; Episode 1: The Tragedy of Mad Mortimer

Chapter One

The Prologue

Down in the sunny green valleys of SimNation, there lived a rich young man named Mortimer; the only child and heir of the noble Goth family.

The Goths were the founders of the settlement of Neighborhood One, a town where everyone lived in peace and happiness. Mortimer was son of the governor, Gunther Goth, and he couldn't wait for the day that the massive fortune would be passed down to him. But that wouldn't be until his father passed away.

Until that day, Mortimer needed a job, but he had difficulty finding one. His father refused to pull any strings or give him any money, insisting that he make his own way up, like a true Goth. 
Unemployed and desperate, he handed himself into a local kinetics lab, where he survived days of electrical prodding and poking as a human guinea pig. Mortimer began to lose his sanity, but he didn't lose his professionalism, holding onto the pride of his heritage. The scientists were so impressed with his endurance that they soon let him assist in the lab, and before long, he became the man doing all the electrical prodding and poking. He also raked in extra simoleons as an actor in B-movies.

It was a long road for Mortimer, but his hard work paid off soon enough, when he married his high school sweetheart, the beautiful Bella Bachelor.

Bella and Mortimer began dating in their teens and she had stuck by his side ever since. She never had a job, but she looked pretty with her tan and good dress sense. She knew how to cook Mortimer's favorite meals and play the piano whenever he needed to relax. Mortimer said that you couldn't be a Goth if you didn't play piano. They loved each other so much, that together, they had a child – a girl named Cassandra.

Now that he was Chairman of the Science Department at Sim State University, Mortimer had enough money to buy his own house, and they settled down in one of the founding Goth estates on 5 Sim Lane. Things were going well for the new family.

Cassandra grew up to be a wonderful child. She had inherited her Mother's olive skin; piano skills, and Mortimer's intelligence. Her grades were always excellent, and her piano playing brought a tear to his eye. He couldn't have asked for a better daughter.

Unlike her father, Cassandra was very shy. Mortimer was too busy with top-secret research to spend time with her, so she visited her grandmother, Cornelia, to have tea parties and talk about the founding of Neighborhood One. She even began wearing the same glasses as Grandma – round and horn rimmed, and she became very interested in her family's history. She would often cry at the tombstones of her dead relatives, and this, above everything else, swelled Mortimer with Goth pride. You couldn't be a Goth if you didn't cry at the grave of your ancestors.

But Mortimer wasn't entirely happy with just a girl, and he wanted a boy, because of his high position. His aspiration was met when Bella gave birth to a son, and they named him Alexander. they named him Alexander because it means 'Protector of Men'. Mortimer would one day pass the fortune down to his son, who would defend it during his own lifetime.

Mortimer was potty training Alex before hearing the news that Gunther had died in a fire, so Mortimer was ready to inherit the illustrious Goth fortune. If that wasn't good enough, he was raking in money from his top-secret research, prodding and poking more test subjects; and no longer having to appear in cheap B-flicks. Like all Goths, Cassandra was accepted into a private school; Mortimer had a young son of his own to inherit his legacy, and he was the new Mayor of Neighborhood One, which he renamed Pleasantview. Nothing could go wrong for the Goth family.

But then things started to go wrong. Mortimer foolishly decided that he would cook dinner himself instead of leaving it to his wife. As a result, dinner burnt, and the fire ignited a large part of their precious house. Instead of bothering to fix the damages, Mortimer decided to move into a new home. He didn't think the current home was big enough to accommodate their growing family. 

Eventually they settled down in another colonial Goth home, the manor of 165 Sim Lane. After looking at the house, Mortimer immediately fell in love with it. He had this strange premonition, as he stared into the tall, ominous windows, that he would live in this home until his death.

The new Goth home, 165 Sim lane, Pleasantview

Chapter Two

The Mysterious Newcomer

As time passed by, Mortimer's dark thoughts didn't stop at just thoughts of his death. Ever since moving into 165, he felt like things kept going wrong for him and the family. His father's death should have been a good thing, if only it didn't mean that Cassandra began crying twice as much as normal. He was also uncomfortable by the way his father died – in a fire, just like the one he had caused which burned their old house down.

Alexander

Alexander grew up, and was making Mortimer proud, showing a lot of intelligence, just like his father. Just like Cassandra, Alex kept to himself a lot, becoming obsessed with number theory and optometry. But it was Cassandra's behavior that worried Mortimer the most. She had become increasingly withdrawn, and Mortimer suspected she had become involved with some the boys about town. 

As Mortimer grew into his middle-ages, he decided to retire, spending all his time at home, conducting experiments in his room. He soon became watchful over Cassandra, spying on her with his telescope, suspicious that he would find her groping some strange man. But in the end, much of his paranoia was answered for when he discovered her making out with a man in the Goth living room.

Mortimer discovers Cassandra with a stranger

At first, the mysterious newcomer tried to keep the relationship with Cassandra silenced, but she knew this wasn't a good idea. Mortimer only became more curious and frustrated whenever the man would awkwardly vacate the room to avoid speaking to him. He soon became keen to learn everything he could about this mysterious newcomer named Don Lothario. Although Cassandra was old enough to make her own decisions, Mortimer wanted her to be more honest about who she was dating, especially since she was living under her father's roof.

Mortimer began digging up all the information he could on Don Lothario; with his telescope aimed at his windows 24 hours a day. His suspicions were reassured when he discovered that Don was hooking up with other women, including a young blonde from across town, and even his own housemaid.




Mortimer was so enraged that he wanted to murder him. He couldn't believe that he would have the cheek to cheat on a member of the Goth family. What made it all worse was that Cassandra actually liked him.

To top it off, Mortimer learned that Don had even tried to make a move on his wife when they first met. This guy was trying to get with every girl in Pleasantview!

Mortimer hadn't learned this from Bella, and it seems that she kept it a secret. She didn't seem to think it was worth mentioning, which made Mortimer even angrier. He guessed Don was planning to get a hold of his fortune, and he would do that by marrying his way in. More likely he was just very horny, but Mortimer didn't truly know. People were always after his fortune, and not only was Don planning to steal that, he wanted to steal his wife and his daughter, too.

Cassandra never found out about what Don was doing. She had stopped listening to her parents' warnings a long time ago. The two continued to date, and eventually, Don and Cassandra got engaged.

Mortimer couldn't understand his daughter anymore, but maybe he never had. Maybe he deserved this for favoring his career over his family. Was she not happy? Hadn't he given her everything she could need? He couldn't make sense of her choices, but he knew for sure that Don Lothario was bad news, and Bella knew this as well. The problem was that nobody else knew Don Lothario, because he had only recently moved to Pleasantview. Nobody else could make a testimony to his personality. Perhaps if more people knew him, there would be more awareness. But Mortimer knew this wouldn't make a difference. Cassandra was the kind of girl who wouldn't notice things like that, because she never cared about what other people thought. At the end of the day, Mortimer was just another grouchy parent out to destroy his daughters happiness.

Don was prepared for Mortimer. Like him, Don was a smart guy. He needed good instincts to balance so many relationships at once, and he knew the Goth parents were on to him like cats on a mouse. He had to make sure he was accepted by the whole family, because Don was frightened of the Goths, especially Mortimer. He wanted their approval - he needed anyone's approval. He knew he was all alone in Pleasantview apart from a few air-headed ladyfriends. If he was going to make it, perhaps even get a slice of the Goth pie for himself, he would need to get on the right foot with them.

But could he really convince the Mayor of Pleasantview that he was alright after all? Even after cheating on his daughter and making a move on his wife? 

Don Lothario was in a sticky situation.

Chapter Three

Through The Looking Glass

One starry evening, Mortimer had set up his telescope for his usual night-time routine of spying on Don. It was a special occasion, because Don had invited the Goth family over for dinner as a token of good will, and also to take another shot at getting with Bella. Cassandra and Bella agreed to go, but Mortimer refused, thinking instead that he could use this as an opportunity to learn some valuable information from a distance. He could find out how Don acted when he was not around. 

Mortimer had focused the scope on Lothario's deck, and there he could see him, standing on his condo's deck, next to a telescope of his own. However, there was someone else using it.

He could see Bella peering into the eyepiece, and Don seemed to be very happy about something. It was a striking image that Mortimer would never forget, seeing his beautiful, sought-after wife actually having the cheek to enjoy herself next to that scumbag. Don had even lit candles for the occasion.

Bella watching the stars

 Feeling frustrated and murderous, Mortimer closed the scope up, slammed the lens cap back on and hesitantly went to bed, although he couldn't sleep. He would frequently wake up and go downstairs to pace the kitchen. The poking intuition that constantly hassled him had come back. The image of Don and Bella on the deck cut through his closed eyes. Eventually he dozed off into a troubled, trying to let go of his gnawing instincts that something was wrong. 

Mortimer was full of paranoid thoughts which always proved to be reliable, and that night was no exception. He was soon woken up by Cassandra, who had told him that Mom had gone missing.

What happened to Bella, neither Don nor Cassandra had any answers. According to them, Don left her to look through the scope and when they returned, she was gone. Her disappearance made the front page, but nobody could come up with an explanation.

Mortimer insisted that Don was behind it, but there was nothing he could do. His own daughter stood by Don, backing up his claim of innocence. Mortimer was left to his own suspicions, but Bella remained on his mind, endlessly lingering about him. Through the narrow lens of his telescope, that was the last that Mortimer ever saw of his beautiful wife. That striking image of Don's glowing face staring down at Bella was an image that would never leave his mind, haunting him like one of the ghosts circling the grounds of Goth Manor.

And so, the tragedy of Mortimer has been told, but this is only the beginning of his long descent into madness that will resonate through the ages, and it is only the beginning of a series of questions that may or may not be answered in the future. Who is Don Lothario? What happened to Bella? How will Mortimer retaliate? What will the Goth children do without a mother? All these questions and more will be addressed in episodes to come.

So without further ado, Click the follow button and tune in next time, because the truth is out there.

...or is it?

S1E1 "The Tragedy of Mad Mortimer" Credits:

Characters are original creations of Maxis

Blog written by Douglas Wingate

Snow Globe Mod photo courtesy of Numenor - the Modfather