Northern Winds Challenge Part 13 - Saaqartoq and Huckleberry Bay
Saaqartoq, Greenland
It turns out, the Maloney family only stayed in Saaqartoq for 10 days. At this time my game was getting laggy and freezing and closing down despite my strategies to keep it running smooth. My computer was getting very hot. As a result I lost the mystery drink party as part of the experience, but I went back in and saved my household and house to the bin, then started a new game and placed them. Polly still had the mystery drinks and stashed them in the basement of an outbuilding except one I overlooked that was in her inventory. But here's the story (a blend of both games).
Polly, Maxwell, Kyngston, and their dog Rufus settled into a little blue house on the edge of town on a cold, rainy day.
As is their habit, the all set out to meet people and make friends. Polly met Robert Smith at the library,
while Max met an attractive woman, Freia, at the performance park where an acrobat was putting on a show.
Freia was a computer whiz, but Max doesn't trust technology. Luckily they did have one thing in common: their love of music.
This lady had potential. Even Polly liked her.
Max checked out the local night life and met a few more people.
Kyngston, managed to get himself in trouble by going to the historical museum late at night - past curfew and looking for things to steal. (Apparently teens with the kleptomaniac trait can't steal until they are adults?)
He got caught; the police took him home, and he was grounded for three of the ten days they were in Saaquartoq. He played a lot of video games during this time, but didn't meet many people. In fact, he wasn't even allowed to go to school. Maybe he was suspended.
Back in Redwood Harbor, Polly became interested in alchemy - especially when she discovered there was an age freeze potion. She took the potion back then which is why she still looks young even though Max and Kyngston are aging. Time has made Polly reckless, however. She decided the quiet little town needed some livening up, so she threw a mystery drink party. She poured various elixirs into glasses and mixed them around, daring her family and her guests to pick one and drink it. Results varied - some were good, and others weren't so good. Someone in the family got the Midas touch and turned one of the guests, Amaroq Quilt, into gold, then proceeded to Polly's granny flat and turned most of her furniture to gold.
Juaat Marluk decided to give it a try.
Poor Polly was trapped between a zombie and a werewolf!
She looked like she was starting to regret her decision to throw the party.
Max was a little wary or his drink, but he got the Vial of Bliss. Then it was Kyngston's turn. I think he had gotten the Midas Touch earlier.
Flask of Angry Bees! Poor Kyngston! The party ended with a rendition of The Monster Mash out on the lawn.
I would suggest they were rehearsing for Michael Jackson's Thriller video, but they never got in sync. Anyway, morning was approaching, so it was time to shuffle home.
There were a few drinks left, so Polly stored them in her underground alchemy room, except for the skill builder she kept for use at the gym in the morning. She didn't think to lock the door. The next day Max went down and drank a few of them, one of them being The Curse of the Lycan.
The next day, Polly went to the gym, with her skill builder potion in hand. Unfortunately for her, she chose the wrong drink and had the Age Up potion instead. Poor Polly has always had a problem with getting older. . . .
After 10 days in Saaqartoq, the North Wind came calling, and whisked the family off to Huckleberry Bay.
Huckleberry Bay
The Maloney tribe awoke to a warm, temperate, tropical climate, and found themselves on a small island full of small houses. (There wasn't much for public venues except rabbitholes, so I added an Italian restaurant and festival grounds. I also added a fish spawner, because I couldn't find any fishing holes.)
They found a two story, two bedroom home that they remodeled into a three bedroom home.
Max wanted to go play his guitar in the park, so off he went. He applied his charismatic talents when meeting the locals.
He had thought he had made a faux pas when he found himself transforming into a werewolf. How was he going to make friends now? However, one girl, Charity Maloney (maybe a distant cousin?) took it all in stride and even gave him a belly rub.
Charity became Max's first friend in Huckleberry Bay.
Kyngston also went out and met people, but it is taking him some time to meet any teens. Luckily, he will be aging up soon and he'll be able to join the dating pool.
Here he is getting to know Bernard Chung, who seems to have a romantic interest in Charity Maloney, according to the local gossip. As for Polly, she wanted to write another book - this time it's a romance called The Alchemist's Daughter about a girl who got into her father's forbidden store of elixirs and drank a potion that transformed her into a monster - or an old lady - Polly isn't quite sure of the storyline yet, but the daughter will then search for a lover who can accept her as she is.
With all the new projects, it seems the family had neglected poor Rufus for too long. The Humane Society came and took him away. Max especially was so sad, and Kyngston, being a dog person, felt really bad that he had been so focused on trying to fit in and get to know his classmates that he neglected his best friend.
Max went to the tiny library to try an find something to read to take his mind off the loss of Rufus. It was there he met Kelly Wolverine. He struck up a conversation with her, and they hit it off. He asked her if she knew of any good places to eat as he was feeling a little peckish. She took him to Rembrant on the Beach, the local Italian restaurant.
She was a little stand-offish, choosing to sit a different table, so she wouldn't have to hear him whine about Rufus.
He decided to grab another helping an go sit at her table - you can see she was thrilled about that.
Enough about the dog, already! You need to turn on the charm. Max thinks she's a 10. They decided to go upstairs and have a couple drinks at the bar. Kelly went on ahead, but Max was accosted by his friend Charity whom he had met at the park the day before.
"I didn't know if I should admit this to you yesterday, but I'm a werewolf too! Look at these chompers!"
"Aren't they beautiful?"
"Wha da ya think?"
As they compared "chompers," Max felt a wave of relief wash over him. At last, someone who can teach him what its like to live as a werewolf. Charity can be quite an asset! But he'd better get back to his date.
It turns out, once Kelly got a couple drinks in her, she became more sociable and was receptive to Max's flirts.
But it was getting late, time to go home.
The next day was a full moon, so Max called Charity up and asked her for some werewolf lessons. She said she'd meet him at the park.
First, Max showed her a gadget he had found. "Do you think it's worth any money?" he asked.
"I think you look really hot as a werewolf," she replied, "But it's time for those lessons you were asking about. Let me transform and we'll get started."
"First of all, being a werewolf has its drawbacks: not everyone will like you, and some might even pick a fight with you, so lets first practice fighting. Ready?"
Werewolves fighting in the park. Nothing to see here - just a typical day in Huckleberry Bay. By the way, Max won this fight.
"Not bad! You've got some good moves for a skinny guy. Time to move on to lesson #2: defacing public property. Now you can deface a variety of items, but chairs, couches, and benches are the best. It really annoys the humans when they go looking for a place to sit. You will be scolded for doing this, but seldom will you get arrested, so just ignore the nay-sayers."
Bernard Chung, Charity's love interest is in the background asking her if she wants to go see a movie with him. "
"Back off, bucko! Can't you see I'm training someone? What's wrong with you?!"
Meanwhile, Max is about to pass out from exhaustion. "Can we go get some coffee or something?"
I wanted to see what werewolf Max would choose to paint. This was the result.
Meanwhile, Polly had finished her book and was a little stir-crazy. She decided to get out of the house and go to the bookstore to buy Kyngston some comic books for his upcoming birthday. They plan to go to the festival grounds to celebrate as their house is way too small for entertaining. She happened across a little outside area with a pizza oven, and decided to fix herself some lunch. (I'm glad I figured out how to fix the interactive store content. I was missing this oven!)
It was the dead of night, and as usual, Polly was up and at the computer while the others were fast asleep in their beds. Then the doorbell rang. "Who could be visiting at 2 am?" Polly wondered. It turned out to be a young woman named Loretta Daily. Polly invited her in and they went up to the upper deck, and Polly befriended her and bragged about her grandson Kyngston.
Loretta was extremely tired and asked if it would be okay if she slept in the lounge chair for the night. Polly, ever the perfect hostess, acquiesced. "I wonder if she's homeless," Polly mused. "I'd offer to take her in, but we've so little room as it is."
The next morning, Loretta met Max, still in his werewolf form. I guess Charity isn't the only one who finds the werewolf thing attractive. Loretta does as well, to a point. She enjoyed flirting with Max, but when he started sniffing her inappropriately, she put her foot down and shoved him away.
At this point, Polly came into the room. "Oh, I see you've met my son."
"Not now, Mom, don't you see we're busy?"
Undeterred, Polly forced her way into the conversation.
Max was getting hungry and had to leave for work soon. But Loretta insisted on standing in front of the stove and playing on her phone. How would poor Max ever get his pumpkin pie cooked in time to eat it? Max changed into his work clothes as the pie was just ready to eat. What is he to do? Eat the pie and go to work late, or go to work hungry? What a conundrum!
So with three women on the line, which one is Max's Ms. Right? Kelly, Charity, or Loretta? Maybe he will invite all three to Kyngston's birthday party and see what happens. . . .
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