Adventureland #21 - The roommate shuffle; Apartment life, Albert Matlock gets a job, Carin's new gig, and Santo Bobo settles down.

 I learned a little about how apartments work from reading up on it online. If I mark the lot as an apartment (Late Night style) the game will automatically move in a few playable characters to live there. This explains why Carin Gill was part of William Russo's household when he moved in. I had the roommate service enabled (from University) way back when Rocco Sample had Carlo Poe move in with him. For some reason, when jumping from household to household, the roommate system glitches, and everyone and the relationship panel recognize the roommate as being everyone's roommate, which helps explain how Virginia had the option to nag poor Carlo before they were married and he had moved in.

I guess for apartments it automatically filled the rest of the apartment like it was a university dorm or frat house. Anyway, when I was playing the Matlock house, I noticed they also had a roommate, and from that house I could disable the roommate service. It appears that when I did this, the roommates went elsewhere, so maybe the glitch is fixed? 

This cracked me up. There must be a story here somewhere.

Lashanda was living with Santo Bobo as a roommate before this happened.

Denny and Naomi Pyle both passed away due to old age, so Mosquito Cove was empty at the time. I guess all the roommates drove them from their house! At some point I'll have them renovate and redecorate the place. 

Meanwhile, back at the apartment, one of the NPCs, Lakesha Winters, joined the Mofia and Story Progression added her to the household, making her playable. She's now rooming with Caren Gill and creating havoc with the barbeque. 

Luckily, Carin was on top of things.

I got Lakesha a Murphy bed to add an element of danger. Lakesha is family oriented, hot-headed, a natural cook (though I'm a bit skeptical based on recent events), a snob, and artistic. She may be involved with the Mofia, but she really wants to be a stylist. 

Meanwhile, William Russo and Theresa Snell, one of the original NPCs that were living here, have become lovers.

William asked Theresa to move in with him, so now the apartment building consists of three playables and one NPC. I was thinking of sending both William and Maggie Stone off to college, but since William has a girlfriend now, and is following in his dad's footprints and going into politics, I'll leave him be. He got a makeover that gives him a more mature, professional look, but I think he's not sure politics are for him. He keeps wanting to change jobs. 

But dad's greasing the wheels for him in the political arena and dad is still helping bankroll William's lifestyle, . . . 

so unless Story Progression has other ideas, I think he'll give politics a try. Ben Matlock invited William to a party, and William invited Theresa along, but found out she and Albert Matlock knew each other and not in a good way.

Apparently they went to school together. Albert was a few grades ahead of her, but he and his hot-shot friends engaged in bullying her. 

"Hey! I remember you! You're that brainless a-hole who used to knock my lunch tray out of my hands in the cafeteria at middle school!" she exclaimed upon seeing him. 

"This is that acne-ridden, shy girl from the middle school that I used to deprive of lunch? Wow, she's kinda hot now." thought Albert. 

Both have grown up and matured since middle school days, but the hurt still seems to be running deep for Theresa. Albert isn't too bad of a guy these days. In fact he has decided to become a first-responder and work to keep the town safe. He joined the fire-fighting career.

Theresa went home early from the party, but William stayed behind and tried to fix the Matlocks' TV. 

Back at the apartment, Carin has been spending time learning various musical instruments in an effort to achieve her one-sim band goal. She can't afford any of her own, but takes evening music classes at the school. 

She realizes she needs to be bringing in some kind of income in the meantime, and she loves solving mysteries, so she decided to become a private investigator. 

On one stake-out she spotted something shady going down between Boyd Medley and teenager Dayna Russo! What was being exchanged? Test answers? (Boyd used to be a teacher.), scalped concert tickets? 

Something about this interaction stunk! She'd better go type up a report about it at the police station.

As winter gave way to spring, Carin could be caught slacking off from time to time. Didn't I send you here for a stakeout, Carin?

Sometimes she managed to combine pleasure with improving her job performance, like working on her logic skills by playing chess with Father Tim at the park. 

He's too old for you, and he's clergy, Carin. Find someone your own age! I have enough problems with Daisy Kadukin!

Father Tim's too old, and Bobby Robinson is too young. There are plenty of age appropriate choices out there. Keep looking. 

Carin finally got her first real case. Someone was kicking gnomes and had to be stopped! She went to interview the person filing the complaint. They were at a protest in the cemetery. I guess they wanted more artwork to beautify the area. 

It turned out that Morris Locklear was the culprit. She found his gnome-kicking shoes in his trash can.

She knew she saw him at the protest and went to confront him there. He confessed and assured her he was seeking therapy. 

There was so much going on in the cemetery that I thought the game would crash.

The woman who filed the complaint about the kicked gnome was Santo Bobo's new girlfriend, Ginny Guthrie, last seen trying to recruit some of the teens at the boys' home for the military. 

Santo has earned another promotion and is now starring in a western TV series called Cody Wyoming where he plays a happy-go-lucky ranch hand who is a bit of a Casanova.

 He finally feels financially stable enough to propose to Ginny and start a family.

News of Santo's and Ginny's engagement spread like wildfire, and Sally Beaumont, a good friend of Ginny's told her she wanted to host the wedding at Beaumont house. This seemed fitting as Alexander Beaumont was the first person Santo met when he escaped the island he had been stranded on. 

That night Ginny had a troubling dream, and told Santo about it the next morning. "I arrived in time for the wedding, but suddenly forgot what I was doing and thought I was supposed to be at work, so I hopped in my car and left. I got a call from you shortly after saying, 'Where are you? You're not leaving me at the alter are you?' I had forgotten I was supposed to be getting married!" I was so embarrassed that I didn't want to show my face at the event! You told me to meet you across the street, and there you convinced me to go to the party."

We went to Beaumont House, and everything seemed so perfect," she said. "We held the ceremony out at the gazebo overlooking the bay. 

all our friends were there,"

"It was wonderful!"

"Then we went to the reception and I was just about to cut the cake, and you got a strange look on your face. . .

. . . and for no reason at all, you just ran away and left me!"

(At this point my game crashed. Curses! I hadn't saved in awhile!)

"It was just a dream, you silly goose! Besides, if I were to run out on you, don't you think I would have done it BEFORE I said 'I do?"

"I guess so, she said."

That night the real wedding was held. It was the night of a full moon. Not as many people attended - only the Beaumonts and their servants. Lord Beaumont was in a mean-spirited snit and refused to dress up for the occasion and insisted on wearing goofy glasses. (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he just came from the eye doctor and had his pupils dilated.) 

Usually a man of impeccable manners and etiquette, Alexander chose to insult Santo's intelligence just before the ceremony. In spite of this, the ceremony went relatively well.

  

This time, Santo did not run off during the cake cutting. 

Everyone sat down to eat some cake, and Sally asked Ginny how it felt to be a married woman now.

Lord Alexander Beaumont chose to sit alone and sulk.

Ginny, unaccustomed to having servants, became agitated when the butler tried to take her plate from her to go wash it. "What if I want seconds?" she said. 

Lord Beaumont questioned her propriety, which made her even more frustrated. "A real lady wouldn't ever dream of asking for seconds." he sneered. 

I think it's time to go home before this gets ugly!