An Appaloosa Plains Story - part 4 - Hidden Springs Honeymoon, the Lionheart Estate, Poor Mrs. Parrot, the Cruz Family, and Chuck's New Wife.
Honey and Byron went off to Hidden Springs for their Honeymoon. While there, they purchased a modest cabin as a vacation property. I may send the whole family once Ty ages up to a child.
The vacation home has two bedrooms and an in-home gym, which is nice as both wanted to work on their fitness while on vacation. The game didn't recognize the the couple as married or even friends when they arrived, so I had to work that back up and give them a private wedding to catch them up to the point they were supposed to be.
They met a few of the townies. Honey became friends with Ella. (In this town there's a royal family and a Cinderella situation - Ella is Cinderella.)
Honey also met a handsome prince in uniform. Who could resist?
They didn't catch much, but Honey, especially, had a good time.
They spent some time at the gym and the spa.
Honey could also be spotted busking outside the theater. I think they had a pretty good time. They returned home, and it was still winter. They wanted to throw a gift-giving party, but I messed up and forgot to specify the kind of party, so they settled for a house party. I think they got credit for the party just the same.
Honey's coworker, Bertram seemed to be stealing the show, so Honey decided to set up in the kitchen and play. Bertram's wife Patricia, who hears her husband play all the time, preferred to listen to someone different.
I caught Byron slow dancing with another woman upstairs. Could there be trouble in paradise?
Byron accumulated a lot of lifetime points and bought himself the vehicle that preserves his mood while travelling. I've never used it before, but it looks pretty cool.
I'll come back to the family when baby Ty ages up enough to be interesting.
I'm been wanting to drop in on Hetty Lionheart, an evil old cat lady who keeps to herself and is enemies or disliked by at least half the population. The rest are very indifferent toward her. She lives in this run-down Victorian with three live cats and one ghost cat.
(Chuck Hobble came across the place on one of his rides awhile back.)
I can't find any lore on Hetty in regard to the high chair in her kitchen, but I'm led to believe she once had a child, who either died young or grew up and no longer wants anything to do with her. There's a very large bedroom upstairs, where all the cat beds are kept. It is very cat-themed.
There's a room without a door that would be just right for an ensuite bathroom, but it isn't being utilized. There's an easel upstairs, but Hetty has no painting skills or artistic trait, so I think this must have belonged to her child. (I'm envisioning a son for some reason.) I think the bedroom must have belonged to him as Hetty doesn't sleep there. Instead she sleeps in the living room, maybe because it has a fireplace and can be the warmer place in the house when the weather is cold.
Hetty has the insane trait, which means she often wears inappropriate clothes. For instance, here she is wearing her swimwear to bed. Her cat (I think this one is Mothball) thinks she looks silly.
There is a bit of drama in the house, even though there is only one human living here. You would think that Hetty would love all her cats, but that's not the case, Hetty likes Pickles and Muffin, but dislikes Mothball. She also likes some cat that doesn't belong to her - Maria Pinkerton.
Mothball also likes Maria Pinkerton, but Muffin is enemies with both Mothball and Maria Pinkerton. Mothball is Pickles' mate, so they love each other. Muffin is mates with Babycakes Loveland. Muffin and Mothball are always fighting with each other.
It looks like they are playing, but their relationship doesn't improve.
I love that Hetty's kitchen has a barbeque in it.
The kitchen is missing a fridge, but I found it on the back porch.
Of course, cooking with a barbeque indoors can be hazardous. (I think this one is prone to fires anyway.)
This house is clearly not up to code. Hetty has a fire alarm, thank goodness, but she doesn't have a burglar alarm.
He stole her water fountain.
I forgot the name of the ghost cat, but its urn is in the bedroom that Hetty doesn't use.
I thought about getting Hetty a roommate since she doesn't use that upstairs bedroom, but she's a loner, so I didn't think she would do that. She has very few friends, but seems on good terms with Jazlyn Parrott, so Hetty invited her out skating.
Hetty is a skilled skater, it turns out, as is Jazlyn.
I was thinking of having Hetty leave the house and care of the cats to Jazlyn as an inheritance, but on further investigation, Jazlyn has a family - she was living with her cheating ex-husband Kanoa, her teenage son Ethan, and toddler Herman. Her lifetime wish was to be surrounded by family, so Hetty's house would be much too small for her needs, and she's living in a nice, spacious house anyway. I sent Kanoa to live with Imogen Pelly so poor Jazlyn wouldn't have to put up with him anymore. I gave Ethan a makeover because he was walking around with a beekeeper's hat and some adventuring duds, and I thought the kids at school would make fun of him.
He's having a lot of fun here, but his usual express is definitely that of a surly teenager. Jazlyn has a perpetually sad look about her. I've never seen her smile. After moving Kanoa out, I noticed Jazlyn had a love interest with Zac Whipsnake, so she invited him over and asked him to be her roommate. He agreed.
She apologized for Herman waking him up so early, but Zac really seems to like Herman and is autonomously quite attentive to him.
It wasn't long until Herman had a birthday and aged up.
Zac and Jazlyn tried for a baby, and another little one was on the way when I left them.
That's right, Herman, you are going to be a big brother soon.
I didn't try to force marriage as I know Zac is a little shy of commitment, but I was later notified that they did get married.
I had Hetty get a job with the criminal career even though I doubt she'll ever accomplish her lifetime wish of being an emperor of evil. She actually made a couple friends while I was away. She is now best friends with her co-worker Sylvia Spiotto, and she even has a very inappropriate boyfriend, Cruz Martindale. I see no reason under the sun why Cruz, being a young adult and handsome eligible bachelor, would tie himself to this cranky, crusty old woman, so I went looking for a motive.
Cruz is about as close to a nextdoor neighbor as Hetty has, so maybe he hopes to ingratiate himself into her will and gain an addition to his property. Also, Cruz lives with his aging mother Sofia and her horse Marney, so maybe he wants to move out - he and the horse are enemies. Here's a picture of Cruz and Sylvia Siotto. They would make a nice couple. Maybe they could move into the house together after Hetty passes away.
They seemed to be hitting it off, but when they went on an outing later, she got mad at him about something. I figured that Sylvia was a horsewoman, and I didn't see any awards in the house or in her inventory, so I sent her out to practice jumping with Marney and sent her to a few competitions.
I entered them in the Advanced competition as both has some skills already. The first time they got 4th place, but when they tried a few days later, they won the 1st place trophy. They got prize money both times.
Hetty' life bar is filled all the way up at this point, and she realizes she can't conquer death, so she's thinking about what might happen to her cats when she's gone.
She needs to make some arrangements. She knows Cruz has a propensity for rescuing animals, and has realized their relationship is not a good thing for him, so she invited him over. First she asked him to be her roommate, which he accepted. Then he autonomously gave her a heat-of-the-moment kiss. She told him she had to break up with him, and really she wanted him to move in as a friend to help her out as she's starting to have a hard time keeping up with the house. I was surprised to see how broken-up he was about this turn of events!
Hetty tried to explain to Cruz that he needs to find someone his own age as she doesn't think she will be around much longer. Cruz decided he couldn't live with her as "just friends."
Hetty has since quit the criminal career and registered as an artist. The life of crime was just not working out for her in her advanced age. She was still good friends with Sylvia Spiotto, and she knew Sylvia liked cats and had one of her own, so she invited her over and asked her to move in, telling her that while she couldn't pay her to help out, she wouldn't charge rent, and would leave the house to her if she agreed to take care of her cats. (Sylvia, it turns out, had a modest but nice house of her own, but I'm going to assume she's renting and looking for a fixer-upper to renovate and have as her own.) Sylvia and her kitty moved in.
It hasn't been easy for Sylvia to manage her job and trying to take care of this run-down house, and old woman, and 4 cats, but she's doing her best. She's in it for the long game. She respects that Hetty is set in her ways and has not tried to make any changes to the place while Hetty lives. She has taken the upstairs bedroom and shares it with the cats. She did get Hetty's permission to give the outside of the house a fresh coat of paint, however.
I tried to keep with what looked to be the original colors based on the swatches for the different parts of the house for the most part. I don't know why there were shutters when I went to paint the house when they didn't show up in the original picture. So strange.
The day arrived when Grim came calling.
Hetty died peacefully in her sleep. She was ready to go, being weary of the daily grind.
Grim couldn't stand the mess and decided to so a little housekeeping before he left. Thanks Grim!
He also tried to comfort the cats . . . .
and kept them company until it was nearly time for Sylvia to get home.
Sylvia came home and found that Hetty had passed away.
So long, Hetty. You will be missed.
In other news, our buddy Chuck Hobble found himself a wife. Her name is Rosio, and she has her own modest house, which is a good thing, because when Chuck invited her over to the house he shares with Johnny Johnson, Johnny put the moves on her!
Chuck knows it's time to move out - and maybe dissolve his friendship with Johnny if Johnny is trying to steal his girl.
I can only guess the reason Chuck and Rosio weren't living together was because of Chuck's horses needing accommodations, so I built a barn on the property and provided hay and a water trough.
The house looks big, but it's really dinky inside. The upstairs is a roomy bedroom/loft but downstairs is pretty cramped. I remodeled it because it had EA starter-house furnishings and décor. The Hobbles seem content here.
They are approaching elderhood. In fact - Rocio just had her birthday. Chuck just can't seem to stay away from his crime-fighting tendencies and rejoined the police force when I wasn't looking. He's probably too old to be a rodeo clown now anyway.
After Hetty's death, I was waiting outside Sylvia's workplace, and spotted the couple being all lovey-dovey. They spent A LOT of money on flowers for each other.
Sofia and Marney were also there. It was like old home week.
Next episode, Hetty's funeral and renovation of the inside of her house.
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