Cape Albacore Part 3 - Forming relationships.

 At the end of the last installment we left Rocco Sample at the library after registering as a private eye. I said maybe he could help Kia locate her stolen goods. As luck would have it, Kia happened by the library and became one of the first people Rocco met. (I said Kia was in the political career earlier, but to clarify, she wants to join the political career but for now is in the military.) 

They took some time getting to know each other, talking about books and about gardening, which is one of Rocco's interests. . . .

In fact, I built Rocco a small greenhouse so he can grow a few things. It's fall now, and I didn't want him to have to wait until spring. Rocco also learned that, like him, Kia is a couch potato.

They weren't quite at the friend level after this encounter, but they were well on their way. Rocco was getting tired, so he went home to get some sleep. However, a few hours later, Kia shows up at his house. Is she stalking him?

I woke him up and he invited her in. I suspect he was thinking he might get lucky, but no, the first thing she does is insult his intelligence. 

Then she flirted with him, but the man's got his pride.

"Excuse ME ma'am, but didn't you just call me a moron? What makes you think I'd overlook that?"

Kia seemed surprised at his response to her flirting. She didn't realize he was such a man of principle. They managed to smooth things over and adjourn to the garage to play some juice pong.

Kia said she'd like him to come over to her place sometime, and she'd cook for him, but he's not sure what to make of her. 

The next day, Rocco went on a jog and then to the Coast Guard base to work out.

While he was there, he got a call from Kia. She wanted to enlist his expertise in hacking into a company computer and making some monetary adjustments to her credit history. 

Rocco apparently has principles in some areas of his life, but not in every area. He agreed to do what she asked - for a fee. When he accomplished his objective, he went to Kia's house to report in. There apparently are some routing issues at  the front porch because when she came out to invite him in, she couldn't do it. Instead she went in the house and shut the door. Then she sat down and watched TV. 

This occurred a few days later when Kia threw a party and ordered a pizza to be delivered. She couldn't take the pizza from the delivery person. I think I found a work-around by setting the door off the big deck as the front door. 

Since Rocco couldn't access the house, he went home and called her to meet him at a public location the following day. The mission was accomplished, and he was paid. While he was there, Rocco made sure that LeRoy knew what Rocco thought of him. 

Then he encountered Jessie Caldeira, . . . 

who promptly went into labor.

She skedaddled on home and gave birth to a baby boy and named him Howard. Time to shuffle some people around. I thought about the houseboat that once belonged to LeRoy, but it's not attached to a port, so it isn't for sale. Then I remembered that Diego and Maria were now romantically involved, so I moved her and little Jan in with him.

Then I moved Kao, Jessie, and baby Howard into Maria's old house at 13 Starfish. Jessie was so excited she went to check out her new home, leaving poor Howard lying on the dock! Luckily Kao came along, picked him up, and took him home. 

I blame sleep deprivation. New mothers never get enough sleep. Jessie and Kao seem to appreciate their new home. 

Both of them want to get married, but I was thinking if they didn't do it themselves with Story Progression, I might wait for a wedding venue to arrive and we could have the first formal wedding then. 

A few days later, the paper announced that the Chin-Rajkupal household had a new addition.

Meet baby Graham.

I needed to exchange one of the twin beds in the kids' room for a crib.  Anna seems to be enjoying her time off work and being a mom.

I'm thinking some day when the kids age up to toddlers, Anna and Jessie can meet at the library for some "Mommy and Me" activities. 

As mentioned earlier, I wanted to see if the routing issue at the Red Lantern Lookout
was a one-time thing or not, so I had Kia throw a small party, inviting people she had met. No one at the party had difficulty entering through the front door, but any interactions on the front porch get cancelled. I set the back door to be the front door after the party. The party was a success. Attendees included Diego Purdy, a couple paparazzi named Alexa Basham and Takisha Ladner (the one LeRoy slapped in the previous episode), and Rocco Sample. Rocco arrived a little later and brought some Stew Surprise. Takisha brought a baguette. Kia ordered pizza and served it at the outdoor kitchen, after the delivery guy gave up and left it on the front porch. 

Kia got to know her guests a little better while others danced.

Rocco was the last or arrive and was also the last to leave. They ended the evening amiably by watching TV together.

Rocco's traits are couch potato, overemotional, inappropriate, genius, and green thumb. Kia's are couch potato, brave, excitable, good, and clumsy. The jury's still out on whether they will ever be more than friends. 

It's time to move on to some new residents. The Carranza family consists of Staci, an eccentric artist, her hell-on-wheels mother, and her two sons. They live in my CJ Shell Challenge house at 23 Blue Marlin Parkway. This house has a few bizarre design choices due to the challenge shell itself, so I was trying to envision who might live here. I came up with Staci and randomized her traits, substituting artistic and eccentric for two of her less interesting traits. 

She's no beauty queen, but she's interesting. She's the kind of mother who tends to be more of a friend to her kids than a disciplinarian, and therefore, her kids are a little unruly.

She is an only child who has a mother who is difficult to get along with. Her mother, Myra Burkhart, divorced Staci's father when Staci was a toddler, and Staci doesn't know him. Myra had some challenging health problems that she recovered from, but it drained her retirement nest egg, and she was forced to sell her house in order to pay off all the bills. She had no other recourse than to move in with Staci who felt obligated to make the offer. 

I randomized Myra's traits and one of the traits turned out to be "can't stand art." Since her daughter chose to be an artist, I'm sure this is a point of contention between the two of them. In addition to having this trait, Myra is flirty, inappropriate, and evil. She had another dull trait, so I thought, why not swap it out for "dislikes children" and really have some drama. And drama we have! I mostly just sit back and watch what happens, only stepping in when it makes sense to do so. For instance. Myra was using the bathroom mirror to "gussy up" autonomously, so I figured she was going out for the night and sent her to the pub or Myra wants to play chess and there's a kid practicing chess, so they play together. 

The oldest son is Raymond who has the unstable trait, meaning his traits will shift periodically. He started with no sense of humor and can't stand art. Then he shifted to evil and can't stand art, so you'd think he and his grandmother would get along pretty well. (These traits were randomized.)

Raymond is kind of nerdy and takes life seriously. Here he's in his sleepwear, but usually he wears a sweater vest and glasses. 

His little brother is Frank. Frank is hydrophobic, inappropriate, and grumpy (randomized.) He's always upset about something - sometimes with good reason.

He loves his dinosaur costume, . . .  but isn't too fond of his grandma.

But let's start at the beginning: the first day Myra moved in. Things were going pretty well. The kids woke up first and helped themselves to some juice-boxes from the fridge. 

Then Myra got up and made pumpkin pie for breakfast. I guess inappropriate people can fix whatever they want any time of day.

Everyone helped themselves to the pie at some point in the day. Then the kids went outside to play. Myra came out to try to bond with them. Making faces is her go-to strategy for improving relationships. 

I think at this point, Raymond had no sense of humor, because he wasn't that impressed. He even walked away when Myra passed out for no apparent reason (bored to death I guess.)

Don't die on me yet, Myra; you'll ruin the storyline!

"Stupid kid! No concern whatsoever for his dear old granny! Well, let's see what the other one is about."

Frank is wondering how long she intends to live with them.

It's best to humor the old broad. "Hey, grandma! Why did you never send us any money so we could take music lessons? Isn't that something grandmas are supposed to do?"

"What the heck are you talking about? Your mother never even brought up the subject! You're mother has spoiled you! Back in my day we didn't get music lessons and never expected to either!"

At this point, Myra gave up and went to watch TCM.

Meanwhile, Staci had finally gotten up and was enjoying a piece of pie.

She had a restless night, worrying about what it would be like to have to live with her mother again, constantly criticizing her cooking, . . . 

criticizing her career choice . . .

She had no doubt the woman was toxic.  Sure enough, the day didn't end without Myra starting in about Staci's career.

Poor Staci! A few days later she finished a painting she called "The Attack."

I guess I didn't get a picture of the finished product. Staci is also interested in fashion, and took the whole family to town to inquire about some stylist work the following day. There she met Nikki Dawkins, who at the time was also a stylist.

 

Nikki is one of those people who doesn't know what she wants to do for a living. Shortly after this encounter, she joined the police force, but she thinks she really wants to be a chef. Guess who else joined the police force. Maybe little Frank will get those music lessons after all. 

I heard the kids having fun and went to find them. I had forgotten this lot had a little park. 

Of course Myra had to express her disapproval of Staci's decision to take the stylist job. "You could have been a scientist or doctor! Why are you wasting you time doing something like this?"

"Furthermore, your kids are brats! Did you know Frank demanded I pay for music lessons for him? If you had a decent job you could pay for them yourself!"

This is Myra's go-to statement when things get heated.

"Kid, when you grow up, make sure you get a REAL job, none of this silly artsy stuff like your mother does. 

The next day, Staci and Myra decided to drop in on their new neighbor who moved into The Mallard, across the street. 

This house was built by Fatness1974, and is inhabited by one sim at the moment. 

His name is Vince Howard, and he's a politician. One of the first things he did was complain to Staci about how noisy her kids are when they are outside playing. 

They started talking about careers, and Staci explained that she was an artist. Of course, Myra thinks all her paintings and drawing are a bunch of unnecessary garbage. 

Myra thought he was a good-looking young man and decided to employ her strategy of making silly faces to break the ice. She was rewarded by a whack upside the head with a pillow that must have contained something heavier that mere feathers. 

Her head was spinning, and she felt he was being really immature.

Then he laughed about it and whacked her again!

It was then that she realized he was mean-spirited. But don't worry, she got even.

It looks like he should have seen this coming, yet he was taken by surprise.

Way to go, Myra! Then she went upstairs and used his computer to make some inappropriate posts on his account.  Meanwhile, Staci decided to try a different approach, and figured he's probably the kind of person who enjoyed talking about himself, and talked politics with him.

Then they went out to the back yard for a pillow fight, but this time I think there were only feathers in the pillows. 

So what have we learned about Mr. Howard? He's a mean-spirited politician who likes to pillow fight and gripe about other people's children. According to Nraas, his traits are mean-spirited, photographer's eye, athletic, charismatic, and computer whiz. He had no lifetime wish when I checked, but likes Indie music, the color orange, and fried PB & J sandwiches. He's still single at the moment. 

Spooky day has arrived. I tried to send the kids over to trick or treat Vince Howard's house, but the action kept getting cancelled. (I always have trouble with trick-or-treating.)  Because they couldn't trick or treat his house and they live a long way from anyone else's house, they celebrated in other ways, such as reading scary stories. 

Frank autonomously chose Hotel Diovolo: Hell's Bellhops . . . 

. . . while Raymond selected the more educational Why Do Vampires Suck? He felt grandma was a bit too old to play in the fall leaves, . . . . 

. . .  but Myra wasn't the only one enjoying the season.

That night after everyone else turned in, little Frank couldn't sleep and wandered down to the computer to play some games. He was given a spine-tingling surprise. Someone had booby-trapped the computer!

"Aaaah!" Who could have done this? I didn't see who did it, but both Frank and I have our suspicions!

"Dang you, Grandma!"

I tried to do something nice for Myra. She was wanting to get a chess table, so I got her one. Apparently I blew it when selecting the chairs to go with it. Some people are never satisfied!

Little Frank was upset I spent their money on the chess table. I think he still wants music lessons. Maybe he'll be a musician when he grows up  . . .

- either that, or a paleontologist.  

Let's drop in on one more family before we leave. The Dawkins family has come to town. Apparently they put in a bid for Red Lantern Lookout, but the sale fell through. They have moved into the Coastal Retreat, built by Ciane instead. Let's meet the family.

We've briefly met Nikki a bit earlier. She is working for the police force at the moment but wants to change jobs to the culinary career. I think she has the boss from Hell. This boss had the nerve to show up on the Dawkins' doorstep at 11 pm at night, wanting Nikki to come back to work and complete her reports. 

Oh, it's you, Myra. Why am I not surprised? No wonder Nikki wants to change jobs! Everyone was in bed except the son, Noah, who answered the door. When Myra realized the kid was the only one awake, she at least had the good sense to say she needed to go home. 

Nikki's husband is Harrison.

I can't remember what career he had, politician? police? military? Whatever it is, he works hard to provide for his family. Then there's Noah.

He seems to be interested in art as well as computer games. And then there's little Holly and her pet raccoon.

Just kidding, the raccoon walking beside her is just a coincidence. It would be cool, though. We'll get to know this family a little better in the next episode as well as meet some new people who have moved into some new houses.