Cape Albacore Part 5 - The Little Town Grows

 I felt it was time to turn on aging and Story Progression for a few days to move things along. In that time the puppies became dogs, babies became toddlers, and little Jan Killian became a child - . . . 

. . . - and started sassing her mama. She acquired the Diva trait in addition to her clumsy and loner traits. 

I checked in on LeRoy Turner since he was supposed to be with Bianca Rossi but was last seen having a covert dinner with Mary Cohen, the aspiring rock star. I guess it was just a mild temptation because when I went looking for him, he was with Bianca, and they were all lovey-dovey.

 

Enough of this mushy stuff! Let's go see who's living in Sea Crest Cottage, created by Soocoolsim.

The cottage is home to Ms. Alma Augustine, an aspiring musician who wants to be a hit movie composer someday.

Alma is a virtuoso and handy, but also easily impressed, over-emotional, and a loner. Time to get out of your comfort zone and meet some people, Alma. 

I

I took her to to pub where she met Nikki Dawkins . . .

pillow-fighting Vince Howard, . . .

 . . . and lottery winner Yvonne Askew's brother Seth. I haven't really hung out with Seth much, but he likes to call and talk with people. He's still working at the police station and his partner is Hector Lance, who lives at Pelican's Perch.

I made sure Alma got that job in the music career at the theater, and then spent some time with her on her day off. She apparently has a little rowboat, and since the weather was good, she thought she'd go exploring the waterways a bit.

She made her way to Mackerel Island, did a little exploring, and tried her hand at fishing.

It was getting late, the fish weren't biting, and she was getting hungry, so she stopped by the Coast Guard Base on the way home and had something to eat. I stepped away from the computer for a few minutes, and when I came back, Alma was drawing a crowd with her busking. At least James was paying attention. LeRoy and Bianca, get a room!

We called it a night and I left Alma dreaming of her future success.

Since we're in the neighborhood, let's check in on Hector Lance of Pelican's Perch (created by Fatness1974.) 

Hector works as a cop and must have a trust fund to be able to afford this house. His partner is Seth Askew, and his boss is Anna Chin-Rajkupal. When I first dropped in, Hector was just getting off work at 3pm and was exhausted. He went home and slept for awhile, then got up in the middle of the night to play video games.

He is a night owl, loves the outdoors, is artistic, a schmoozer, and is a hopeless romantic. 

He's the kind of guy who will order a pizza, then invite the pizza delivery girl in to eat with him.

Her name is Vicki Yanez. I wondered if they might get together, but Story Progression had other ideas. 

Story Progression had been on for a day or two, so I thought I'd check the demographics of the town. According to Nraas Master Controller, on week 6, day 4 of the game, this is what we have:

40 residents:20 males/20 females

1 pregnancy

0 babies

2 male toddlers

9 children: 5 males/4 females

0 teens

9 young adults: 5 males/4 females

15 adults: 6 males/9 females

4 elders: 2 males/2 females

8 couples

Here's what I learned at this point:

Congrats to the Dawkins family on their soon-to-be new edition. 

Congrats to Maria and Diego on their future marriage.

Mary, watch out for Rocco - he's got a mean streak.

And congrats to all those advancing in their careers.

Jessie seemed to be clueless about Nikki's condition.

"You know, if you like I can help you with an exercise regimen that could help you get rid of that pot belly you are getting."

But Harrison thinks she's beautiful.

 

And Nikki adores him. 

"Well, how was I to know! I haven't seen the woman in ages!"

A short while later, Nikki gave birth to baby Karen, who is clumsy and friendly.

It turns out Nikki wasn't the only one expecting.

Oh, hi Staci. Urm, congrats, I guess? This pregnancy is clearly unplanned. Who's the father you may ask? Stay tuned. Meanwhile I was curious as to how this family is getting along. When I placed them they were all on relatively good terms. No so anymore.

Frank is quite fed-up with his condescending grandmother. They aren't to the dislike stage, but they are getting there. The relationship panel shows that Frank is friends with Jill Dodge and Holly Dawkins, his mother and his brother, but Myra is at the bottom of his list. 

Raymond's traits are still shifting. At the moment he is unstable, hates the outdoors, and is a coward. He looks like he's up to no good.

 

God help them when he becomes a teen. Oddly enough, Myra has a good relationship with Raymond; they were even playing together autonomously.

Maybe they are a little too close. . . 

"I see you didn't quite make it to the toilet in time, grandma. Don't worry, I've got this!"

Myra's relationship panel reveals that she has a good relationship with Raymond, but dislikes Staci, Ruth Dodge, and James Russell. I assume she dislikes Ruth for adopting all those kids. I'm not sure why she dislikes James. Maybe they are vying for the same promotion at work. Seth Askew must be thriving in the law enforcement field as he is now Myra's boss. She apparently has a crush on him. Her best friend seems to be the family's Ford Fiesta. 

I haven't seen Myra and Staci fighting during this visit to the house, but Staci clearly dislikes her. When looking at her relationship panel, Staci's best friend is also the 2011 Ford Fiesta, then her baby-daddy, then her kids. Myra is at the bottom of the list. This might be why Staci sought out Anna when she needed to confide in someone about her condition.

"You're a mother to a little one, so I know you will understand my feelings."

"I love kids, but I'm just dreading facing all those sleepless nights I see in my future." 

The evening was mild, so Anna and Staci stepped out for a little air. Anna took her guitar along to practice.

Staci noticed some odd lights in the evening sky.

"What the heck is that?"

"It's got me! Help me Anna!"

"Anna! Are you seeing this!?! HELP me, for the love of God!"

Wow, Anna, you are really concentrating, aren't you. Where did you friend go?

Needless to say, Staci was a little freaked out by the whole experience.

"Did you really not see what just happened to me?" Staci asked incredulously.

 Anna replied, "I guess I did see what happened, but I panicked and shut down. So sorry I didn't help you. What was it like? Did they make you do a lot of strenuous exercises?"

"No, but what they did made me very uncomfortable." Staci confided.

"And the inside of their spaceship looked like something out of the 1970's."

"Oooh, that's so interesting!" Anna enthused. 

Moving on, let's drop in on the inhabitants of Pawtucket Patriot, created by Fatness1974. 

Story Progression placed Shantel Ho, who is a stylist. She is a loner, adventurous, brave, avant garde, and clumsy.

As much as Shantel would like to have the house to herself, her stylist job isn't enough to pay her bills, so she decided to take in the Speegle siblings as roommates. 

When I first dropped in, Jessie Caldeira-Kahale was there stirring up trouble. (Yes, she and Kao finally tied the knot.)

I've seen Jessie around town with little Howard, and she seems to be a good mother.

But on this particular night, she just needed to get away from her role as a mother and hang out with grown-ups. It was 3 am and she was showing no signs of going home. Instead she was insulting her hosts' intelligence.

Shantel was not taking it well. Cydney looked on, dumbfounded. Cydney is lucky, artistic, avant garde, excitable, and neat. 

Shantel was clearly annoyed that Cydney didn't step in and defend her. I'll have to check back after some time has passed to see how Shantel is getting along with her new roommates.

She and Cyndey aren't off to a good start, but she and Slade seem to be hitting it off.

(Jessie also thinks Slade is hot.) Slade is ambitious, a party animal, eccentric, handy, and a schmoozer. 

The other sibling is Sammy Speegle, who's shy, a bookworm, handy, good, and a genius. Still waters run deep.

I see you're enjoying your little mini vacation from your family, Jessie, but you're looking a little tired. Why don't you go on home now? 

Or not. 

I noticed that despite LeRoy's old houseboat not being moored to a dock, someone did move into it. 

This is Lillian Doughtry. She is socially awkward, neat, a party animal, a light sleeper, and has commitment issues. I am very surprised that she doesn't have unlucky as one of her traits. During the brief time I observed her, she got seasick and puked on the floor, then rolled her sleeping bag out on it and went to sleep, but not for long, because Joanne McGuire broke into the houseboat and robbed her blind.

Despite the fact that she's a light sleeper and a cop, poor Lillian was unable to apprehend the culprit, and Joanne made a clean getaway.

Add to that the fact that her sink broke, and it's obvious this is not Lillian's week. 

So sorry, Lillian. I hope things improve for you. 

One of the liveliest places in town is the Cuttlefish Mews Pub. It's almost always hoppin'

And I swear little Noah Dawkins is fascinated with this place. He always seems to be hanging around. Maybe he'll own his own bar when he grows up. 

On this particular night, I thought a brawl might be a brewin'. Vince Howard was really getting LeRoy Turner's goat.

(Mary seems a little peeved in this picture; in a minute we'll see why.) The argument didn't escalate to a fight, mainly thanks to Seth Askew stepping in and diffusing the situation. I think Seth is the town's peacemaker. Maybe he's so good at law enforcement because he has this gift.

Seth convinced LeRoy to let things slide. After all, Vince is on his way to being a powerful politician, and making an enemy of him might be detrimental to his own job if Vince rises to commander in chief. Seth seems to get along well with everyone but his father.

Seth moved in with his partner from the police force, Hector Lance. Hector, in the meantime, has acquired a girlfriend. 

I hope you like kids, Hector. But I digress, time to return to the bar.

By the way, the reason Mary looked annoyed is because Betsy Askew is getting far too chatty with with mixologist and preventing her from being able to order a drink. 

I haven't spent too much time with James Russell yet. He's one to take his job seriously. It looks like he stopped to investigate this group congregating on an empty lot for no apparent reason. He just wanted to make sure they were on the up and up. 

A notable fact about James is his relationship bar is showing Jessie Caldeira-Kahale as a love interest. Maybe there's some unrequited love going on here. Of course Jessie is showing the same relationship with him due to game mechanics, but Kao is higher on her relationship bar, so I assume she's over any romantic feeling she had for James. James seems to prefer spending time with the dogs rather than pursuing a woman who's available. He went home and got the dogs and took them to the new Blue Creek Dog Park (created by Soocoolsim.)

I guess little Zeke is the boss. He got to sit in the front of the cab, while James and Ted sat in the back.

I have never seen a dog so enamored of a dog ball as little Zeke Russell.

Here's a sight you don't often see: a mailman who likes dogs. I found this guy willingly hanging out at the dog park and giving the dogs treats. 

He must be a friend of Maria Killian's as he's thinking sending her a text. Meanwhile the dogs seem to be having a discussion as to whether it's okay to be friends with a horse.

The mailman isn't the only human James encountered at the park this evening. Little Hester Dodge was here unattended, enjoying a picnic. 

Where's your mother, Hester? 

James enjoyed a snow cone, and Betsy decided that was a good idea.

The day came to a close and James and the dogs headed home.

Not everyone is a dog person, and Vince Howard made this known when I spotted him taking his kitten for a walk. (I'll need to drop in and make sure the little tyke has a food bowl.)

Yvonne Askew's uncle Bubba is apparently fond of cats too. He came over to feed the kitten a treat.

It turns out, Vince was meeting Bubba's niece here when she got off work. Bubba was not amused.

"Run away, Yvonne! He's not the man for you!" Bubba hollered.

Yvonne paid her uncle no mind.

"You're a strong woman, Yvonne. Don't settle for the first red-headed scoundrel who comes along."

"He's just not right for you!"

"He's probably just wanting to get his hands on your money!"

But Vince knows how to weasel his way into a woman's heart. "For me?!" Yvonne exclaimed. 

"Get away from him I say! I have it on good authority from Myra Burkhart that he hits little old ladies with pillowcases full of rocks!"

"Do you hear what I'm saying? He's bad news! He's been captured on video hitting people with rock-stuffed pillowcases! Here, I'll show you!"

"Dag-nabbit! I dropped my phone!"

"His behavior is cringe-worthy, I assure you!"

"Yikes! That can't be him! That video has been altered!" 

Time to close this episode, but first, let's take a look at the Story Progression report before we leave. 

LeRoy and Bianca tied the knot. In fact, LeRoy requested a makeover from Staci soon after he got married, saying he wanted to make sure he didn't look like he was still available. He wanted to be attractive to his wife, but he didn't want to draw the attention of other women. 

Rocco and Mary got engaged, and the mystery of Staci's baby-daddy is revealed. They both seem very happy by this turn of events despite it being unplanned.

Before leaving, I learned that Staci birthed Bubba's baby boy Buck.

Story Progression is now off for the time being to let things settle a bit. I see some home shuffling that needs to happen if Story Progression doesn't take care of it. 

To do list:

• Decide where Rocco and Mary are going to live (probably Rocco's house.)
• Decide where LeRoy and Bianca are going to live now that they are married. (There are some singles living in family homes that I haven't visited yet. I might move one of them to Mary's house and move LeRoy and Bianca to a family home. 
• Decide if Bubba is going to move in with Staci, Myra, and the kids or if Staci and the kids will move into the mansion with Bubba, leaving the house to Myra. 

Until next time . . .