Tiny Town Challenge Part 4 - The Reluctant Inventor

 You've got to love this game. After all these years, it still surprises me. Cyprus Handyman is a prime example. The ladies and I have been working on getting to know Cyprus and have discovered some interesting things about him. 

Cyprus has a knack for making friends. He seems to autonomously know what interests them. 

In review, his traits are handy, eccentric, disciplined, loves the heat, and kleptomaniac. None of these trait seem to account for his knack for making friends. He seemed to know right away that Annie likes cameras, (maybe because he's been in her gallery and has seen her photos.) She told him of her adventures abroad and how she recovered a treasured baseball from a tomb for a local, but never had time to return it. Annie feels a little guilty about this.

"I wouldn't worry about it much," he replied. I've still got a Handiness book I picked up from the library and never bothered to check it out." (kleptomaniac trait?)

Beatrice prepared some Goopy Carbonara and invited Cyprus over for dinner. 

She learned that he was a graduate from military school. Furthermore, he can salute!

Since he was created in CAS, he doesn't have any parents who would have passed this hidden trait on to him! I guess the game took "disciplined" and connected it to "military school" and connected that to "can salute" and gave him a hidden trait? How awesome is that! 

It was Love Day, and both Beatrice and Cyprus were getting a little flirty. Cyprus had the wish to kiss someone today, but I guess I got impatient and should have added a few more interactions first.

"What do you think you're doing! We barely know each other!" We will find out later on that Cyprus often has wishes to kiss the girls he meets. 

As mentioned in the previous episode, Cyprus has reasonably high skills, but doesn't seem to be able to invent anything - at least not for the longest time. 

He tries, . . . 

and tries, . . .

and tries, but he always catches on fire (loves the heat trait? lol).

His neighbors are so used to this they are no longer concerned about it. "Welp, there he goes again." He even got to the point he was so discouraged that he wanted to sell his inventing bench. 

Sorry, dude. That's how you are supposed to make your living in this challenge!

Then one day, it finally happened!

Eureka! A widget is created!  He quickly made several more of them and even improved on the design, then it was off to the consignment store.

While Annie has been struggling to befriend the consignment specialist, Ida Coyle, making friends was easy for Cyprus. Of course he had the advantage of running into her a Mick's when she was off work, and bought her a plate of nachos, so I'm sure that gave him an in.

"Boy, Cyprus, I'm gonna have to hit the gym in order to burn off this meal!" He must have gone out of his way and splurge on the nachos because it's obvious to me that grilled cheese was the daily special.

I hope Benjamin Schmidt isn't cheating on Sylvia Spiotto by meeting Imogen Pelly for this grilled cheese lunch. Ben and Sylvia just got engaged right before I started this Tiny Town project, and I'd still like to see them get married. Story Progression is turned off, so hopefully that will preserve their relationship. 

Cyprus wanted to play a couple video games with Ida, but Benjamin Schmidt stole his seat. Oh well, Cyprus is tired anyway, and it's getting late. Time to go home. 

The next day, Cyprus paid another visit to the consignment store to drop off some more items, and he and Ida had a nice conversation. 

She told him about the rude customers she had to put up with. By the end, Cyprus had the wish to kiss her for the first time. 

But wait! In walks Joanne Loveland. She and Cyprus were starting to hit it off. 

I thought he might make a friend here, but then she suddenly turned on him!

She seemed to be yelling at him for no apparent reason. Maybe it was something he said? He saluted her. Then suddenly she switched gears again and hugged him!

Then she started yelling about fishing. This woman is unhinged! 

"Can't you hold a civil conversation with someone you just met without humiliating them?" Cyprus asked. 

"Any man of mine had better not crumble because of a few critical comments," she replied. 

Dear, I think YOU are the one with the unresolved issues. After she left, Cyprus had the wish to kiss JoAnne for the first time. I guess he likes explosive women.

In fact he likes all things that explode.

It beats spending all that time and effort into picking through the junk piles, I guess. I've been having him salvage furniture from the junk yard to "refurbish" after he has some money, but he really must hate this particular chair.

He had a wish to detonate it. (From what he's thinking, the couch he salvaged probably isn't long for this world either.)

He was also wanting to set off some fireworks, so we did that too. 

 

While he was at the festival, he was feeling a bit peckish, so decided to give the hot dog eating contest a try. Skedaddle is wondering where his plate of hot dogs is. I guess you're out of luck, fella. 

Wow, that kid can really chow down on those hot dogs! He left the grown-ups in the dust. 

Sorry kid, they aren't giving away new cars as prizes, just left over hot dogs. 

I mentioned earlier that Cyprus makes friend where the other Tiny Town residents can't. This even extends to the raccoon. I guess the raccoon doesn't want to be petted like the ladies were trying to do, but would rather play chase.

"Catch me if you can!"

Despite having the knack for making friends of all types, poor Cyprus has a difficult time finding buyers for his inventions. I guess Appaloosa Plains just isn't ready for what Cyprus has to offer. He has a lot of items on consignment, but none have ever sold. The last few he made he decided to eBay. This enabled him to climb from being electrocution victim (level 1) to level 3. 

While I was spending time with Cyprus, the ladies were getting stir crazy, so I sent them out around town. First they hit the gym where Annie taught Beatrice some marital arts skills.

Ouch! Careful, Annie!

I checked up on them later and discovered that Annie had gone to the beach and was trying to drown her snake.

Maybe she was just trying to keep it cool on this hot summer day. She cooked herself up some tofu hotdogs to round out her evening.

I have no idea what Beatrice was up to while I was with the others, but she wasn't feeling well.

There wasn't any indication as to the reason for the upset stomach, not even "unknown causes," so I can only guess she ate a bad herb or spoiled food. But usually the icon explains the reason. 

The next day, Annie told Beatrice that she'd like to try throwing another gallery party. 

Beatrice has a wish to have 10 friends, and she's only about half way there, so she thought it would be a great idea. She would make sure Paguk made the guest list. 

It looks like Paguk has decided to assimilate into the culture, wearing human clothes and bringing a nice cobbler to the party. I have to admit his fashion sense is better than some townies I've seen lately.

Like this lady:

Paguk even wore a food-themed T-shirt because he knows Beatrice is a chef. 

Now is the moment of truth: does Beatrice have a crush on Paguk, or is it just that she wants an alien friend? 

I guess she just likes him as a friend. 

For a person who is wanting to make more friends, Beatrice has a strange way of showing it. She used to be friends with hairy-legged Ulysses, but she was rather mean to him at the party.

She insulted his intelligence and mocked his dancing. Benjamin Schmidt is wondering what has gotten into Beatrice. 

Beatrice managed to sell a few more bakery items during the party. I think Ulysses even bought something despite being treated so badly. 

The next day, Beatrice was invited to a party by red-headed Rex. It turns out Rex is married to Celeste, but he isn't very impressed by her, probably because she barged into the bathroom during the party and offered him flowers. 

Shortly after this, Celeste retired to bed with a migraine. Meanwhile, Rex was left to host the party.

He lives in the ritzy part of town. He asked Beatrice if she wanted to tour the house.

" It's very nice, but you need to make sure you check your stoves and fireplaces. You don't want this place to burn down," she replied. 

" I don't throw parties as often as you do. Are the refreshments to your liking?" 

"You are a fine lookin' woman, Ms. Beatrice," he said.

"Does this place have a game room?" she asked.

It seems obvious that Rex likes Beatrice, but lets see if the feeling is mutual.

It appears so, but she is definitely playing hard-to-get.

She didn't have the option to do this, or I would have had her do it. 

Instead, Rex talked about his work, and Beatrice remembered that he's a criminal.

So here's my dilemma: Cyprus' inventions aren't selling in the consignment store - at least not yet. Should he take them off of consignment and just eBay them or wait awhile longer? Cyprus has invented the drill, so I thought since he invented it, he should be able to sell whatever he unearths and use the proceeds toward his house. He dug up some tiberium, but he didn't have enough money to get it cut, so I sprung for the gem cutter. I figured Opal Gem would be the one dealing in gems, so I would give the gem cutter to her when she moves in. Some of these residents will have some cross-over with skills that the other makes a living with. For instance, Beatrice has high gardening skill, but Frank Stem will be the gardener who makes money from gardening. Beatrice doesn't sell the produce - she just uses it to bake her goodies or cook dinners. Cyprus won't be the gem guy, but may unearth gems using his inventions. It all gets a bit murky. 

I think it's okay for Cyprus to sell the tiberium and use the money to build his house since he wouldn't have found the tiberium if he hadn't invented the drill and used it. It's kind of like Beatrice and Annie using lifetime happiness points to buy the inheritance and use the money to complete their houses after reaching a high level in their fields.