Week 12 Day 3: The Radio

Early this morning, the Black family at 4 Black Heights was getting ready for a brand new day. The volcano near by has been calm for some time now, and only some smoke reminds everyone on Maccaroni Island of the recent events. Bella B. Black's suggestion of building boats is still on someone's drawing table, and the locals are not even afraid of walking up to the volcanic mountain.

During the volcanic activities, the Black house was seriously damaged by the huge rocks falling from the mountain. Nobody actually understood how it could happen, and why it looked like their house was some kind of an aim for the massive blocks. The rocks had not even fallen from the volcano itself, but more from the Maccaroni Mine area, which is between the volcano and the Black home.

All kids and teens on the island do now attend the new school every other day.

The Black family makes a living from fishing. Christopher still works at the House of Law, but he makes little money and they need to fish to make ends meet. The money Christopher won from his Redward siblings some time ago, was spent on rebuilding the house. Bella used to sell paintings, but there is simply no longer a market for her works. She hardly spends time at the local gallery these days.

Bella has grown older, she kind of lost her beauty on the way, but she is still a determined woman. Being practical she is the one organizing their activities.

Rebecka left for school together with her younger sister Dorothy, but instead of attending school, she ran over to visit LaShawn at 2 Greench Farm. He recently found a broken radio on the beach.

Back on the beach Rebecka had promised this guy a first dance, once the radio was fixed.

Elderly Greta and Gabriel, LaShawn's parents and the only couple left from the 4 original settlers, were working in the garden. They are both 118...

Rebecka thought the radio was a very fantastic thing, but she had no idea how it worked.

Back north, at 3 Blumington Road, someone was breaking the silence...

Alfonso and his niece Graica were eating breakfast inside. Graica's generation often refers to Roger Redward as the Holy-Moly man. The story that explains why, was told several times already.

Old Bianca Blumington is convinced that blue aliens will soon come to take them home. The blue skinned Blumingtons actually descends from real aliens some generations ago.

Graica is one of 3 Pet Club members, she always cared a lot about the animals. One reason she accepted to move in with her uncle Alfonso and her granny Bianca, was that the household also counts 6 mine cats.

This house is rather spacious, but the household funds were always very poor. They never afforded electricity, making i.e. cooking restricted to cold food.

Graica planted the seed, without even asking her uncle. If this seed can give special corps, maybe it will be of some better value than the lettuce and tomatoes? Graica had already improved the small garden. They can't afford a fence, and there's no trees on the lot either, but this far the wild animals had not made much damage anyway.

Today was a very sad day. Shortly after dancing, Gabriel Greench died. The widow Greta, gathered most of the elders in the Bakery.

The old guy in front is Greta's son Archie, who just turned elderly, just like his wife Bridgette did recently.

Greta's daughter Carie works at the Bakery, she often bake a cake at home to serve here. It was naturally a sad day for her too, but she found it even sadder to be surrounded by elders. Carie was a bit bored in her life. She was not even married to Albert Blumington, father to her two daughters, but they all live together at 4 Greench Farm. Talking with local men here at the Bakery happens to be Carie's guilty pleasure.

The old woman being sorry is Bella B. Black, taking a break from fishing.

Hm, Greta is mixing up the numbers again. Gabriel was 118 and not 129... still too young to die.

Archie Greench never was good with words...

Now that they both are elders, and 2 of their 5 kids are adults, Archie and Bridgette had just about started debating when it would be right to leave the big farm to the next generation. But they agree that it can wait a little longer, as none of the kids have found a mate yet.

Over at 4 Yea-Low Ring, Agnes Y. J. Hawk's house, it was also a sad day. Joe Hawk is still in prison, and today one of his original wild dogs, Mathilda, passed away. Agnes had not told Joe yet. She was still pretty upset from last night's events up at the Mine. Beetle had told her lots of strange stuff. About a Master, about Warriors, and wasn't there even a Black Magma? She had not followed Beetle down into the mine to greet the Master. When she ran back home, Beetle had not come after her. In fact she had not seen him around all day!

There he was, more angry than she had ever seen him before!

Suddenly Beetle was gone. Just like that. It never happened before, what was going on? Agnes felt that her beloved secret Beetle had changed rapidly. She always knew he was some kind of a shifter. But he normally transformed into some other shape, never disappeared like this...

In the central region many locals were gathered in the new pub! Constance R. Hamming, owner of the Consignment store, had finally saved up enough money to equip the back room. Some unique content from those crates found on the beach helped, too. A bar, a few benches and tables, and of course something to drink. She had spent lots of money on it all, she could only hope it would pay off in the long run!

Among the guests were Carie G. Peel. It had been a sad day, her dad passing, elders filling up the bakery all day, and then toddler Gabriella had refused to do anything but crying all evening. Carie didn't care much about what others might think, seeing her at the bar's opening night on the same day as her dad passed. She just needed to escape, and having a couple drinks here would be wiser than drinking at home.

A young man was sitting next to her. She had noticed him when she entered, but she had intended to keep her mouth shut, just being there. But who was he? On this tiny island she should recognize everyone...

It wasn't Claire who took the first contact, but she appreciated it and she couldn't help thinking that some company would be nice. Exactly what she needed right now.

To be continued in a short week!

Week 12 Day 2: Agnes' Fate

Yesterday's big event was not mentionned in the previous chapter - sorry for that! The trial against Joe Hawk was on. Randal Redward had accused the old man for stealing pests serum from Greench Market, stealing pay items from the Warehouse, and stealing matches from Randal's Father, Roger Redward, when the 4 stranded couples arrived Maccaroni Island long ago.

The 3 judges were Constance R. Hamming, Cody G. Major and Alfonso Blumington. After several testimonies, the judges found Joe Hawk guilty in stealing the serum and the Warehouse pay items. The matches case was too old, and lacked both evidence and witnesses.

Court decided that Joe Hawk had to pay §1000 to the Maccaroni Bank (Warehouse owner), plus §500 to Greench Market. But the old man claimed being innocent, refusing to pay a single simoleon to anyone, so instead he was sent to jail for 5 simdays!

Joe Hawk is the first person to use the prison cell, in the House of Law's basement. The cell is poorly equipped, and the prisoner depends on relatives or friends stopping by, bringing some food. Agnes visited this morning, mostly to check that her husband was still alive, because it meant they had been married for more than 10 simdays, and if Joe Hawk died now, Agnes would be his rightfully heir.

At 4 Yea-Low Ring, Amadeus realized that someone had to feed the parrot Emmy, now that dad was in prison and mom was visiting him. Amadeus is already a child, with traits Neurotic, Artistic and Unlucky. His younger brother Grim is still just a toddler, with traits Eccentric and Slob.

In the western region, at 6 Redward Heights, Rosanne Redward was busy harvesting the garden. It is harder to make a living from selling horses than ranch owner Randal Redward expected, so an additional idea is to grow Flame Fruit to be sold as exclusive lamps! They now focus on expanding the plot, this far they only have 4 plants. When they reach 10 plants, each fruit will be sold for §100. This fruit isn't grown anywhere else, not even at the Greench Farm.

Rosanne had a plan for this day. Ever since she was a little girl and played with a puppy at the Greench Farm, she had been wanting a dog. She never shared her Father's interest in horses.

A little later she walked over to the southern region to check if any available dog would be of interest.

When passing by the Village Hall she noticed a group of locals protesting loudly. What was that about? She didn't like the families living up north, they were poor fishermen, and lived in tiny houses. She had never been up there, only heard about her uncle Christopher who moved up there - by free will! Rosanne would never ever do anything like that! She noticed most of the group looked pale like the fishermen. They were probably hungry.

If Rosanne had stopped and paid attention, she would have found that the group protested up against her own Father, Randal, who the day before had announced that he would like to become a king. The old woman might look familiar - it's Bella B. Black who just turned elderly. She initiated the protests just to make sure thar Randal dropped his idea. She didn't trust that he would take a no from the council as a no.

Rosanne finally reached the flower man's house. This is where she played with a puppy long ago.

Rosanne got the dog Charlie for free. Cody G. Major has two more dogs, and was very pleased that Charlie would get a new home.

At 9 Yea-Low Ring, Dorothy and Alex Yea-Low recently had their 4 child. Their oldest son, Reynar, soon pushing young adulthood, enjoys inventing stuff, just like his dad and his dad again. Reynar was also the one who came up with the sun reflector idea on top of the mountain. The reflector is still sending a long light shot far into the sky, most nights. But to little avail it seems. Reynar's traits are Athletic, Genius, Hates outdoors and Artistic.

Yesador Yea-Low just became a teen, he took an interest in growing the garden. They grow grapes and lime fruits. Yesador's traits are Good, Genius, Loser and Light sleeper.

Richelle is just a little girl, fond of their dogs and cats, and also starting to try out various activities. Her traits are Coward, Genius and Virtuoso. She hardly ever painted, and well, she might be more into music than art.

Their mom, Dorothy, still is the only employee at the Health Care center. She just sat down in the reception office to talk with her brother Christopher R. Black. Working at House of Law, he is in charge of the prisoner Joe Hawk, and Christiopher worried a bit.

Not very long ago, the volcanic activity scared Randal's horse, made Randal fall off and wounding his head.

At the Redward Ranch, Randal had just tamed another wild horse, the brown stallion posing in front. Although the elderly horse Bliss next to the stable looks impressed, Randal's plan is to make the new horse breed with the black and white mare, Mizita.

Rosanne had brought the dog Charlie back home, and tried to get acquainted.

Several households already took advantage of hunting dogs. Not that they brought in the high values, but any simoleon counted. Dogs were usedful for hunting, giving wool for making textiles, and of course for guarding their family.

Corinne had been wondering since the Nectary was opened a couple simdays ago. They already owned the lot, but the installments were expensive. They already had a pretty big bank loan.

Because Randal and Corinne own 30% of the Maccaroni Bank shares, Randal has access to the bank's office in the Village Hall. So, he had actually borrowed nearly §22.000 but according to the bank account he owed just §10.000. This way they paid no interests of the final §12.000! He intended to pay back the money, but would do so whenever he would be able to.

Corinne was not convinced.

Future kings need to eat and drink. Randal rode over to the Nectary and found the bottle left there by LaShawn.

He served the nectar, and sat down to enjoy the pruit of his greedy plans.

Dorothy R. Yea-Low had returned from work. She found her husband, Alex, working on a big, rusty box.

But Agnes wasn't all alone. She just left the house together with Beetle. He had insisted on bringing toddler Grim, as well, but Agnes had protested. They left Grim in his crib, sleeping.

 They walked north, up to the graveyard, up to the pond in the mountain, reaching the northern region.

I'm not totally sure - will Agnes follow Beetle, or will she try to escape her fate? Check back to find out in a short week! :-)