I love how Desmond's lifetime wish was accomplished!
Did you create the new locations in Al Simhara? I added a bar to Al Simhara.
Yes, I did, and I'm also planning to add a bar on my next visit! I also made all the buyable houses I wasn't going to use available for townies to buy, so hopefully that will help the population grow.
Wait, you can add community lots to WA worlds!? This is news to me. I knew you could eventually buy a home somewhere and there were a couple of blank residential spaces but I've never payed much attention and definitely never got to a level 3 visa (my game usually bugged out after 2 trips). I am soooo making an adventurer now!! By the way, adding a library (love the name for it) and public pool were genius ideas. May I steal the library one?
@AEventyr , this was the first time I've edited a WA town, but it was just as easy as editing any other town! As for stealing the library idea - please, go ahead!
When I was playing my first adventurer ever, I never got a level 3 Visa either. It took her ages to reach about Visa level two and a half in each location, but I was inexperienced in playing The Sims in general and didn't realise the importance of skilling up and buying lifetime happiness rewards. Most importantly, I didn't know that the "Opportunistic" LTW increases the number of Visa points you get for every adventure (I didn't realise adventures counted as opportunities). This time my Sim bought "Opportunistic" before travelling to Egypt, and it helped a lot!
Thanks for the tips! And if I ever do get around to finally writing my own Sims stories (so many ideas, no time at all) I'll make sure to note your screenname if I make a Library. Alexandria's is a perfect one to Simify.
Then I decide to make a New Year's party for them at the beach-side dance club and pretend that it makes sense (which it totally doesn't, because when you're playing on normal lifespan every day is New Year!) Desmond's aunt Eleanor is sitting at the bar. I didn't know that would be the last time I saw her!
Paul is at home, babysitting his grandchildren, so Desmond and Deborah can have some fun. They blow bubbles...
... and fire some Chinese fireworks.
Happy New Year!
A day or two later, it's time for another party: baby John is aging up.
His hair is brown, like his grandpa's and his sister's.
The toddlers are cute, but also a lot of work. (Also, I somehow managed to mess up their rhythms, so that Molly sleeps by day and John by night!) Maybe I should take Desmond for another adventure.
He has level-three Visas for Egypt and China now, but only a level-one Visa for France. Time to go to Champs-Les-Sims and remedy that!
He has a series of nectar-making quests to finish, so he lives, sleeps and eats in the nectary for a few days, and gets up early to pick fruit by starlight.
After Desmond has managed to make three bottles of "Very Nice" nectar, relic merchant Jean-Luc Pivert asks him to investigate some strange noises in the local museum.
Desmond is impressed with the museum's Egyptian collection. It reminds him of his own adventures in Al Simhara. "Sunset Valley should have an archaeological museum!" he thinks.
He goes back to Jean-Luc to inform him he has found a secret passage inside the museum. Jean-Luc asks him to investigate it. When Desmond tries to have a friendly conversation with him afterwards, it doesn't go well. Jean-Luc is insane and, strangely for a relic merchant, hates art.
Desmond investigates the passage, finds the remains of an unfortunate curator who got stuck in a sarcophagus and restores them to their rightful place in the Champs-Les-Sims cemetery. This gets him a level-three Visa!
A relaxing evening in the town square.
Although the household has over 200,000 simoleons, I would like Desmond to make some more money before buying a vacation home in France, so I send him to break the boulder leading to Tuatha's garden, a place I haven't explored with my previous adventuring Sims.
His ability to Zeneport helps him in a tight spot.
Deep underground he finds the garden, an amazing place full of traps, but also gems, excavation sites, rare grapes and money trees.
This is the first money tree I've ever come across in the game. I've never had a Sim develop the gardening skill high enough to grow one.
The only thing I haven't figured out about Tuatha's garden was how to open the final door leading out, so Desmond returned through the dive well and up the staircases through which he entered. I sent him to the Champ-Les-Sims castle to dine and rest for the night. The castle is the most expensive buyable lot in town, but I have turned it into a community lot (technically a big park, but I'll pretend it's an old-fashioned Grand Hotel.)
This the hotel restaurant - I've always wanted Champs Les Sims to have a restaurant like this!
The dance hall with a piano - a townie named Yves is employed as the pianist, and others have come to listen to him play and dine at the restaurant (which has a food register).
While Desmond was sleeping, I looked through the houses available for sale and decided on one.
The next morning, Desmond called the estate agents and made his purchase.
This is the house. Desmond could afford a much larger one...
But this house is built over the river, and that makes it the best!
It's small and cozy inside. The house Desmond bought in Egypt has room enough for a large family - it's okay for the houses in China and France to be for two people only. The whole family doesn't always have to travel together (and if they do, room can always be found for extra beds or a tent!)
Back to Sunset Valley. the game informed me that Eleanor has died. She is my first Sim born in game to die.
She was Paul's younger sister. Paul is 100 days old, and it's a miracle he's still here and looks after his grandchildren.
Time for Molly to become a child!
She gets "bookworm" as her third trait (her first two are genius and perceptive). She gets to level two in logic the moment she picks up the skill book. (I don't know why her face looks so worried!)
She moves from the nursery into her own room, and goes to bed early before her first day at school.
Ownnn... amazing! Paul managed to raise one of his grandchindren to child!
Gosh, your adventures abroad make me feel like playing it, too. I think I'll try WA locations again later.
Thanks, @thuggishsplicer ! I never got this far in World Adventures before, and I never edited the location worlds, so I'm really enjoying this now! If I'm going to complete the challenge I have six more generations to go, and they are all going to travel at least a little, which means that the destination worlds will also get new generations of citizens. That's another thing I've never seen happen, so I'm excited about seeing it!
An update with three birthdays and, sadly, one death.
Molly goes to school for the first time, with her usual worried expression.
The second or third day, she comes home with a little friend (whose name I can't remember!) They do homework together, and Molly talks about wanting to be a writer when she grows up.
But suddenly ominous music is heard, and the camera jumps to Paul and Desmond, who are outside on the lawn. Oh, no!
There is nothing you can do, Desmond.
The next day, a still grieving Desmond ages up to mature adult.
With his long hair he still looked boyish, so a gave him a more serious hairstyle.
Deborah also ages up to mature adult, while standing by the pool. I like her excited face in this picture.
At this point in playing the game I heard the news about David Bowie's death, so I decided to make a Sim in honour of him and move him into town. He is called David Starman.
I hope my Sims will run into him sometime!
Back to my household: it's John's birthday, and he hasn't learned to walk yet! He spends some time in the toddler walker...
Finally! He knows all his skills, and he can blow the candles.
Desmond got a work opportunity to enter a tomb in Egypt and then tell his coworkers about it. It couldn't have come at a better moment: toddlers can't travel but children can, so now the whole household can enjoy the vacation home on the Nile!
Welcome to Al Simhara, fourth generation Bluejays!
Molly and John look very much alike and get along very well. This vacation will give them a chance to build an even stronger friendship and to learn some skills.
They take turn in using the toy oven and bake some muffins.
I wanted to see if they could hold a bake sale in Al Simhara.
They set up their stall on the market, but nobody bought anything!
Maybe it's because I didn't have them check the newspaper to see what is popular. Still, at least they got to eat lots of muffins!
The vacation home has a large study, with some of Desmond's relics on display and skill objects.
Both children learn painting and logic, and Molly also learns writing.
Meanwhile, their mother spends time at the gym...
... and finds time to meditate at home.
Their father does a bit of adventuring. He has to retrieve a relic from Queen Hatshepsut secret hideout underneath the Al Simhara market: a frustrating tomb, because you can see the final relic long before you can actually reach it! Too bad Pangu's Axe can't smash windows.
The tomb is large and it's not easy to find one's way.
However, when he's done for the day, he doesn't have to sleep in a tent anymore: he now has a home to come to.
And Deborah is already waiting for him in the hot tub.
On his next visit to the tomb, he finally gets the relic.
I have built a dive bar, The Desert Sailor, on the empty lot at the mouth of the river, so I take the family there to relax.
Deborah goes swimming in the sunset.
When they return to their vacation home, there is one more thing I want Desmond to try because I've never done it before: use the display case to transfigure some gems. He puts eight different cut gems in the case...
... and he is surprised (and so am I) when it closes and starts emitting smoke and lightning. But It produces a soulpeace gem worth about 4,400 simoleons!
WOW, I need to use those Display Cases in my game!!! =O
Desmond and Debora looking at the pyramids in the hot tube is my favorite picture. I'm looking foward to what the kids did during this vacation. It sound like a lot of fun!
Molly and John's childhoods would only have overlapped for two days if I hadn't sent the family to Egypt. This way they had a whole additional week for doing kid stuff together and building a close relationship.
After returning to Sunset Valley they get a shared room, although Molly has only one night left to be a child.
Two children go to school the next day ...
... but that evening one of them becomes a teen! (And goes to sleep in her bed for little girls, because she's tired and I forgot to prepare a new room for her.)
She gets her own room the next day:
Molly on her way to her first day in high school:
I'm pleased with her looks: she has a peculiar, very heart-shaped face, but I find it cute.
A few days later, John gets a birthday cake on the morning of his birthday. His Mum and Dad are celebrating in their underwear. That's definitely not a picture he's going to show his friends!
He ages up to look very similar to his late grandfather Paul.
Molly and John get an instrument each for their birthdays and they immediately have a jam session at home.
It's Saturday, so they're free to do what they like. They go to the swimming pool...
... and in the evening they have another jam session at the beach. That poor townie in uniform is wishing they'd stop playing so that he can go home and sleep.
Just look at his happy expression when they finally stop playing and leave!
This was the list of the household's properties so far. Up to now, each generation has bought a partnership in a venue close to their interests. The third generation heir, Desmond, is now rich enough to buy a whole venue: The Sunset Institute of Modern Art, which will be renamed to The Bluejay Museum of Art and Archaeology.
The empty room on the second floor is now the archaeology department:
Now that my household owns the museum, I've made some changes to upgrade it to a three-star building. Desmond's relics have added to its value, but it still needed to be increased. I decided to do something with this tiny bit of space above the toilets, which used to be unreachable and without a floor:
I added an outside passage leading to it (I've widened it since taking this screenshot):
It became a tiny art cafe.
At this point I thought: I don't think townies will even notice it's there, so it will probably end up being my household's hipstery place to hang out that only they have heard of.
I've also added a cloakroom to my museum, and I'll pretend that the info-desk gives out leaflets and sells books and postcards.
I couldn't resist dressing up Desmond and Deborah as hipsters and sending them to have a drink in their new museum cafe before work (they both work at the Llamas Stadium in the afternoon.)
"What was it you wanted to show me, Desmond?"
"Look! A tiny art cafe nobody else has heard of!"
"Wonderful! It will be our little secret."
I also added some expensive sculptures and a fountain to the grounds, to increase the value of the lot.
On the evening of Desmond and Deborah's first day off, they held a gala opening for The Bluejay Museum of Art and Archaeology, now a three-star venue.
I think Molly looks really cute in her yellow dress. However, she is very tired, because she worked at the Doo Peas Corporate Towers for a school opportunity the night before.
She spends most of the party napping in the Archaeological Exhibition room.
Quite a lot of guests have arrived, although not all of them go up to the second floor where the food and drinks are served. This is Desmond's old friend and coworker Jeffry Andrews, late and tired.
Desmond proudly shows his wife that paintings by two family artists - his mother Connie and his grandmother Agnes - are on display in the museum.
John is just happy about the food. Behind him, Kizzy Bluejay, who used to be married to his great-aunt Eleanor, is about to have food problems.
She has placed the autumn salad on the only part of the table that doesn't have a seat, and is now upset that she can't sit down to eat it. Deborah consoles her by bringing her a drink.
Desmond's cousin Lawanda is downstairs by the entrance, having an argument about toilets.
Although the party was a bit chaotic, everyone goes home thinking it was awesome!
The household is visited by a burglar in the night.
A police officer approaches, thinking "Another burglar. How boring! I wish I was an astronaut."
As soon as she enters the house she is attracted to Desmond, and he feels the same way, although his back is turned to her and he can't even see her. Stop that, Desmond, you're happily married!
The officer attacks the burglar...
... and, thankfully, wins.
By the time she finishes checking the house, it is already dawn.
Desmond rolls the wish to go skinny-dipping with the police officer, who has the awesomely bizarre name Haeju Hackett. Apparently, when not in uniform she also has exactly the same hair as Desmond's grandmother Agnes Crumplebottom. Anyway, skinny-dipping is out of the question, Desmond!
Desmond travels to China again. His old friend Sun Young Kim is an elder now!
Desmond in the treasure trove of D0ng Huo, just after walking into a poisoned darts trap and before passing out. He looks like he's thinking: "Oh, great!"
An overload of traps.
Relaxing after the adventure! I added a spa rabbit hole on a lot with a lake view, and next to it a little building with a sauna, massage table and some tea tables outside. The locals love it!
This one guy was annoying, though - he booed at Desmond and at another townie for wearing swimsuits. I think you should relax a bit, judgemental townie, because 1) this is a spa and 2) you're wearing nothing but a towel!
A random snapshot of two townies nightswimming in one of the decorative pools in the Forbidden City:
Desmond finds out from the locals that before he can continue his adventures in China, he needs to go to France and ask the nectar merchant about a former explorer's missing diary.
Having collected a huge amount of ancient coins, Desmond buys a Sultan's Tabernacle and spends his last night in Shang Simla sleeping in it. It looks really beautiful, and it gives him the highest comfort and decoration moodlets.
Back in Sunset Valley, Molly is spending her last few days of teenhood. On Sunday evening the whole family goes to the Llamas game: Desmond and Deborah are playing for the team, Molly and her brother are watching.
The Llamas win.
To celebrate the victory, the family goes to the beach to have a barbecue.
Molly ages up two days later, getting a little too close to the birthday cake in the process:
Molly as a young adult, ready to embark on her career of private investigator and mystery novelist:
Immediately after aging up, Molly rolls the wish to visit Al Simhara. It wouldn't have been my choice of journey for her, because it's the only WA destination world she's already been to, but it's her decision! I like the idea of her having some time to relax before joining the private investigator profession.
To her (not at all unpleasant) surprise, Al Simhara is full of shirtless men! They don't look out of place in the gym...
... but certainly do so at the library! This particular shirtless man, Farouk, and Molly feet mutual attraction, but Farouk is married and his wife is right there with him, looking decidedly unimpressed.
Molly is attracted to the barman at the Desert Sailor dive bar, too, and she tries to invite him over to her vacation home the next day, but by the time she wakes up, he is already at work.
Upon returning to Sunset Valley, she goes to the police station and applies for a job as a private investigator.
The next morning, she puts on her detective outfit for the first time.
Stakeout:
Digging through the trash of a townie called Venus Bachelor for her first case. This passer-by doesn't find this worth noticing.
Succes! Venus is exposed as a criminal.
I love that the PI profession is going to involve Molly being out and about and meeting townies. Molly is the fourth generation heiress of my household, but since townies tend to have children earlier, some of the current citizens of my Sunset Valley are the fifth of sixth generation of descendants of the original families.
Another lady burglar visits the house, but the invincible Haeju Hackett catches this one as well.
Molly works on a novel based on her first case, called "The Dark Side of Venus". She can't write mystery novels yet, so this is a trashy novel -- fittingly, because she searched through actual trash to solve the case.
Following the instructions he got in China, Desmond travels to France to find the missing explorer's diary. Staying in his riverside cottage is pleasant...
... but the search for the diary takes him to the Landgraab Chateau, a decidedly unpleasant place! Deborah's French relatives didn't want anyone to find out their sinister secrets.
I wonder what the Investigator career will bring to Molly! She's gorgeous!
I configured master controller and now, my townies don't have children so early. Sometimes, *I* need to remind them to have some. LOL
It takes quite a bit of falling into traps, or being caught between them...
But Desmond finally finds the keystone to the Dragon Cave, which by a strange game of fate ended up on a desk in a tiny room in the Landgraab Chateau in France.
Before Desmond leaves France, I add a carousel and a tea house to an empty lot by the river. I think Champs Les Sims is the best world for the carousel!
Desmond returns home, and very soon it's time for the first triple birthday party in the household! Desmond and Deborah are becoming elders, and John a young adult, all on the same day!
I want them to have a memorable party. While they are sleeping, I set up an outdoor party area and, as a special treat, a hot air balloon.
The party starts at 1 PM (I knew it would take long for three Sims to blow out their candles). The first guest to arrive is police officer Haeju Hackett, the family's brave protector from burglars. When she's not in uniform, she has exactly the same hair as Desmond's grandmother Agnes Crumplebottom.
The household's rock star neighbour, David Starman - my David Bowie tribute Sim, who has since moved into the former Landgraab mansion - arrives to the party, and he and Deborah feel mutual attraction. Deborah, may I remind you that you have the eternally faithful reputation and are about to become an elder?
(I like how Molly, in the yellow dress, is thinking "David Starman! I heard one of his albums.)
The three start blowing out the candles, John first...
... then Desmond.
I was hoping to have Desmond and Deborah try out the balloon in daylight, while the guests are there, but blowing out candles takes so long!
By the time it's Deborah's turn, the sun is starting to set.
The guests all leave saying it's been an awesome party, and before going to sleep, the newly elder Desmond and Deborah fly up in the balloon to see what their home looks like from the air.
This is John as a YA, the next morning. His traits are athletic, brave, charismatic, family-oriented and great kisser. He is created to be a successful police officer and some lucky Sim's ideal husband.
Molly wakes early to continue working on her trashy novel "The Dark Side of Venus", and manages to finish it.
Deborah and Desmond help the Llamas win another game, and the family spends their final day together. It's time for John to start a life of his own!
I have always intended to move him out when he became a young adult. I want him to populate the town with little Bluejays without my help! I decided to merge him with the other Bluejay household in the neighbourhood - Kizzy and her second wife Mariana. They live in the huge house that belonged to the Altos at the beginning of the game, and don't have any heirs of their own.
The next day, Desmond and Deborah travel to China. China was where their romance started long ago, just after they aged up to YA.
Now their goal is to master athletics and Sim Fu, Deborah for her lifetime wish and Desmond so that he can defeat the most notorious mummy, D0ng Huo.
Deborah has already mastered Sim Fu.
After a day of intensive training, they relax at the sauna/spa/teahouse. But I was a little careless here! I let them drink lots of tea, and it filled up their energy bars. Now it's impossible to take them home to sleep.
The only sensible thing to do is to take them back to the Academy and let them train some more. And that was when I find out that, in the night, the Academy is visited by CREEPY TWINS!
Their names are Liu Lu and Lao Lu. They are just standing there, like the twins in The Shining. Lao is also quite stinky, so Deborah has to force herself to get on the treadmill.
The twins chatted a little while she is exercising. "Love is awesome, isn't it, Lao?"
"And standing here and watching this lady sweat on the treadmill is awesome too!"
The twins do leave after a while, and Desmond breaks a space rock and reaches the highest Sim Fu level. He is skilled enough to face D0ng Huo now!
Sun Young Kim requires a few other things first, though. He must win a Sim Fu tournament match against Xi, the relic merchant...
... and then find some pieces of jade, because Sun is worried about him and wants to make him an amulet.
Finally, Sun agrees to send him off to this dangerous mission.
"Good luck, old friend!"
The Dragon's Cave is the place where Desmond's adventures in China started when he was just a teenager.
Back then he had a vision of an explorer fighting a mummy, but he had no idea he was destined to be that explorer!
The cave is complicated, full of hidden switches and rooms within rooms within rooms.
Finally, deep inside, he enters a hall with three sarchophagi - one of them decorated, the other two plain. That must be the resting place of D0ng Huo and his minions!
One of the minions, Calvinotep, attacks Desmond first. look at Desmond's smug face! He is sure that, having mastered athletics and Sim Fu, he can take him. But...
...Desmond loses the fight and has a funny feeling. He realises what it must be - he has heard tales of the Mummy's Curse.
With nothing to lose now, he fights the second minion and wins.
At this point the game tells me his mission is accomplished and D0ng Huo is now confined to his cave. I thought it was all over and had Desmond use escape dust to find his way out... just as D0ng Huo himself started coming out of his sarchophagus.
Now Desmond has to find a way to cure himself. He is already quite skilled in snake charming, so he buys a king cobra and starts to practice charming it.
Returning to the vacation home, he snuggles up to his wife, but doesn't tell her what happened.
He suggests a camping trip to a remote spot, Dragon Springs.
It's a lovely spot for meditating and snake-charming in peace.
Deborah does wonder why he's so obsessed with charming the king cobra, but he gives no explanation.
He only stops whenever the cobra bites him.
When they get hungry, they have a picnic under the stars.
Desmond is even more affectionate to his wife than usual, knowing every embrace could be their last. (Really, he did this completely spontaneously.)
It's a good thing no locals passed by, because what would they think of their tent rocking in the air like this?
It's a beautiful trip, but the king cobra still isn't tamed, and Desmond doesn't have all the time in the world...
The curse was really creeping me out, because as days went by, the world was slowly becoming darker when he was the active Sim. This is the same moment in time as seen by Deborah, and then as seen by Desmond. The difference is very subtle (most noticeable near the edges), but it was enough to remind me of the curse every time I switched between the two of them.
Finally, while charming the cobra in the market, he managed to kiss it! I didn't actually take a screenshot of that moment because I didn't realise what was going on in time (I thought I would get the option to direct him to kiss the cobra, but he did it by himself).This is the moodlet he got afterwards:
Now that he's cured, Desmond decides he's had enough of adventuring for a while. But before leaving China, he will throw a big "Yay, I'm alive!" party.
Just before the guests arrive, Deborah confronts him.
"You know, Desmond, I'm not that unperceptive. I noticed you were gloomy for days, and now you're suddenly so happy you're throwing a big party. Something terrible happened in that cave, didn't it?"
"Yes, it did. I'm sorry, Deb, I didn't want to worry you. I was in great danger, but it's all over now. Let's celebrate!"
The party begins with fireworks...
... and the real fun starts when a guest (I think her name is Ziyu) decides to skinny-dip in the hot tub. This makes some of the other guests giggle.
But Desmond is delighted. This is a life-celebrating party. He wants everyone to enjoy themselves.
Eventually almost everyone is dancing (but most of the tropical cocktails go to waste - only Desmond and Deborah try them.)
When almost everyone has gone home, saying it's been an awesome party, Desmond dances a last dance with his old friend Sun Young Kim. It's a bittersweet moment: she is older than he is, and when he returns to Shang Simla - if he ever returns - he may not find her alive.
Ziyu is also still here, still skinny-dipping, and the Dragon Cave, where D0ng Huo is now bound forever, looms in the hills above.
Sun leaves, Desmond goes to sleep, and finally - last of all - the skinny-dipper also decides it's time to go home. She thinks it's been an awesome party too!
In Sunset Valley, his daughter Molly has troubles of her own. Luckily, not deadly ones like her father's; Molly's troubles all have to do with the Bunch family.
Kristi Bunch invites Molly to meet her at the junkyard, and offers her a case. She says her favourite book has been stolen. Look at Molly's shocked face! As a bookworm and writer, she can't believe anyone would stoop so low.
Had she looked at Kristi's sly expression more carefully, she might have noticed something was amiss...
Witness statements lead her to search the library for clues.
Hmm... This is interesting...
Yes! The missing book is found on a library shelf.
But Kristi Bunch isn't satisfied yet; she wants to know who the thief was. Molly questions the bookstore owner...
... and learns the shocking truth: the thief was Kristi herself! Or rather, there was never a thief.
To add insult to injury, Kristi did this to research for a book. You'd think Molly, being a writer herself, would recognise that! How embarrassing!
To take her mind off the case, she goes to the nightclub to eat some bar food. She finds the bartender very attractive, and the feeling is mutual. But the bartender's name is Bill Bunch! Does she really want to feel attracted to a relative of the conniving Kristi?
After a good night's sleep, she decides to learn more about Bill. She doesn't want to possibly miss out the love of her life because he's a Bunch! After breakfast, she invites him to meet her at the Cerulean Pool, and he agrees.
But while she's on her way there in a taxi, NRAAS Story Progression tells me Bill has aged up to elder.
Which Bill? Could it be a different Bill?
No, it's Bill Bunch. He became an elder minutes before their date.
(The halo above Molly's head is from the charitable moodlet she got from returning the book to Kristi. I think it's adorable!)
They start talking and find their traits are very compatible. But I keep the interactions friendly, because it seems like yesterday Molly was a teen, and I can't bear the thought of her having a relationship with an elder. I'm sorry, Bill Bunch, but you are friendzoned!
Molly spends the day working on another case. In the evening, feeling determined, she makes herself a strong cup of coffee.
Feeling refreshed, she starts working on a humour novel: "The Stolen Book That Never Was". You think you're a good writer, Kristi Bunch? Well, let's see whose book about the case will sell better!
Upon returning to Sunset Valley, Desmond and Deborah have to turn from tomb-exploring to a much more mundane task. The family resort, Norwegian Wood, has fallen from five to four stars a while ago and stayed that way; although the best staff is hired, the reviews all say the resort is dirty. Well, if you want a job done properly, you must do it yourself!
I zoomed in on the resort and found a staff member complaining that she was unable to reach a broken and dirty sink.
Desmond and Deborah take over. They repair and clean the plumbing, stomp out roaches, mop up puddles.
The staff gather around them awkwardly. They seem embarrassed the owners are doing the work themselves.
Desmond and Deborah's efforts are not in vain: the next morning the resort is a five-star one again!
Meanwhile, Molly searches for clues at another family property: The Bluejay Museum of Art and Archaeology. She is investigating the case of a missing lawn flamingo.
Afterwards she dines at the Chinese restaurant. The guy working at the food register seems cute, and has a really catchy name: Scottie Beard.
The fact that he is standing there and thinking about death only makes him cuter.
Molly introduces herself (charmingly, of course), and decides she would return to the restaurant tomorrow, to see him again.
The next morning she takes her laptop with her. After she returns the missing lawn flamingo to Riley Keaton...
... she heads once again for the Chinese restaurant.
She spends the day there, working on "The Stolen Book That Never Was". Scottie is watching her with great interest.
"I'm writing a novel," she explains during a break from writing. Scottie is very impressed.
They both enjoy their chat and quickly become friends.
Look how happy Scottie is, and he was thinking about death only yesterday! Could he be the one for Molly? I certainly hope so!
:-O
Your stories are always awesome! Part of me hopes he'll succeed. Another part thinks it's an opportunity for a unique demise for him. (His ghost will have a unique color!) I bet you'll do the best for Desmond!
EDIT: I posted while you were updating. I'm gonna check this one too.
Comments
Yes, I did, and I'm also planning to add a bar on my next visit! I also made all the buyable houses I wasn't going to use available for townies to buy, so hopefully that will help the population grow.
When I was playing my first adventurer ever, I never got a level 3 Visa either. It took her ages to reach about Visa level two and a half in each location, but I was inexperienced in playing The Sims in general and didn't realise the importance of skilling up and buying lifetime happiness rewards. Most importantly, I didn't know that the "Opportunistic" LTW increases the number of Visa points you get for every adventure (I didn't realise adventures counted as opportunities). This time my Sim bought "Opportunistic" before travelling to Egypt, and it helped a lot!
I like it so far.
... and teach Molly her toddler skills.
Then I decide to make a New Year's party for them at the beach-side dance club and pretend that it makes sense (which it totally doesn't, because when you're playing on normal lifespan every day is New Year!) Desmond's aunt Eleanor is sitting at the bar. I didn't know that would be the last time I saw her!
Paul is at home, babysitting his grandchildren, so Desmond and Deborah can have some fun. They blow bubbles...
... and fire some Chinese fireworks.
Happy New Year!
A day or two later, it's time for another party: baby John is aging up.
His hair is brown, like his grandpa's and his sister's.
The toddlers are cute, but also a lot of work. (Also, I somehow managed to mess up their rhythms, so that Molly sleeps by day and John by night!) Maybe I should take Desmond for another adventure.
He has level-three Visas for Egypt and China now, but only a level-one Visa for France. Time to go to Champs-Les-Sims and remedy that!
He has a series of nectar-making quests to finish, so he lives, sleeps and eats in the nectary for a few days, and gets up early to pick fruit by starlight.
After Desmond has managed to make three bottles of "Very Nice" nectar, relic merchant Jean-Luc Pivert asks him to investigate some strange noises in the local museum.
Desmond is impressed with the museum's Egyptian collection. It reminds him of his own adventures in Al Simhara. "Sunset Valley should have an archaeological museum!" he thinks.
He goes back to Jean-Luc to inform him he has found a secret passage inside the museum. Jean-Luc asks him to investigate it. When Desmond tries to have a friendly conversation with him afterwards, it doesn't go well. Jean-Luc is insane and, strangely for a relic merchant, hates art.
Desmond investigates the passage, finds the remains of an unfortunate curator who got stuck in a sarcophagus and restores them to their rightful place in the Champs-Les-Sims cemetery. This gets him a level-three Visa!
A relaxing evening in the town square.
Although the household has over 200,000 simoleons, I would like Desmond to make some more money before buying a vacation home in France, so I send him to break the boulder leading to Tuatha's garden, a place I haven't explored with my previous adventuring Sims.
His ability to Zeneport helps him in a tight spot.
Deep underground he finds the garden, an amazing place full of traps, but also gems, excavation sites, rare grapes and money trees.
This is the first money tree I've ever come across in the game. I've never had a Sim develop the gardening skill high enough to grow one.
The only thing I haven't figured out about Tuatha's garden was how to open the final door leading out, so Desmond returned through the dive well and up the staircases through which he entered. I sent him to the Champ-Les-Sims castle to dine and rest for the night. The castle is the most expensive buyable lot in town, but I have turned it into a community lot (technically a big park, but I'll pretend it's an old-fashioned Grand Hotel.)
This the hotel restaurant - I've always wanted Champs Les Sims to have a restaurant like this!
The dance hall with a piano - a townie named Yves is employed as the pianist, and others have come to listen to him play and dine at the restaurant (which has a food register).
While Desmond was sleeping, I looked through the houses available for sale and decided on one.
The next morning, Desmond called the estate agents and made his purchase.
This is the house. Desmond could afford a much larger one...
But this house is built over the river, and that makes it the best!
It's small and cozy inside. The house Desmond bought in Egypt has room enough for a large family - it's okay for the houses in China and France to be for two people only. The whole family doesn't always have to travel together (and if they do, room can always be found for extra beds or a tent!)
Back to Sunset Valley. the game informed me that Eleanor has died. She is my first Sim born in game to die.
She was Paul's younger sister. Paul is 100 days old, and it's a miracle he's still here and looks after his grandchildren.
Time for Molly to become a child!
She gets "bookworm" as her third trait (her first two are genius and perceptive). She gets to level two in logic the moment she picks up the skill book. (I don't know why her face looks so worried!)
She moves from the nursery into her own room, and goes to bed early before her first day at school.
Gosh, your adventures abroad make me feel like playing it, too. I think I'll try WA locations again later.
Molly goes to school for the first time, with her usual worried expression.
The second or third day, she comes home with a little friend (whose name I can't remember!) They do homework together, and Molly talks about wanting to be a writer when she grows up.
But suddenly ominous music is heard, and the camera jumps to Paul and Desmond, who are outside on the lawn. Oh, no!
There is nothing you can do, Desmond.
The next day, a still grieving Desmond ages up to mature adult.
With his long hair he still looked boyish, so a gave him a more serious hairstyle.
Deborah also ages up to mature adult, while standing by the pool. I like her excited face in this picture.
At this point in playing the game I heard the news about David Bowie's death, so I decided to make a Sim in honour of him and move him into town. He is called David Starman.
I hope my Sims will run into him sometime!
Back to my household: it's John's birthday, and he hasn't learned to walk yet! He spends some time in the toddler walker...
Finally! He knows all his skills, and he can blow the candles.
Desmond got a work opportunity to enter a tomb in Egypt and then tell his coworkers about it. It couldn't have come at a better moment: toddlers can't travel but children can, so now the whole household can enjoy the vacation home on the Nile!
Welcome to Al Simhara, fourth generation Bluejays!
Molly and John look very much alike and get along very well. This vacation will give them a chance to build an even stronger friendship and to learn some skills.
They take turn in using the toy oven and bake some muffins.
I wanted to see if they could hold a bake sale in Al Simhara.
They set up their stall on the market, but nobody bought anything!
Maybe it's because I didn't have them check the newspaper to see what is popular. Still, at least they got to eat lots of muffins!
The vacation home has a large study, with some of Desmond's relics on display and skill objects.
Both children learn painting and logic, and Molly also learns writing.
Meanwhile, their mother spends time at the gym...
... and finds time to meditate at home.
Their father does a bit of adventuring. He has to retrieve a relic from Queen Hatshepsut secret hideout underneath the Al Simhara market: a frustrating tomb, because you can see the final relic long before you can actually reach it! Too bad Pangu's Axe can't smash windows.
The tomb is large and it's not easy to find one's way.
However, when he's done for the day, he doesn't have to sleep in a tent anymore: he now has a home to come to.
And Deborah is already waiting for him in the hot tub.
On his next visit to the tomb, he finally gets the relic.
I have built a dive bar, The Desert Sailor, on the empty lot at the mouth of the river, so I take the family there to relax.
Deborah goes swimming in the sunset.
When they return to their vacation home, there is one more thing I want Desmond to try because I've never done it before: use the display case to transfigure some gems. He puts eight different cut gems in the case...
... and he is surprised (and so am I) when it closes and starts emitting smoke and lightning. But It produces a soulpeace gem worth about 4,400 simoleons!
A great start, and the vacation is far from over.
Desmond and Debora looking at the pyramids in the hot tube is my favorite picture. I'm looking foward to what the kids did during this vacation. It sound like a lot of fun!
After returning to Sunset Valley they get a shared room, although Molly has only one night left to be a child.
Two children go to school the next day ...
... but that evening one of them becomes a teen! (And goes to sleep in her bed for little girls, because she's tired and I forgot to prepare a new room for her.)
She gets her own room the next day:
Molly on her way to her first day in high school:
I'm pleased with her looks: she has a peculiar, very heart-shaped face, but I find it cute.
A few days later, John gets a birthday cake on the morning of his birthday. His Mum and Dad are celebrating in their underwear. That's definitely not a picture he's going to show his friends!
He ages up to look very similar to his late grandfather Paul.
Molly and John get an instrument each for their birthdays and they immediately have a jam session at home.
It's Saturday, so they're free to do what they like. They go to the swimming pool...
... and in the evening they have another jam session at the beach. That poor townie in uniform is wishing they'd stop playing so that he can go home and sleep.
Just look at his happy expression when they finally stop playing and leave!
This was the list of the household's properties so far. Up to now, each generation has bought a partnership in a venue close to their interests. The third generation heir, Desmond, is now rich enough to buy a whole venue: The Sunset Institute of Modern Art, which will be renamed to The Bluejay Museum of Art and Archaeology.
The empty room on the second floor is now the archaeology department:
Now that my household owns the museum, I've made some changes to upgrade it to a three-star building. Desmond's relics have added to its value, but it still needed to be increased. I decided to do something with this tiny bit of space above the toilets, which used to be unreachable and without a floor:
I added an outside passage leading to it (I've widened it since taking this screenshot):
It became a tiny art cafe.
At this point I thought: I don't think townies will even notice it's there, so it will probably end up being my household's hipstery place to hang out that only they have heard of.
I've also added a cloakroom to my museum, and I'll pretend that the info-desk gives out leaflets and sells books and postcards.
I couldn't resist dressing up Desmond and Deborah as hipsters and sending them to have a drink in their new museum cafe before work (they both work at the Llamas Stadium in the afternoon.)
"What was it you wanted to show me, Desmond?"
"Look! A tiny art cafe nobody else has heard of!"
"Wonderful! It will be our little secret."
I also added some expensive sculptures and a fountain to the grounds, to increase the value of the lot.
On the evening of Desmond and Deborah's first day off, they held a gala opening for The Bluejay Museum of Art and Archaeology, now a three-star venue.
I think Molly looks really cute in her yellow dress. However, she is very tired, because she worked at the Doo Peas Corporate Towers for a school opportunity the night before.
She spends most of the party napping in the Archaeological Exhibition room.
Quite a lot of guests have arrived, although not all of them go up to the second floor where the food and drinks are served. This is Desmond's old friend and coworker Jeffry Andrews, late and tired.
Desmond proudly shows his wife that paintings by two family artists - his mother Connie and his grandmother Agnes - are on display in the museum.
John is just happy about the food. Behind him, Kizzy Bluejay, who used to be married to his great-aunt Eleanor, is about to have food problems.
She has placed the autumn salad on the only part of the table that doesn't have a seat, and is now upset that she can't sit down to eat it. Deborah consoles her by bringing her a drink.
Desmond's cousin Lawanda is downstairs by the entrance, having an argument about toilets.
Although the party was a bit chaotic, everyone goes home thinking it was awesome!
It's hard to please those sims. :-O
Oh my... the day I finally buy a museum I'll just copy your ideas. XD
A police officer approaches, thinking "Another burglar. How boring! I wish I was an astronaut."
As soon as she enters the house she is attracted to Desmond, and he feels the same way, although his back is turned to her and he can't even see her. Stop that, Desmond, you're happily married!
The officer attacks the burglar...
... and, thankfully, wins.
By the time she finishes checking the house, it is already dawn.
Desmond rolls the wish to go skinny-dipping with the police officer, who has the awesomely bizarre name Haeju Hackett. Apparently, when not in uniform she also has exactly the same hair as Desmond's grandmother Agnes Crumplebottom. Anyway, skinny-dipping is out of the question, Desmond!
Desmond travels to China again. His old friend Sun Young Kim is an elder now!
Desmond in the treasure trove of D0ng Huo, just after walking into a poisoned darts trap and before passing out. He looks like he's thinking: "Oh, great!"
An overload of traps.
Relaxing after the adventure! I added a spa rabbit hole on a lot with a lake view, and next to it a little building with a sauna, massage table and some tea tables outside. The locals love it!
This one guy was annoying, though - he booed at Desmond and at another townie for wearing swimsuits. I think you should relax a bit, judgemental townie, because 1) this is a spa and 2) you're wearing nothing but a towel!
A random snapshot of two townies nightswimming in one of the decorative pools in the Forbidden City:
Desmond finds out from the locals that before he can continue his adventures in China, he needs to go to France and ask the nectar merchant about a former explorer's missing diary.
Having collected a huge amount of ancient coins, Desmond buys a Sultan's Tabernacle and spends his last night in Shang Simla sleeping in it. It looks really beautiful, and it gives him the highest comfort and decoration moodlets.
Back in Sunset Valley, Molly is spending her last few days of teenhood. On Sunday evening the whole family goes to the Llamas game: Desmond and Deborah are playing for the team, Molly and her brother are watching.
The Llamas win.
To celebrate the victory, the family goes to the beach to have a barbecue.
Molly ages up two days later, getting a little too close to the birthday cake in the process:
Molly as a young adult, ready to embark on her career of private investigator and mystery novelist:
Immediately after aging up, Molly rolls the wish to visit Al Simhara. It wouldn't have been my choice of journey for her, because it's the only WA destination world she's already been to, but it's her decision! I like the idea of her having some time to relax before joining the private investigator profession.
To her (not at all unpleasant) surprise, Al Simhara is full of shirtless men! They don't look out of place in the gym...
... but certainly do so at the library! This particular shirtless man, Farouk, and Molly feet mutual attraction, but Farouk is married and his wife is right there with him, looking decidedly unimpressed.
Molly is attracted to the barman at the Desert Sailor dive bar, too, and she tries to invite him over to her vacation home the next day, but by the time she wakes up, he is already at work.
Upon returning to Sunset Valley, she goes to the police station and applies for a job as a private investigator.
The next morning, she puts on her detective outfit for the first time.
Stakeout:
Digging through the trash of a townie called Venus Bachelor for her first case. This passer-by doesn't find this worth noticing.
Succes! Venus is exposed as a criminal.
I love that the PI profession is going to involve Molly being out and about and meeting townies. Molly is the fourth generation heiress of my household, but since townies tend to have children earlier, some of the current citizens of my Sunset Valley are the fifth of sixth generation of descendants of the original families.
Another lady burglar visits the house, but the invincible Haeju Hackett catches this one as well.
Molly works on a novel based on her first case, called "The Dark Side of Venus". She can't write mystery novels yet, so this is a trashy novel -- fittingly, because she searched through actual trash to solve the case.
Following the instructions he got in China, Desmond travels to France to find the missing explorer's diary. Staying in his riverside cottage is pleasant...
... but the search for the diary takes him to the Landgraab Chateau, a decidedly unpleasant place! Deborah's French relatives didn't want anyone to find out their sinister secrets.
I wonder what the Investigator career will bring to Molly! She's gorgeous!
I configured master controller and now, my townies don't have children so early. Sometimes, *I* need to remind them to have some. LOL
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But Desmond finally finds the keystone to the Dragon Cave, which by a strange game of fate ended up on a desk in a tiny room in the Landgraab Chateau in France.
Before Desmond leaves France, I add a carousel and a tea house to an empty lot by the river. I think Champs Les Sims is the best world for the carousel!
Desmond returns home, and very soon it's time for the first triple birthday party in the household! Desmond and Deborah are becoming elders, and John a young adult, all on the same day!
I want them to have a memorable party. While they are sleeping, I set up an outdoor party area and, as a special treat, a hot air balloon.
The party starts at 1 PM (I knew it would take long for three Sims to blow out their candles). The first guest to arrive is police officer Haeju Hackett, the family's brave protector from burglars. When she's not in uniform, she has exactly the same hair as Desmond's grandmother Agnes Crumplebottom.
The household's rock star neighbour, David Starman - my David Bowie tribute Sim, who has since moved into the former Landgraab mansion - arrives to the party, and he and Deborah feel mutual attraction. Deborah, may I remind you that you have the eternally faithful reputation and are about to become an elder?
(I like how Molly, in the yellow dress, is thinking "David Starman! I heard one of his albums.)
The three start blowing out the candles, John first...
... then Desmond.
I was hoping to have Desmond and Deborah try out the balloon in daylight, while the guests are there, but blowing out candles takes so long!
By the time it's Deborah's turn, the sun is starting to set.
The guests all leave saying it's been an awesome party, and before going to sleep, the newly elder Desmond and Deborah fly up in the balloon to see what their home looks like from the air.
This is John as a YA, the next morning. His traits are athletic, brave, charismatic, family-oriented and great kisser. He is created to be a successful police officer and some lucky Sim's ideal husband.
Molly wakes early to continue working on her trashy novel "The Dark Side of Venus", and manages to finish it.
Deborah and Desmond help the Llamas win another game, and the family spends their final day together. It's time for John to start a life of his own!
I have always intended to move him out when he became a young adult. I want him to populate the town with little Bluejays without my help! I decided to merge him with the other Bluejay household in the neighbourhood - Kizzy and her second wife Mariana. They live in the huge house that belonged to the Altos at the beginning of the game, and don't have any heirs of their own.
The next day, Desmond and Deborah travel to China. China was where their romance started long ago, just after they aged up to YA.
Now their goal is to master athletics and Sim Fu, Deborah for her lifetime wish and Desmond so that he can defeat the most notorious mummy, D0ng Huo.
Deborah has already mastered Sim Fu.
After a day of intensive training, they relax at the sauna/spa/teahouse. But I was a little careless here! I let them drink lots of tea, and it filled up their energy bars. Now it's impossible to take them home to sleep.
The only sensible thing to do is to take them back to the Academy and let them train some more. And that was when I find out that, in the night, the Academy is visited by CREEPY TWINS!
Their names are Liu Lu and Lao Lu. They are just standing there, like the twins in The Shining. Lao is also quite stinky, so Deborah has to force herself to get on the treadmill.
The twins chatted a little while she is exercising. "Love is awesome, isn't it, Lao?"
"And standing here and watching this lady sweat on the treadmill is awesome too!"
The twins do leave after a while, and Desmond breaks a space rock and reaches the highest Sim Fu level. He is skilled enough to face D0ng Huo now!
Sun Young Kim requires a few other things first, though. He must win a Sim Fu tournament match against Xi, the relic merchant...
... and then find some pieces of jade, because Sun is worried about him and wants to make him an amulet.
Finally, Sun agrees to send him off to this dangerous mission.
"Good luck, old friend!"
The Dragon's Cave is the place where Desmond's adventures in China started when he was just a teenager.
Back then he had a vision of an explorer fighting a mummy, but he had no idea he was destined to be that explorer!
The cave is complicated, full of hidden switches and rooms within rooms within rooms.
Finally, deep inside, he enters a hall with three sarchophagi - one of them decorated, the other two plain. That must be the resting place of D0ng Huo and his minions!
One of the minions, Calvinotep, attacks Desmond first. look at Desmond's smug face! He is sure that, having mastered athletics and Sim Fu, he can take him. But...
...Desmond loses the fight and has a funny feeling. He realises what it must be - he has heard tales of the Mummy's Curse.
With nothing to lose now, he fights the second minion and wins.
At this point the game tells me his mission is accomplished and D0ng Huo is now confined to his cave. I thought it was all over and had Desmond use escape dust to find his way out... just as D0ng Huo himself started coming out of his sarchophagus.
Now Desmond has to find a way to cure himself. He is already quite skilled in snake charming, so he buys a king cobra and starts to practice charming it.
Returning to the vacation home, he snuggles up to his wife, but doesn't tell her what happened.
He suggests a camping trip to a remote spot, Dragon Springs.
It's a lovely spot for meditating and snake-charming in peace.
Deborah does wonder why he's so obsessed with charming the king cobra, but he gives no explanation.
He only stops whenever the cobra bites him.
When they get hungry, they have a picnic under the stars.
Desmond is even more affectionate to his wife than usual, knowing every embrace could be their last. (Really, he did this completely spontaneously.)
It's a good thing no locals passed by, because what would they think of their tent rocking in the air like this?
It's a beautiful trip, but the king cobra still isn't tamed, and Desmond doesn't have all the time in the world...
The curse was really creeping me out, because as days went by, the world was slowly becoming darker when he was the active Sim. This is the same moment in time as seen by Deborah, and then as seen by Desmond. The difference is very subtle (most noticeable near the edges), but it was enough to remind me of the curse every time I switched between the two of them.
Finally, while charming the cobra in the market, he managed to kiss it! I didn't actually take a screenshot of that moment because I didn't realise what was going on in time (I thought I would get the option to direct him to kiss the cobra, but he did it by himself).This is the moodlet he got afterwards:
Now that he's cured, Desmond decides he's had enough of adventuring for a while. But before leaving China, he will throw a big "Yay, I'm alive!" party.
Just before the guests arrive, Deborah confronts him.
"You know, Desmond, I'm not that unperceptive. I noticed you were gloomy for days, and now you're suddenly so happy you're throwing a big party. Something terrible happened in that cave, didn't it?"
"Yes, it did. I'm sorry, Deb, I didn't want to worry you. I was in great danger, but it's all over now. Let's celebrate!"
The party begins with fireworks...
... and the real fun starts when a guest (I think her name is Ziyu) decides to skinny-dip in the hot tub. This makes some of the other guests giggle.
But Desmond is delighted. This is a life-celebrating party. He wants everyone to enjoy themselves.
Eventually almost everyone is dancing (but most of the tropical cocktails go to waste - only Desmond and Deborah try them.)
When almost everyone has gone home, saying it's been an awesome party, Desmond dances a last dance with his old friend Sun Young Kim. It's a bittersweet moment: she is older than he is, and when he returns to Shang Simla - if he ever returns - he may not find her alive.
Ziyu is also still here, still skinny-dipping, and the Dragon Cave, where D0ng Huo is now bound forever, looms in the hills above.
Sun leaves, Desmond goes to sleep, and finally - last of all - the skinny-dipper also decides it's time to go home. She thinks it's been an awesome party too!
In Sunset Valley, his daughter Molly has troubles of her own. Luckily, not deadly ones like her father's; Molly's troubles all have to do with the Bunch family.
Kristi Bunch invites Molly to meet her at the junkyard, and offers her a case. She says her favourite book has been stolen. Look at Molly's shocked face! As a bookworm and writer, she can't believe anyone would stoop so low.
Had she looked at Kristi's sly expression more carefully, she might have noticed something was amiss...
Witness statements lead her to search the library for clues.
Hmm... This is interesting...
Yes! The missing book is found on a library shelf.
But Kristi Bunch isn't satisfied yet; she wants to know who the thief was. Molly questions the bookstore owner...
... and learns the shocking truth: the thief was Kristi herself! Or rather, there was never a thief.
To add insult to injury, Kristi did this to research for a book. You'd think Molly, being a writer herself, would recognise that! How embarrassing!
To take her mind off the case, she goes to the nightclub to eat some bar food. She finds the bartender very attractive, and the feeling is mutual. But the bartender's name is Bill Bunch! Does she really want to feel attracted to a relative of the conniving Kristi?
After a good night's sleep, she decides to learn more about Bill. She doesn't want to possibly miss out the love of her life because he's a Bunch! After breakfast, she invites him to meet her at the Cerulean Pool, and he agrees.
But while she's on her way there in a taxi, NRAAS Story Progression tells me Bill has aged up to elder.
Which Bill? Could it be a different Bill?
No, it's Bill Bunch. He became an elder minutes before their date.
(The halo above Molly's head is from the charitable moodlet she got from returning the book to Kristi. I think it's adorable!)
They start talking and find their traits are very compatible. But I keep the interactions friendly, because it seems like yesterday Molly was a teen, and I can't bear the thought of her having a relationship with an elder. I'm sorry, Bill Bunch, but you are friendzoned!
Molly spends the day working on another case. In the evening, feeling determined, she makes herself a strong cup of coffee.
Feeling refreshed, she starts working on a humour novel: "The Stolen Book That Never Was". You think you're a good writer, Kristi Bunch? Well, let's see whose book about the case will sell better!
Upon returning to Sunset Valley, Desmond and Deborah have to turn from tomb-exploring to a much more mundane task. The family resort, Norwegian Wood, has fallen from five to four stars a while ago and stayed that way; although the best staff is hired, the reviews all say the resort is dirty. Well, if you want a job done properly, you must do it yourself!
I zoomed in on the resort and found a staff member complaining that she was unable to reach a broken and dirty sink.
Desmond and Deborah take over. They repair and clean the plumbing, stomp out roaches, mop up puddles.
The staff gather around them awkwardly. They seem embarrassed the owners are doing the work themselves.
Desmond and Deborah's efforts are not in vain: the next morning the resort is a five-star one again!
Meanwhile, Molly searches for clues at another family property: The Bluejay Museum of Art and Archaeology. She is investigating the case of a missing lawn flamingo.
Afterwards she dines at the Chinese restaurant. The guy working at the food register seems cute, and has a really catchy name: Scottie Beard.
The fact that he is standing there and thinking about death only makes him cuter.
Molly introduces herself (charmingly, of course), and decides she would return to the restaurant tomorrow, to see him again.
The next morning she takes her laptop with her. After she returns the missing lawn flamingo to Riley Keaton...
... she heads once again for the Chinese restaurant.
She spends the day there, working on "The Stolen Book That Never Was". Scottie is watching her with great interest.
"I'm writing a novel," she explains during a break from writing. Scottie is very impressed.
They both enjoy their chat and quickly become friends.
Look how happy Scottie is, and he was thinking about death only yesterday! Could he be the one for Molly? I certainly hope so!
Your stories are always awesome! Part of me hopes he'll succeed. Another part thinks it's an opportunity for a unique demise for him. (His ghost will have a unique color!) I bet you'll do the best for Desmond!
EDIT: I posted while you were updating. I'm gonna check this one too.