Eliza had had it with Bob. Between being drooled on by Iggy, and Bob leaving slobly puddles everywhere, she was done with taking care of two children at once... the adult child was particularly offensive.
Come to think of it, the actual child kind of drove her crazy too.
So she left them, and moved out to Windenburg, ready for something new.
Hugo and Luna's birthdays fell on New Year's Eve weekend. They toasted their new future and prepared to get the heck out of there. "Here's to next year, sis. Let's never come back here again."
They are both marginal students. Hugo is very good at cooking and loves food though, so he applied to the Distinguished Culinary Degree at Britechester, and got in. Luna, the girl who gets everything handed to her, was offered admission into almost every distinguished degree. Even though her grades aren't good, and she doesn't have much skill in much of anything. She picked Art History at Britechester and moved into the same dorm as her brother.
Eliza immediately sold their beds and began converting Luna's room into a library, on Rebate Day of course.
At work, Eliza was confronted with a choice between blowing the whistle and keeping her mouth shut. https://i.postimg.cc/XvWztNLj/blow-the-whistle.png She had already seen how successful crime had made Jacques. She was starting to think it was smarter to use the rules for your own purposes. She kept her mouth shut... and she made a few first quiet efforts to be put in touch with those involved in the plot. Perhaps they would appreciate the favor she had done for them.
(This is probably a bug, but maybe it makes sense for a supervillain-in-training to be tense all the time?)
Max aged up. He is Evil, Self-Absorbed, and straight. When the ghost of his father Jacques invited him out to the Humor & Hijinks Festival, he had his own encounter with the possibilities of villainy.
He met Lilith, a beautiful young woman whose mischievous sense of humor appealed to him. She seemed to get along well with ghost-Jacques, too. She shared what she was studying at college https://i.postimg.cc/sXD0Dnbb/festival-villainy-degree.png
"Really? That is a thing you can study?" Max asked.
Just then a firework went off nearby. A woman stumbled away from it, looking dazed. She had been singed pretty badly, but didn't seem hurt. Max recognized her. "Octavia Moon! Look this way!" https://i.postimg.cc/d3qddD2x/octavia.png
"You should sell that to a magazine!" "Maybe I will!" "Naughty boy!" After some more flirting he tried to ask Lilith for her number. "I'll write it down for you. Here you go," she said. https://i.postimg.cc/Kvgpz3sc/lilith2.png
Okay, should have expected that.
"No, seriously dude, you are way too young for me," she laughed. "But all right, we can stay in touch and be friends. Maybe you can visit me at college sometime." https://i.postimg.cc/bY5Fp9gF/lilith.png
And then they came home to 11k in bills. And a cheerful invitation to "Vote in the NAPs!!!" Max and Eliza were done trying to do things everyone else's way. They hatched a plan. Some people were talking about a new way of living, where everyone's property was available to everyone else. Sort of a radical co-ownership of everything. They called the idea "Sharing Is Caring." Could they make it work for them? Let's see.
They said a polite goodbye and went home. Eliza slid the grand piano gently out of her purse. Max removed the TV from his inside jacket pocket. "We did good!" Max crowed. "And technically this was all legal," Eliza observed. https://i.postimg.cc/Kj1qt1GN/sharing-nice-work-and-technically-legal.png
"Did we make the 11k yet?" asked Max. "Maybe a little less than halfway." "Awesome!" "Why is that awesome?" "Because that means we need to go on another neighborly visit tomorrow!" "Max, don't forget that we need to be careful here." "Right. No one can ever come over to our house again."
(That wasn't what Eliza meant, but he had a point. Eliza also took the extra step of having their home registered as a private dwelling, to discourage visitors.)
A little villainy is easy, but supervillainy is harder
Eliza and Max got into the habit of making totally legal neighborly visits every night. The Itos were new neighbors but Megumi stuck up her nose at Eliza and refused to introduce herself. At least her family consented to eat fruitcake. Can you spot Max shadily re-entering the room? Guess what he just did... https://i.postimg.cc/mZvsF3H9/neighborly-visit.png
They were able to pay the bills on the big house through Eliza's salary plus the proceeds from toting home their neighbors' belongings. To be honest, they kind of had a lot of fun doing it, too.
Eliza was sliding down a slope... from creative bill-paying strategies to wreaking havoc for the fun of it. Trouble was, she wasn't very good at it.
And she has a friend who's happy to hit the gym with her. Especially when it's Love Day... and the closest thing to lovin' either of them are going to get today is a good look at the eye candy around here https://i.postimg.cc/0Q4VFfs0/love-day.png
Afterward, Eliza relaxed in the bath with a Lifestyle-Go-Poof potion. The Workaholic lifestyle doesn't have any benefits that I could figure out, and that stuck Very Tense moodlet even while she was at work was getting annoying. https://i.postimg.cc/jjs372cP/lifestyle-go-poof.png
Max kept Eliza company. His smart, edgy, capable presence almost made up for Iggy's absence during the workweek. Eliza didn't mind his nastier side. In fact, she found it oddly reassuring. And under her guidance, Max has begun to understand that there are indeed some benefits from applying himself more at school. (Good influence... or something like it) https://i.postimg.cc/pdx4JqW9/good-influence-or-something-like-it.png
Max visited his new friend Lilith at college and discovered an interesting new hobby.
They played ping pong for a while, then wandered upstairs where Max encountered a strange workbench. Lilith explained to him about the robotics club. "Cool!" Max said. "What does this part do?" https://i.postimg.cc/jq7VKWFS/visit-robotics.png
Eliza agreed to put robot stations in the other room. Max built a chatter bot. He'd only planned to sell it for some extra cash, but something about the voice intrigued him... it was commanding, yet totally under his control. https://i.postimg.cc/tg4QH2LK/robotics-max-gets-an-idea.png
Eliza made him some extra parts to help him out. And they're both reading the handiness skill book a lot so they hopefully stop electrocuting themselves soon. Funny, every time Max starts making something on the robot station, he autonomously queues up Laugh Maniacally https://i.postimg.cc/JzmCp1K4/robotics-laugh-maniacally.png
I wonder why that could be.
Pretty soon it was time for Eliza and Iggy to age up
They had Iggy's birthday party at the Chalet Gardens.
Eliza could swipe the informational plaques. But they were worthless. She couldn't swipe anything else there. It's not their home neighborhood anyhow so Sharing Is Caring is probably not active. She's not a Kleptomaniac. I am not sure why the plaques were swipe-able? https://i.postimg.cc/FHXBhDJP/iggy-bday-swipe.png
Somehow I feel like Iggy has the best of both Eliza and Bob. I have a feeling he's going to dye his hair some pastel color, but haven't done it yet.
The Renegades and Good Timers both called to invite Max and Eliza out, so they went. Max took the opportunity to try out a set at the mike. None of his friends paid any attention. Maybe if he hadn't been mumbling downward at his phone it would have gone better
@Mightysprite I am really enjoying your story! Very entertaining and it is giving me some great ideas for gameplay to add to my game! Looking forward to seeing what happens next! :)
Thanks @TeeSea! Turns out I really like playing townies. Maybe you will too. Some of the backstories are more interesting than others in terms of giving ideas for play.
I'm really enjoying this story! Grim saying "oh, stop it, we both knew you were faking the first time" made me laugh out loud. :joy: I like the ghost phone calls too.
Now here's Iggy's competition for the role of Golden Child, or perhaps Anti-Golden Child... Max got into all the Foxbury degrees, including the Villainy degree that he was hoping for. Unexpectedly, he also got into Drama at Britechester. Though maybe we should have expected that... Max? Drama?
It's so odd. Megumi and Naoki know that Eliza tried to break up their marriage, just for the fun of it, via a forged breakup letter. Their relationship with Eliza is way in the red. And yet they still answer the door. Does anyone in this game ever say, "no, you can't come in" when you knock?
Anyhow, the Villareals know their script. Eliza's turn for enthusiastic socializing, Max's turn for nonchalant you-know-what, later they'll switch.
On one visit Eliza unexpectedly arrested Joaquin le Chien
Triumph! Or something like it! I mean, Joaquin still lives there and everything, he isn't behind bars. I'm not even sure he was a villain in any way... ...and I've since discovered that Eliza can now do that as a Mean interaction with anybody... ...anyway it was funny at the time
...(on to the next thing)
Eliza did get promoted and now she has a better secret door. We can stop moving the old Baron's armor every time she wants to get to her lair.
