At Lennon and Christy's home, progress on saving for their new house ground to a halt after they both woke up coughing and sneezing one morning. Christy's attempts to create a cure were met with failure, and they resigned themselves to bed rest until they felt better.
Komei was finally back on the streets, this time as a member of the vice squad. He was glad to be doing something useful again, instead of pushing papers, but was worried that his deductive skills weren't quite up to the job. Unfortunately, he currently had no way of training himself further in that area, so he resigned himself to keeping the same job for a while.
After a few years of work, Timothy finished his first novel, Romancing the Skies, a steamy airline-themed romance. He stepped outside of his apartment for the first time in a week, and began to carry the stacks of yellowing newspapers that had accumulated outside his door. He was waiting for the elevator when Tanya and Komei came up. He tried to ignore them, but he couldn't ignore what he heard Tanya say. The same words that she'd whispered in Timothy's ear, saying that they were only for him. He stared angrily at her husband, the man who'd happened to find her first, before storming off back to his room. It was over.
Angry, betrayed and dejected, he sat down to begin work on his second novel, which would be about the demise of a police chief and his wife, as jealous sims launch a master plan to make them pay as they walked around town, making out on every park bench. Of course, as he assured his publisher, all characters that appeared in the work were fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, was purely coincidental. Naturally.
In her farm on the outskirts of town, Freya opened a produce stand, calling it Northbend Produce. Her first harvest was nearing, and she wanted to sell the - literal - fruits of her labors.
Soon afterwards, Christy gave birth to a baby girl, who she named Roselyn. She took after her mother in both skin and eye color, but it was still too early to tell whose hair and mannerisms she would have.
Rachel Won was growing up! It felt like only a few days ago that she'd been born, but she was already a toddler. She clearly took after her father, once her jet-black hair began to grow. Ji and Lilly moved her crib into one of the spare rooms to create a nursery, then began to talk about their next child. Ji was enthusiastic about the idea, while Lilly had a few more reservations, but they agreed to give it a try.
Rachel wasn't the only child growing up. On the south side of town, Nicholas Tellerman was getting older too. In fact, he was now old enough to be bussed to a nearby school to start his education. To celebrate, the living room was reorganized and a brand new chess set was purchased, so that Nicholas could keep up with his peers in education and so that Komei could continue advancing in his career. The unstated reason, of course, was that they hoped Nicholas would realize how illogical it was to wander around all day dressed like a pink dragon.
Timothy took to spending evenings at the only club in town, carefully avoiding Tanya of course. One night while he was there, he met a woman named Melissa Fancey. Her primary motivation was the pursuit of romance, which meshed well with some of Timothy's interests, though he did find her grilled cheese obsession to be a bit odd. Despite his resolution that he was done with love, it was almost like they were meant to be together. So he leaped in...all the way. Before the year was out, they were engaged to be married and living together in Timothy's apartment.
One night, disaster struck on Freya's farm! Lightning struck one of her lemon trees, and it caught on fire. She ran over to try to save it, but she could feel the heat of the flames drying out her flesh, and knew that she couldn't stand it for much longer. Luckily, the rain extinguished the flames before she or her tree perished.
But the year wasn't all bad for her. When spending time at the oasis, one of Freya's acquaintances offered to set her up on a blind date. Freya agreed, not without some hesitation, and was introduced to Vyn Scott, an elderly woman from the next town over. They got along well, and as Freya returned to her farm she thought that there might be a possibility of something there.
As spring was fading into summer, a new resident moved to the canyon. Her name was Jasmine Krentz, and she was a creative free spirit with dreams of raising a family and supporting that family through her artistic endeavors. She couldn't help but notice, upon her arrival, that the town lacked a proper clothing store. People were going to end up wandering around naked in a few years if she didn't do something about that. She could even sell her own designs! Unfortunately, she lacked the immediate funds to start her own business, but she knew that if she sold enough paintings she would be opening her doors in no time.
Of course, at the end of the season taxes were due again. The Henkes family paid $2,500, the Wons paid $1,000, the Tellermans paid $1,900, Timothy paid $2,850, Freya paid $50, and Jasmine paid $600. The total amount of taxes collected in the town fund was now $12,350. It wasn't much, barely over 1% of what would be necessary to found a university, but the town was still in its infancy. And it was progress.
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Yeah, Christy and Lennon both have colds. For some reason, even though I have apartment life, the biotech station doesn't make the cure properly for me. They can make it and sell it, but can't drink it. Once she gets her next lifetime happiness point, I'm going to grab the comfort soup for Christy, so that I can avoid this mess in the future. Speaking of bugs, I didn't realize that Timothy didn't have a phone in his apartment, and I think I bugged his first book's royalties because, once I realized and put the phone in, it never rang.
First kid aging up, and he doesn't seem to have the fug! Let's hope my luck continues.
Again, sorry this post took so long to happen, like I said...a lot happened!
