Linden was going to move to Union Cove but it appears that my computer can’t cope with a world that large. So he’s left the clear air of Hidden Springs for the mistiness of Twinbrook. (There’s a fairly terrible pun in that last sentence that will become apparent later in the chapter
.)
If you’ve grown up being ‘that kid who lives in a guitar’, you crave normality. And, of course, if your father was a rock star, you’re not short of a Simoleon or two. Linden spent some time wandering around the posher end of Twinbrook, looking for the perfect combination of the conventional and the expensive.
Eventually, he found his dream house: Stockbroker Tudor, with plenty of room for a respectable family with lots of children and dogs. He already had the dogs. All he needed now was a mother for the respectable children.
He went off to the library to start learning his new skill, charisma, before embarking on a huge round of meets and greets. By the middle of the following day, he’d completed the Celebrity challenge and could start seriously looking for NPCs. He met a pet adoption worker in the park who would definitely have suited the first Linden - but not this one. Female NPCs were notable by their absence.
Back at home, Sitka was having a birthday.
Sitka has some of HA's brown colouring but, like her brothers, takes after her mother much more than her father. She’s inherited level 5 hunting and knows all of the tricks apart from sit up (I find it odd that it’s one of the easier ones that she can’t perform).
That night, Cat Stielburg visited the house, rapidly followed by Dee Tex – so the dogs met two female NPCs.
Mr Heavy Sleeper Linden wasn’t going to be disturbed by something as trivial as a burglar alarm, and even when I told him to wake up, he was so slow and bleary-eyed that he just about saw them leaving. Maybe it was time to call for services. What about a magician?
After work, he made the call and Misti Gallant turned up to do her stuff.
Linden wasn’t impressed by the show. “Yes, OK, you can levitate. But
I’m going to be a celebrity chef.”
On the other hand, he liked the look of Misti. He was off work the following day, so he invited her over to get to know her better. Oddly, he found out that she was a daredevil but nothing else, even though she clearly had five traits and he’s supposed to be observant.
He obviously goes for women of mystery. Before long, he wanted to kiss her.
Then he asked her to go steady and to move in.
She was completely exhausted, so went to bed even before she’d sorted out her hair and clothes.
Misti’s traits turn out to be daredevil, childish, natural performer, diva and social butterfly. She’s going to be a handful. At least charisma’s the ideal skill for her to concentrate on. She wants to be a Master Acrobat, which seems unlikely to happen without athletic skill, so she’ll be changing her lifetime wish as soon as she has the points.
After a completely innocent night in the same bed (well, it
is the only one in the house at the moment), Linden was keen to take their relationship further but Misti was badly in need of a shower and some food. By the time her needs were taken care of, there was only time for a quick chat before he had to go to work.
While he was busy at the diner, Misti went to the bistro – she'd had a wish to take a cookery class. Then she went all high-maintenance and wanted to talk to and request compliments from the entire population of Twinbrook to stop her feeling invisible (I made her unlock charisma first). Eventually, she went home and started demanding attention from Linden. It was three in the morning before he managed to propose.
