5.7 The Right Kinds of Friends

Just paying some bills!

Let's see... there's plumbing, temperature, property taxes, phone usage, plus the bills for the house inherited from Lucida (the one Izalee is still quietly living in)... oh, and a 'bribe' to that man who threatened to have half their family killed. Yep, that's everything.

Carlos determines they should sell one of the properties... or maybe both, and move into a smaller place.

"Dad, we can't let this guy push us around," Dysen complains.

"We are NOT selling the place!" Molly puts her foot down, literally, slamming her left sandal against the tile floor. "Dysen and I will figure something out. I'll sell some of my paintings."

Carlos looks doubtful. Dysen doesn't pull in that much money. Molly makes even less. Carlos makes none. Lela's pension is laughable. Ceth has money, but she's in the dark about everything, thanks to Izalee, and even if they sold this house a lot of the money tied up in the property value would go back to Ceth. And they'd have a hard time explaining why they want to sell the house, if they still want to keep the blackmailing issue a secret from her. Carlos doesn't know what to do. "We'll see," he sighs.

Molly gets up and storms off.

"Touchy," Carlos comments. "Nice to see her settling in as though she owns the place."

Dysen winces. "She's sensitive about how her paintings aren't selling."

"Even if they were selling, they'd have to be selling at rather high prices to get us out of this particular mess."

"She's attached to the house, Dad. She spent a long time on the nursery and our room, and she likes the idea of the big yard we have for the kid to run around in."

Once out the door, Molly gives her old friend Robbie Platt a call. "You said if I changed my mind..."

"Best forger, back in business!" Robbie grins, confident the boss will hire Molly on.

And he's right. They have a secret studio set up downtown where Molly can create the forgeries. She leaves every weekday for work, like it's a regular hourly job or something, and tells Dysen it's for a commission that can't be handled from home.

After hours she does side jobs, helping the grunts like Robbie with deliveries. This gives a big boost to her career performance metric gets her in good with the boss... just as planned.

Dysen is assigned to go out on the town and drum up business somehow... a task he takes on with determination, if not eagerness. His telepathic powers make it easy to judge what flavor of superstition people will fall for, so he boldly goes to places one would never expect to find a fortune teller, and talks his neighbors into getting a reading. One good reading, and they'll be hooked. They'll always want more.

Being too good comes at a price, as Dysen eventually gets mobbed by fools who want to know about dead people's last wishes, and some lady wants to ask him out on a date! Dysen tries to stay professional about it, but there are just too many of them!

 "Aletta... I'm married, and you're my cousin."

"Cousin?! Really?!"

Aletta Giordano-Rossi shares her great-great-grandparents with Dysen. She knew Ben, of course, but she never met his grandchildren. She is mortified by her mistake!

Later that day a story progression notice let me know she started dating Darino Moretti.

 Entropy could have sworn there should be another human around here somewhere...

Molly drives to her parents' house to tell them in person about her pregnancy. Unfortunately Holly isn't home, so it's just Seth, who is always a challenge to deal with without his wife to reign him in.

"And before I left, he asked if we could spare anything towards his gambling debts... that my mother doesn't realize he's accrued in Monte Vista yet," Molly sighs wearily.

"I may have solved our own money issues," Molly changes the subject. "I can cover this month, anyway."

"Your commission."

"I should tell you what it was. Just... please keep in mind I felt like I had to do this."

To Molly's surprise, Dysen laughs at her confession.

"You're not... upset?" she questions.

"Well you're certain there aren't any vampires this time..."

"Still..."

"Look at us. A con artist, and a con... artist."

"You're a performance artist."

"I'm acting, yes, but I'm pricing it as if it's real."

Molly frowns a little. "Hmm."

"Hmmm yourself. If I didn't laugh about it I'd cry. You're only a criminal because of me."

"Oh shut up. Society tried to screw us. Not just you. Us. I say screw it right back. We're not getting anywhere playing by the rules."

Dysen stops pretending Molly's rebelliousness doesn't turn him on.

Carlos is a different story. When Molly hands over the money she made from her 'commissions', his response is less than enthused.

"To say I'm suspicious would be an understatement," are his exact words.

"I thought you'd be happy for her," Dysen manages to say.

Carlos is unmoved. "Why don't you tell me where you really got all this money?"

"Painting," Molly says stubbornly. "Like your great-grandmother."

"I won't say anything to Lela, but if you kids are digging yourselves into deeper trouble, I won't be here much longer to help you out."

"I don't see you getting us out of this mess at all," Dysen growls.

Carlos looks hurt. "Have it your way. I can't tell you what to do anymore."

Molly folds her arms. "You could kick us out if you feel that strongly about it."

Carlos ignores her, getting out of his chair so he can check on the waffles in the oven.

Molly watches her father-in-law's retreat, then shrugs. "Huh. I don't know what I did to tip him off. I thought I was putting up a pretty good smokescreen."

Dysen rolls his eyes. "Don't worry about it. He'll forget he's mad. He always does. He loves us."

Molly climbs out of her chair, taking it slow on account of her uncomfortably bulging belly. She glances out at Carlos's perfectly manicured rosebushes, allowing her eyes to wander to the fields past the fence. She hated this quaint little town, and part of her still does, but all the greenery... it's nice. She can imagine her children happily running through these fields. She takes Dysen's hands and squeezes them. "Well... I'd better get dressed and go to work."

"Don't make the wrong kinds of friends, dear."

"I'm going to make the right kinds of friends this time."

While Molly is gone, Dysen rolls wishes to use his day off work leveling his sim-fu skills.

He imagines the dummy is Todd Landgraab.

Meanwhile Ceth is having a grand time,  basking in the attention of her adoring fans.

She wonders what is up with all the impossibly pale people. They say they're from Starlight Shores, which is believable enough, but they all have traces of an accent she can't quite place.

Holly doesn't live long enough to see her first grandchild. :'(

Though she is busy with work 'the organization' gives her, Molly finds the free time for personal art, and now uses it to express her sorrow.

...There it is. Sorrow.

Ceth is very, very hungry and would like some bar food and a drink, but the robots who run Danza are too busy playing with bubbles to do their job and serve her.

Poor Ceth leaves hungry.

Mech would be disappointed in his siblings.

Larry time! Everybody loves Larry!

Pets are something you can't afford when you're struggling with money, and he's pointed this out to Dysen several times, but his son would hear none of it. Now he knows why his advice was ignored; his daughter-in-law decided it was acceptable to fight blackmail with art forgery.

Izalee's sink breaks.

Carlos to the rescue.

 "I'll just make sure this never breaks again..."

Aw.

Better clean this mess up.

With a baby on the way and parents who say they won't be around forever to cater to his food related whims, Dysen tries to learn how to cook for himself.

Larry break.

Mailman wanders aimlessly through the garden, taking the longest route possible to the mailbox.

Waves of pain strike Molly as she practices painting up the side of the barn.

Her screams attract the family's attention, and Dysen rushes her to the hospital.

They return to the house much later with a baby girl.

Dysen runs ahead to be the first inside to tell his family the good news.

The baby's name is Polly, as planned.

Technically, Polly is short for Apollo.

And little Apollo Robins has lucked out; she is not a werewolf.

Dysen knows exactly how to celebrate the birth of his daughter.

Ceth approves.

Seth is invited over to meet Polly.

Dysen heroically watches television and ignores his father-in-law.

Seth hangs out long enough that Dysen has to go to work and Ceth wanders off to I don't remember. Sadly there was no notable interaction between Ceth and Seth. A missed opportunity.

Seth is not great at smalltalk.

He perks up when the video games come out.

Molly decides she has to have a veggie burger. Right here, right now.

Then it's back to helping her father defeat the boss. "Wait, am I the red animal or the orange animal?"

Lela's character loses all of its lives pretty quickly, but Molly and Seth soldier on.

Doctor Eggman must not win the day.

With the game done, Seth decides he is very tired and should leave.

Poor Molly.

Grim isn't so metal now, eh?









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Etc.: So many old things in my game. Reaper gonna be workin' overtime.

Just to clear up any confusion, Molly's rolled career is Art Appraisal... Acquisition branch. While the appraisal branch deals with appraising art, the acquisition branch deals with art forgery. Both utilize the criminal career rabbithole, but it's a separate career. I know the narrative was a little misleading about what she'd be doing, but she's settled in to the career now in-story as well as in-game. The only time she was able to sell her own art was if she received a random opportunity to do so.

The household does actually own both properties now (the farmhouse, and the one Izzy lives in across town). I'm testing out that feature for the first time. It's a little wonky, with many objects being only "half" functional. Izalee can cook food, and the fridges share inventory with our main lot, but she can't clean out bad food from the fridge. Storage objects like chests are unusable. Easels can be painted on, but unwanted half-finished paintings cannot be scrapped. Laundry hampers will accrue clothing and begin to stink, but the option to do laundry is unavailable on the lot. Gardening still works properly; crops decay as if they are on my main lot, must be watered and weeded, and may be harvested.

Anyway this means Izalee is under my control again, though spends most of her time at the original house, which she has all to herself.

Acheron, now Apollo! I was trying to come up with -olly names for Molly's child(ren?) when I remembered Trucy's nickname for Apollo Justice in the Ace Attorney games.