[ At the Ladeez House ] [ Developments in Manu Valley ] [ The Ladeez' Party and its Consequences ] [ Mambo Loa the Ghostbuster ]
And of course the Landgraabs' cousins, the Plenozas. Very wealthy, they had lived here almost as long as the Goths, their natural rivals. (The Goths insisted on calling them "New money" because the Plenoza forebears made their fortune out of trade, rather than the simpler liquor smuggling Goth ancestors were prone to. In return, the Plenozas referred to the Goths as "the Pirates".)
Now, right next door to the Plenozas was a derelict ruin of a house, where they had noticed someone squatting. To have a decent modern house built there would markedly improve the area. Geoffrey could make a sizable profit out of a deal like that. All they had to do was get rid of the squatters. So Noèmie got onto the Mayor and the Ambassador, and everyone she could think of, and petitioned for the squatters to be moved out. Geoffrey, meantime, visited the docklands to see if he could find some heavies to do the job for him. They discovered that the woman, with blue hair, Em, was in the military. That could be a problem, but Geoffrey heard through his colleagues at the hospital that she was unstable, and had a history of admission. There was no sign of the man having ever held down a job.
"Well that simply won't do! They have to go!"
Geoffrey himself was close to retirement and built himself a huge greenhouse, with a small basement below. He had always wanted to garden, and Noèmie calls it an Orangery. (It is a bit posh for a greenhouse, really.)
A medical emergency arose, and Geoffrey was the one to deal with it.
Notes on the investigations had to be made.
It turned out the Flower Department was to blame.
moved in. She had a tiny but sweet cottage.
No, that's not her cottage. That's the Lamorini Department Store, where she really really wanted to go shopping, but first she would have to earn some money. Looking in Department Store windows wouldn't help her find a new boyfriend, and Ava was the kind of Sim who HAD to have a boyfriend. You know, to pay for things?
She approached a nice-looking neighbour and discovered that honesty might in fact not be the best policy.
"Hello, neighbour! May I introduce myself? I'm Ava Baire, moved here to make a new life after someone - well, someone's wife - made life difficult for me in my old town."
Augustin: "So you're a marriage-wrecker? let me give you some advice. That's not the best introduction. Folks around here are pretty conservative, you'll find."
Later, at the bar Surcouf, Ava met a mixologist, Abraham Finkel, refrained from mentioning any wives, and well, it was love at first sight!
However, the Ladeez darts team took her aside and told her what mixologists earned, and Ava sensibly decided she would prefer someone a little more - shall we say prosperous?
She also signed on to the Online Dating site, and discovered a much more eligible bachelor in the neighbourhood, a guy called Lance Armstrong. He was very well off, lived in that HUGE Chateau on the hill, very well connected politically. And had a live-in secretary! Well, she WAS only a secretary, and Ava was sure that little obstacle could be overcome.