2.10 - The Kiss of Death

Kaonashi (Kao) is an angel child. I've played a few more days and I appreciate him all the more. I suppose we'll get to that though. Here he is getting potty trained. He always does it on his own, but Lettie will come in and mind him if she's free.

Which, she'll drop everything in her queue to be free for him so...

She always does this.

The "I did it!" potty dance.

Kao then moves on to work babbling at and hugging on his bear for his communication!

Lettie changing into her human form? What's this?
Then into her nice clothes?

That's right, she's going on a date.
An off the lot date.
Yes, I spoiled her.
Everyone here should know I never leave the lot. Ever.

Off they go to one of the cafes in Windenberg (is that how it's spelled)? I HOPE so.

Lettie laid it out that she plans to take this slow. She's a mom now and she takes this relationship seriously. I've honestly been happy to let her do her thing at her own pace, so we accepted that this wasn't likely to be a gold-medal date.

It's hard to believe these two haven't even properly kissed yet. Nope, instead Lettie goes in to make it 'official' with Caleb and they're now boyfriend and girlfriend!

It's really wholesome seeing how happy they are together. I mostly just let them flirt to themselves as I waited for the sun to go down - thus allowing Lettie to walk outside safely.

I have to say I love the 'attempt to seduce' option. It always elicits an immediate response from the other person involved. For Haru and Erick, Haru would attempt to seduce, and Erick would plant a passionate kiss right on her.
Lettie: What-chya thinking 'bout?

Caleb: I think you very well know.
Caleb, however, respects the slowness of their relationship, and only embraces her TIGHTLY. I actually laughed how fast he latched onto her.

The sun finally set enough that the lovebirds could go outside by the fountain.

Which, by the way, these two have maxed relationship bars here - which goes to show that Lettie is taking this super seriously! She and Caleb have a really strong chemistry and personality.
But... I dragged them out here for a reason...

And I shit you not, right as their lips touched my camera got yanked--

You can even SEE the kiss interaction is still going on in Lettie's queue.

Yup. Their love is so powerful they fucking killed someone.
No wonder Lettie waited this long to get her kiss in.

Of course this made both Caleb and Lettie come to see what was happening to the barista, yet Lettie's eyes wandered.

Lettie: Look at how compassionate he is... he'll make a great father.
So I clicked on Caleb to line up some more interactions and lookie what the game recommended--

I'm telling you, this family up and got personalities of their own as they're whispering in my ears... she knows what's up!
Of course I'm not allowed to DO that. They're not ready for it. They just barely got around to kissing!

Lettie consoled Caleb, as death is a hard thing to watch at any time.

Then she gave him a kiss on the cheek and ended their date early, netting a silver and heading home before it got too late to put Kao to bed.
She arrived back at home and guess who was running outside to greet her?

Kao: Mommy! Mommy!

He was happy she was home!

I mean, how else could he share his silly faces with her?!

I'mslayed.

I decided to do a test on how good of a boy Kaonashi was, so Lettie took him inside and fed him some cheese crackers and juice in his high chair.

I threw out high chairs after Sophie came and was the toddler from hell who couldn't stand to eat anything on one.

Kao and Lettie talked throughout, too, as Lettie couldn't possibly leave her son to just eat. No-no.

This boy sat perfectly and loved his cheese crackers.

These crackers are the best thing in the world for him it seems.

Lettie sends Caleb a text of flirty nature while she waits on Kao to finish eating, and unfortunately the action took too long, so poor Kao started to get teary-eyed at being "stuck."

Lettie pulled him out and he was a-ok after that. He even did his little independent stance as he gazed at his mother:

Kao: Look mommy! I did it by myself!

Sophie is slowly getting promotions, but it's a long haul away.
So Kao had used his diaper while he was stuck and Lettie asked him to change it, which he enthusiastically agreed to. He just looks so pleased with himself for this, heh.

I loved his thought bubble here, almost like he's asking mommy why she's not being her usual vampire self!

Bath time for Kao! He loves getting bathed!

What a ham...! After the bath, it's a book and bedtime.

Afterwards it's time to go on the hunt for Lettie.

This man is like an honorary good guy. He's always walking around at odd hours of the night and totally willing to offer his wrists to anyone who so needs a drink. He willingly gave some to Martha not two days ago in game...
*makes a mental note to turn him into a vampire at one point or another*
So it was at this point I swapped Aspirations for Lettie. It was taking way too long to level up her vampirism this way.

Guess who decided to drop by in the morning when I called for a club meeting?
That's right! I totally forgot to take Howl off the roster, and now I feel kind of bad. Should I take him off? Should I leave him on? He calls the family every single day and asks if they'll come over but I never want to leave because leaving the lot is terrifying.

Lettie flipped her aspiration to Vampire Family, so she calls over Max to turn him first. Why? Because he was an extra dick about Lettie needing a drink before she dumped him so... He gets a taste of his own medicine.

This levels her up enough so she can get Sun Resistence! Flipping finally! I don't have enough for all of it just yet, there's 4 points left after she gets 2 tiers in, I just need one more point to have enough to allow her to be normal out in the daylight!

Martha was also hungry and Howl gave his sister a hand with it. Get it? A hand?
I'll see myself out.

Kao woke up, pottied himself and then went off to see what his Uncle Howl was all about, meanwhile I had waited long enough... it was time to get a move on for generation 3's 10 kids. I discussed this a bit with the discord and decided it would be completely legal (seeing as I intended the 10 kids to be raised by Lettie and Martha, such as why I made them both Vampires) to have Martha adopt some of the kids and have them count towards the 10 total.

I wasn't quite ready for Kao to be a "big brother" and to deal with the "unwanted sibling" (mostly because I have such a sparkling view of Kao right now that I really don't want to see him reacting poorly to a sibling just yet... lol).

I mean look at him! What a precious boy! Yes so Martha went off to adopt, disappearing for a short jaunt. I figure after Sophie gets ready to move out (I plan to knock her up first if I can) then I can have Lettie adopt another child which would then fill Haru's need for 4 grandchildren (crossing fingers).
Crap I don't have many days left for her though... I might need to speed up my plans a hair. But anyways, welcome to the family, カシラ!

So, 100% I didn't realize how close Kaonashi and Kashira are (in English), which is why I selected the names back to back. The GOOD news from this is, Kaonashi's nickname shortens to "Kao" (which in Japanese means 'face' or 'expressionful') and Kashira's shortens to "Shira" (which in Japanese means 'to know' or 'knowledgeable'). Kashira was meant to mean "Heads" and in Spirited Away were the henchmen of Yubaba:

Far creepier than anyone really needed, I know... and perhaps technically some might not see it as a name, but it certainly beats out some of the other names like: 父役 (Chichiyaku) or 明一郎 (Akiichirō). I suppose the first of the two names isn't ruled out, but I certainly don't want to be digging up special characters for the latter.
So now we welcome Kashira to the family!

Public Enemy good lord! Hahaha! Well I mean I do need to do that. This generation is probably going to get mega long.
Ah well, I'm just here to have fun, hopefully so is everyone else reading!
Martha... didn't take to parenting quite like Lettie did. Martha cuddled him and fed him before taking off to find other things.

Meanwhile mama Lettie is in the middle of doing something I told her to do and she drops everything because her sixth sense is tingling telling her that her son is playing with dolls and that she should go play with him.

I swear I never expected this out of her, but now that it's here I'm in love. 💖😍
I redirected Lettie and in protest Kao decided to start making a mess. Here we are guys, the first sign of trouble! I sent Lettie in and she asked him to stop making messes.

Kao: Oh, ok.

Yes, Lettie is now level nine of the parenting skill.
Yes, she started at 0 the day she picked up Kao from adoption. She's leveled it solely on Kaonashi.
Yes, Shira is blue and crying because Martha struggles with parenthood.
Who knew?
I could've sworn when this challenge started that it'd be the other way around - that Lettie would be the bad mother running off and doing everything else but parenting while Family-Oriented Martha would've been taking care of the kids.
That's why I roped Martha INTO this.
Yet here we are.

Thankfully, the rest of the Ghibli crew is on board with babies, so Martha can be cut some slack.
Ooh maybe Howl and Billie will be pregnant soon? I should've had them try for baby before they left! Curses!

So this redhead came back for round two and stood around outside the door. Man he's got it bad for Martha. I sent Martha out and they had some good conversations.

But I don't know... I get a strange feeling that Martha isn't really that into romance. Maybe I'm reading her wrong and she's just not found that right person, but I'm not about to pressure her. Besides, my plan is for her to stay here with Lettie!
Hey, maybe she's into girls and I just don't know it? I don't care, so long as she's happy, and she seems to be. She's also not aging so there's no hurry.
Anyways, I've really got to redecorate this house. I'm starting to feel the layout isn't working... so I should probably start on that tonight. Wish me luck! In closing, have some Kao:

Chapter 2.11 >