Return to Form

And it looks like we're back to daily (well, nightly since that's when I post these things) updates. Which is just as well; both towns were fairly busy today.

First off, Danielle finally spent enough at Nookling Junction for it to expand to T&T Mart, which means she'll have easy access to wallpaper as well as longer shopping hours and a slightly expanded selection. It'll be an improvement.

 Then Becky wanted to talk to Danielle. I hoped it was the ping where she decided she wanted to move, but as it turned out she just wanted a tiger beetle. Since it's not as big a pain to find as, say, a golden stag (which she also wanted at one point; Danielle turned her down in that case), Danielle agreed to the task.

She also found this lost item. She wouldn't get to reuniting it with its owner until much later, however.

With the sewing machine unlocked, Sable ran out of interesting things to say, so it's likely you won't be seeing much of her for a while. On the bright side, Labelle actually had a few interesting things stocked: a geisha wig and a blue ribbon. Danielle probably won't be wearing either anytime soon, but at least it's a step closer to unlocking the other clothes shops.

 Goose apparently really likes Danielle's legs, which really makes me wonder. This time he dumped a sleek table on her, which wasn't that much of an improvement over her sleek sideboard (seriously, they look very similar).

 Normally Danielle had been ignoring the animals who walked into Re-Tail, but today Freckles walked in and Danielle figured that aloe that she put up some time ago would look good in Freckles's house. So she politely pointed it out to the duck (read: shoved her over to it) and got her to buy it.

 I knew I was forgetting some sort of favor today (seriously, my memory has been freaking horrible lately; it's enough to make me wonder if I have Alzheimer's or something). However, now that I have the reminder I don't think I'll bother. If Clay replaces his hammock he won't have a bed, and Danielle doesn't have any suitable replacements on her.

 On a lighter note, Danielle also had Keaton over to visit, who this time didn't stand her up (although that was probably also due to the fact that he wanted to head over right that second).

 The visit went well enough, although Keaton did have some...interesting comments.

 That laughing makes me uncomfortable, Keaton. Also, it turned out he decided he liked Goose's catchphrase better than his own and stole it. Since I don't think it fits him I'll try to get him to change it at some point.

Since getting Freckles to buy her aloe didn't really count as a conversation Danielle decided to talk to her properly. She just gossiped about the relationships of her fellow villagers.

Speaking of Shari, I didn't see her at all today. The first time I played was before she was awake, and every subsequent time I turned the game on she wasn't home or anywhere in town. I'll give her some screentime next update.

 Tiffany is normally one of those villagers Danielle ignores, but since she happened to be home Danielle decided to visit. She has good taste in decorations and especially music, at the very least. She also has a small spotlight that didn't make it into this picture as it's currently sitting over at Re-Tail.

 Of course it'd be rude to not talk to Tiffany after barging into her house. She decided she wanted a random Raja B. Butterfly Danielle had on her person after catching it earlier. She got her wish for 2000 bells (which I think is a little less than what it's normally worth, but oh well).

After this I shut the game off. The rest of this update took place at 8 since I dozed off shortly after finishing it up (the main reason I was even up this early to begin with because it was fairly cold this morning), and then spent most of the remaining daylight in Mabure.

 Upon resuming the game Danielle went to talk to Merengue first thing, as she hadn't seen the rhino in a while. She followed Freckles's example and commented on villager relationships (incidentally talking about Freckles).

Then it was time to go hunt down that tiger beetle for Becky, and to do that I figured I spent enough time putting off a trip to the island.

 As this was the first time Danielle had ever spoken to Kapp'n he had to explain what his job was to her, just like all the special characters in this game. He got a little...obvious at times (no Kapp'n, I didn't know you had people ride in your boat. I figured they rode on your back instead because you're clearly strong enough for that).

Once that was over Danielle forked over 1000 bells and headed off to the island. She didn't seem to mind Kapp'n's singing, and Kapp'n didn't try flirting with her.

There's one of Kapp'n's songs I'd like to mention, but he didn't sing that one during this trip so I'll save it for a later update.

Today's selection of items all consisted of things Danielle couldn't afford as she had no medals, not that anything here was of interest to her.

And here's what the island on this copy of Animal Crossing looks like. On my other copy (i.e. Mabure), I've optimized the island for beetle hunting by removing everything except for the palm trees the rare beetles spawn on. I don't think I'll be doing the same for Camazotz; it's more enjoyable to just leave the flora as it is.

While it wasn't for lack of trying, Danielle fumbled while attempting to catch some rare beetles. The first critter she actually managed to catch was this hermit crab. It would be one of fifteen specimens that would be given to Blathers after the trip was over.

This cyclommatus stag was the first of the rare beetles she snagged (it wasn't the first rare beetle she snagged in general, however - she caught two goliath beetles while on her first trip to Mabure). It's a beetle that's much more valuable than its difficulty to catch. I sometimes call the things "z-beetles," short for "zero-effort beetles," just for how much they pay out given how easy they are to snag. I do think that's a bit harsh on them, though - they are a bit more skittish than what I give them credit for.

She also caught the tiger beetle Becky requested, although not after having surprising difficulty doing so.

 As her last act on the island, Danielle did some deep-sea diving. Here are the first and last things she brought in, respectively. She didn't catch a whole lot as her basket was getting pretty full at this point (plus she stopped diving for a minute to catch a saw shark).

With a full basket she was about ready to head home, but not before giving an island tour a try. The one she decided to go for dealt with a subject she had just spent a while practicing: beetle hunting.

Of to this tropical island it was, where Tortimer tasked her with catching 3 or more beetles in 5 minutes.

She acquired the minimum number of beetles within the first minute or so of the tour, so she took some time to obtain a couple of coconuts for planting back on the main island.

In the end, she caught four times the required number of beetles (most of which were saw stags) and earned herself a gold award and six medals.

Afterwards, she planted the coconuts (after being reminded that they were still in her inventory after she tried to head back home) before actually returning to Camazotz.

She then started a few back and forth trips between the island basket, the museum, and Re-Tail (getting confused a few times in the process).

 In the process she delivered to Becky her long-awaited tiger beetle. Sadly, for going through all that trouble her reward wasn't that great.

...As you can see here. Danielle wound up selling the shirt along with some of her island haul.

After unloading everything she had brought home, she headed to Main Street to add her new-found money to her account. On the way there she caught a flea that was bothering Freckles.

 Note to aspiring models and pop stars: bathing in food is not the most effective way of keeping clean. That's just how things go in Animal Crossing, though.

 Since she had the bells for it now, Danielle decided to go ahead and expand her house for the third time. She would find it to be very empty once the job was completed, however.

 After all that was done, and after needing a reminder that it was there at all, it was time to deal with the owner of the lost item. It was a good thing Danielle had enacted the night owl ordinance, because otherwise it was probable the real owner would have been sleeping by now.

 For the sake of keeping this update short I didn't bother taking pictures of most of the non-owners. I did feel it was worth noting that T-Bone wasn't on speaking terms with Danielle before this, which meant that he wouldn't ping Danielle about moving (or anything, really). At any rate, he didn't own the item.

 As it turned out, it didn't take Danielle long to find the real owner: Tiffany.

Her reward was a rugby shirt. I wonder if Tiffany is a jock at heart?

 At this point, I felt I had done enough for the day and had Danielle go to bed. On her way home Merengue pinged her with the second public works project request: a fairy-tale streetlight. As it turns out, my plan for Camazotz actually involves fairy-tale PWPs for one part of it...but we'll get to that when we get to that.

What's in store for future updates? Well, for one Camazotz needs a better flag than that filler rose it's currently represented by, but so far I haven't had much luck in finding a suitable flag. I might actually have to make one myself, and I'm not much of an artist. Besides that, there's the upcoming T&T Mart to look forwards to, not to mention upcoming campers and the opportunity to get one of T-Bone, Becky, Tiffany, or Clay to move.

Until the next one, folks.