From Detroit to Melino

I focus on Lifemode gameplay, not being much of a builder.

The virus struck again, but this time Chris had enough experience with it to share a means of flushing it out with Poe.

Armitage: "Why did you share that super-secret method with Poe instead of using it to get healthy again yourself?"

Poe: "Are you tired already, Armi?"

Armitage: "No! I'm getting intimate for the first time with Rose!"

Poe: "Shouldn't Rose be present for that?"

Armitage: "That, while certainly enhancing the experience, is not strictly required."

Poe: "Oh-kay... Tell me if you, uh, need a hand."

Armitage: "What about us? Do we still rule Melino together?"

Chris: "I wish I knew. I honestly wish I knew and I'm so relieved that you asked this, because not being certain anymore made me feel like a cheater."

Poe: "...and you are really not angry that I kissed Gavin?"

Rose: "Part of me insists I should. But it's the part that also nags about regularly taking the trash out, counting the change money before leaving the register and drinking slowly."

One last attempt at a kiss... Nope, lips still not touching.

There is a deep bond here, but very little chemistry.

Rose: "Poe Dameron, you were the first person I wanted to kiss. Even though we never followed through with it, that counts for something! Thank you for the serenades, for all the pizza you turned from deep frozen insults to wondrous feasts and also for breaking all the stuff that I could repair!

But this is goodbye. Fly free pretty bird!"

Rose: "But I don't even know if I WANT to be together with Gavin!"

Poe: "Hey, Gav! You were the first of us whom Rose befriended and then I became her first lover. Do you think that makes us compatible?"

Gavin: "Old marrieds, Poe!"

Poe: "I'm not joking! I... I think I wanna kiss you..."

He rolled a Want for that out of the blue.

Rose: "That I must give you, dear: You are making progress."

Gavin: ???

Dancing into the summer!

Chris: "You really need to work on your quests, Rose. You don't want to be stuck in a long-sleeved jacket when the first heat wave strikes!"

Chris: "See? Armitage is already sticking his arm into the fridge!"

Next donation down, on to the 500K level!

I'm beginning to understand Matias' reservations against my Paras.

See, this is their homelot, that they (rightfully) call inhuman living conditions.

On the first day of summer I rotated through the households my Paras had made friends with to give them makeovers. Doing so I learned that Matias and Ophelia are siblings and that they have a baby sister.

And also that they are apparently homeless with 7,000 PD to their name.

Pizza Hawaii, a tacky hibiscus shirt, a new swimsuit and sandcastles - Tina is all prepared for summer!

Poe Dameron is the best earner of the team.

All eight household members work a single shift on six days of the week and two shifts on a seventh day (not the same day for everyone). Nobody is in the field they want, they have to prioritize the best paying offers. I could probably fit three jobs per Para, but I'm a little anxious about them dying from exhaustion (what is a thing in this game).

When I took this screenshot, my Paras made 105,000 PD per week. That number skyrocketed pretty quickly, but at the pace as of the pictured moment my Paras still needed about five weeks to raise the money for the community center. In an unmodded game that would equal the whole YA and half the adult life. The nineteen year olds were looking at debt bondage up to their fifties!

Daniel was a regular at the General Store, picking up the daily recipes and the bargain (that he then sold for full price, but, psst). Nobody batted an eye when he walked up the stairs into the owners' apartment together with his boyfriend. Up there he dropped his jacket... shoes...

Daniel: "Much nicer than our construction worker housing, isn't it? Let this be our revenge!"

Daniel: "How strange... We were noisier than I had expected, yet nobody came looking..."

The first bill in their adult lifes was a little lower than it could have been thanks to Chris' clever accounting tricks.

The mushroom containers are the bane of my Paras, causing the lot worth to shoot up. Fortunately Tina found the Black Trumpet that's needed for the donation bundle, so this chapter is behind them and it's only Spring 24 - I think they are doing well!

Poe managed to finish his quest before Tina and thus was the first of the convicts to get released. He still is indebted like all of them, so he mustn't leave town, but he could move into an apartment now if he wanted.

In practise Poe will continue to live on the construction site together with the others, but if the game tries to pull shenanigangs with him, like when it interrupted Daniel and Finn in bed, he can sue.

Poe's casual clothing style is utilitarian: shorts with bags and a hoodie.

Would Rose like it anyway?

She didn't have much to say about it, it were just clothes, after all.

However, Poe's new jammies with the stars motive got the Rose Tico seal of approval.

---

Tina: "Hey, Skyriver losers! Look who earned her white jacket! Just one more quest and I'm a free girl again!"

Finn: "Yeah, right, go on playing their game, you model citizen..."

Daniel: "Can you please beat Tina? Even if it means "playing their game". Even if she is on my team and you are a former enemy. You're a good man, Poe Dameron. Seeing you get released first would restore my faith a little."

While studying for their promotions, Rose and Armitage exchanged convos that were difficult to interpret platonically.