1.5 His Winning Streak

Rock Law may look like a normal dude raking the leaves, but what people don't know is he just rolled a wish to !@#$ someone in those leaves. Ewww.

As a PR Assistant for the Aurora Skies sports teams, Fairuza has to meet with a lot of people to get their permission for this and their quotes about that. Baldur Einarsson orders a brain freeze and talks about his new bathtub. Great, Fairuza thinks, I get to work on the local Yogi Berra.

She thought she'd be stuck trying to pick the most eye-catching adjectives to throw on posters, but as it turns out good press is more complicated than that, and, due to how understaffed her workplace is, she's quickly promoted to sports analyst, and soon after that she's helping to do the job of recruiters.

Fairuza's career follows her outside of normal work hours, as she's charged with keeping up a good relationship with clients. She meets up with Asanka Baya at The Blue Lagoon.

Despite the artifact name, The Blue Lagoon is a sports bar.

Rock is here too, busy campaigning.

There's plenty of room, but everyone wants to crowd around the door and the bar.
 

By the time Fairuza can order her Bad Referee, Rock is already done with his Winning Streak.

Acquaintance Brynda Frey is pregnant.

Fairuza is suddenly sad she cannot possibly afford to have children.

Brynda, meanwhile, is jealous of Fairuza's mozzarella sticks. "I love fried food, but now my stomach can't handle it," she laments.

Rock meets up with the mayor to ask for a campaign donation.

That's a bold move if I've ever seen one.

Even if Rock wins the upcoming election for a local representative seat, he won't be paid much more than he is paid right now. Fairuza worries that by the time they can afford to move into a new house, they'll be too old to have a child. Suddenly, money is all she can think about.

Maybe it's a consequence of spending her days hammering out contracts. Even a tiny difference in the numbers can make a huge difference to her clients and her employers. It must be starting to erode her mind!

Whereas in prior chapters Fairuza had all the time in the day to herself, now that she's working she has to fight tooth and nail for that time.

Sometimes that means forcing herself to wake up before 6 AM to go fishing.

 Rock is in invited to a neighbor's costume party.

"A tooth fairy!" he exclaims. "That's original!"

Brynda is so going to vote for him.

Ugh, this gym is so tiny!

Fairuza feels like such a fool when she finds out there's a much bigger gym downtown.

It has an even bigger pool.

Yay! No wait times to use the machines!

Dammit Rock, leave people alone for five minutes would you?

Rock knows better than to listen to me. He keeps on schmoozing, and wins the election to become a local representative.

Goodbye autumn...

...hello winter.

The squirrels aren't going to freeze to death, Rock. They're fine.

Fairuza doesn't let the snow slow her down.

She discovers the other residents of Aurora Skies do not give a !@#$ either.

They're gathering at the beach for a grill-a-thon! 

Fairuza enters the contest...

...which is just nuts, considering some of her competition is obviously in the culinary profession.

Get out the way, bitches! Fairuza's got this covered!

Fjord does not join in the grilling.

"So yeah, extra thousand, as if that gets us anywhere," Fairuza recounts the day's events as she and Rock dance to the dark wave music at a strange little dive called Starry Nights.

"I know us not having a bigger place has been getting you down," Rock says, as his face constricts into a little pout, "I've been thinking, though... we could condense the living room and kitchen area, and turn the kitchen into a bedroom..."

Fairuza perks up. "Really? You mean...?"

"Sure, why not? There are worse circumstances to have a family."

The two make hasty plans to ditch this place.

Their cottage never got much love, as they kept expecting to move into a larger one, but now that they plan to start a family here they begin to invest in making the place look less spartan.

Artwork now decorates the walls.

The kitchen has been squeezed into the living room to make room for this nursery.

Leaky showers, unreliable electronics and uncomfortable beds get replaced.

Theoretically, they should sleep better in the higher quality bed, if they ever go to sleep.

Their lives are not glamorous, and at times it feels like they should have accomplished more, but they are comfortable. If this is settling, it's not so bad.












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Etc.: Squee! Double squirrel spawn in backyard!

Starry Nights is a dive bar I built after gutting a useless community lot. I took inspiration from Owly's 'The Red Lantern' that appeared in a few screenshots in chapter 1.3 of A Clover and a Bee. I thought the tree columns looked so cute next to walls I just had to do something similar. The columns come from here.

I had intended for Fairuza and Rock to save up enough cash to move to a bigger house before having their first child, but then I got impatient, so. Yep! Spawn incoming!