Gardenia: Days 4 - 5

After paying her bills Wednesday afternoon, Gardenia spun a wish to find some seeds. So, she headed to the rocky hills across the street from her lot. (Gardenia wanted to get to bed early, so she decided to try her luck close to home.)

She found some seeds,

and also a gem, Tanzanite. "I'll have to pay to get this cut, though," she surmised, worried about the cash outlay.

As Gardenia was determined to rejigger her schedule, she went to bed at sunset, planning to sleep till early morning when the fish were biting best.

Unfortunately, she was awakened just after midnight by a call to her cellphone.

"How did that guy get my number?" Gardenia wondered.

Still, she thought the opportunity was worth the inconvenience, though she was unable to go back to sleep.

Since it was still a bit earlier than prime fishing time, Gardenia endeavored to raise her Gardening skill. She tried to read the beginning gardening book that had been in her inventory for days, but found that she was unable to do so:

Instead, she planted a Nice tomato seed that she had found earlier.

Though Gardenia's strategy for raising 8 Perfect plants was to concentrate on only one plant of each type until she got that produce to top quality, and though she already had one tomato plant in progress, the existing tomato plant was only of Normal quality. Her plan was to dispose of that plant as soon as she harvested it, and keep the new Nice quality tomato plant.

Just after 3:00 a.m., Gardenia went to fish at Sunnyside Strand, which was a bit further down than Old Pier Beach.

Gardenia had heard that the Tragic Clownfish that she needed for her Opportunity could be caught there.

She didn't know what bait to use, though, and ended up catching everything but the Tragic Clownfish:

a Siamese Catfish,

just after dawn, an Alley Catfish,

and some bubble bath,

which she immediately sold.

She did the same with an old guitar she reeled in.

She was very surprised to get $600 for the instrument. "It must have been underwater forever!"

Late Thursday morning, Gardenia reached Fishing Level 6,

and, though she was having a very good outing, and was still catching new types of fish--though unfortunately not any Tragic Clownfish--she kept an eye on her needs and decided to quit before she became so tired and hungry that her mood would plunge.

Packing up her fishing gear, Gardenia checked her skills journal:

Though she had found out that the Alley Catfish liked cheese, she still didn't know the bait for the 2 other new fish she'd caught--Tuna and Siamese Catfish. And, of course, she still had no idea what the elusive Tragic Clownfish liked.

"I tried every kind of bait I had!" she exclaimed. "That fish must like something I don't yet possess."

Gardenia had heard that a fish's preferred bait often grew (or swam) in the same place that the fish could be found, so she set about foraging on the beach.

She found a space rock, and upon examination it turned out to be more valuable than she'd initially thought.

She stopped to harvest some fruit from trees and plants that were on the beach.

She found limes and watermelons.

"Hmm, watermelons," she observed. "I wonder if that's the bait for Tragic Clownfish?" (But for some reason Gardenia was unable to select the watermelon as bait.)

She had been carrying around a Wish to talk to someone about gardening, so chatted briefly with a girl named Pauline.

Resuming her foraging, she found some silver.

"Not worth having smelted, though," she realized, and sold it immediately.

She found some seeds in front of an impressive beachhouse.

"I sure hope the owners don't mind my trampling around in their yard!"

She also lucked out and found some gold.

"Now that's worth having smelted!" she exulted.

Her luck continued when she caught a rare butterfly.

On her way home, she stopped by the Landgraab Science Facility,

and received $692 for her butterfly.

She also stopped by Divisadero Discount Books to sell back the Gardening book she was no longer able to use.

She was surprised to get $231 for it.

"Wow, gardening books are expensive!" she observed. "Maybe I should make time to go to the library and read for free."

Back on her own lot in late afternoon, she quickly sent in the gold to be smelted,

and tended her garden.

She harvested apples from her Normal apple tree,

then disposed of that tree,

and replaced it with one of the Nice quality apple seeds she had found earlier that day.

"I'm beat!" she sighed, while weeding her Nice tomato plant.

But her efforts were rewarded when she reached Gardening Level 5.

"It's great that I can now plant Uncommon Seeds, and I've got a few in my inventory, but I'm waaaay too tired to do that now," she decided.

She collapsed into bed at 8:49 Thursday evening.

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NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: It has been a pretty good 5 days for Gardenia--she's at Gardening Level 5, Fishing Level 6, Cooking Level 1 (though she still hasn't prepared a meal), she has $1,578 in cash, a home lot worth $9,900, and 4,950 Lifetime Happiness points saved up.