However, some sixty years ago, all that was left of the Niua Simoa branch of this large family were two sisters, Penelope and Isobelle. Together, they owned a trio of fales near the waterfall.
Isobelle was quiet, a bit clumsy, too much inclined to trust people. People thought she would probably get into trouble through no fault of her own - but actually, Isobelle did all right for herself.
In the base game version of Niua Simoa, she is still alive, and looks like this:
Penelope on the other hand, was universally disliked. Well, except by her own family, who all loved her dearly. She was forever transgressing every single unwritten rule of society. At one point, she took up with a travelling musician called René Sagan, who was sailing the Pasimfic and made a stop-over in Niua Simoa.
René looked like this in the base game version, where he was still alive:
This is a picture of René taken in CAS in my new game, where he is a ghost. He literally looks like a different man.
Penelope decided that she wanted to have his baby. So she got pregnant, but didn't tell him and had the baby by herself when he was gone. The baby was a girl, and she called her Marie-France.
When René came back years later, he was so delighted to have a child, that he settled down on the island to be close to his little girl, and tried to remain a part of her life as much as Penelope would allow.
This is Penelope, who was already dead in the base game version, so once again, I took the picture in CAS.
Actually all three of them are dead now.
Something very strange happened to Isobelle between the base game and the W.A. version, as her ghost looks like this:
(Yes, she apparently turned into a mummy before she died!)
Here is the ghost of Penelope, right in front of Rene Sagans grave:
There's a strange story surrounding the death of René The local population firmly believes he was cursed by the kuia spirits who haunted his garden. After his death, the locals moved his entire house from the town centre to the beach. They did not dare destroy it, for fear of upsetting the spirits, but they felt very uncomfortable about having it in their midst.
The whole story was more or less corroborated by Marie-France Mau, who usually refuses to talk about her father's death at all, but does occasionally mutter about kuia spirits...
The question is, of course, whether she is subtly trying to keep the locals' thoughts away from her father's actual grave - which says he died of a mummy curse. And guess who died in mummy form?
Marie-France will probably take this secret to her grave.
* * *
This is a picture of Marie-France when she was much younger - although when this was taken, she did have four children already:
Josefa Ota Ika wanted nothing more than to be popular, and he was thrilled when the stylish and sophisticated Marie-France Mau wanted to marry him. So much so, that he decided to take her name.
Marie-France thought it was a great idea, and hoped that everybody would soon forget she married into the disreputable Ota Ika family. In fact, even though she loves her husband very much, part of her will always be a little bit ashamed to be seen with him. Life can be strange that way...
This is Josefa Mau, now an elder:
They moved into one of the two larger fales on the Mau property, but when their daughter Berthe was born, soon followed by her sister Claudine, the Maus found that they really needed more money if they wanted to be able to afford decorating the main house.
So they sold two of the properties on either side of their own house. They did keep the large one at the back, though. Marie-France had plans to start her own nectary.
Soon after the girls, they had two more children, both boys: Remy and Victor. They are both teenagers now, and still live at home.
The nectary grew into a sizeable business over the years. Josefa traveled to France, China and Egypt, and brought back a lot of exotic fruits.
The Maus now have the largest private garden on the island, and actually most of their income comes from selling fruit.
However, the nectary is gaining quite a good reputation, and it won't be long until they make more money on their nectar than on their harvest.
Josefa recently added a basement to the fale, giving him nectar of even better quality to sell.
Much to their disgust, the king decided to allow MorcuCorp to build a new science facilty right across the street from the Maus.
Now I found a copy of the Mau family on the Exchange which included another toddler. In fact, in the base game version she was supposed to be pregnant as well, according to her bio - but in all the times I played, she never once had a baby...
This is Mei, the toddler from the Exchange family. She's almost a teenager now.
* * *
But in the end, she fell head over heels in love with a local boy, Ama Sevele.
Ama and Berthe are very poor, and Ama refuses to accept financial aid from either his own parents or the Maus. They live in a very small fale in the middle of a small bit of tropical forest at the end of Old Farm Village.
Berthe wants nothing more than to have a few children; she even bought a second-hand crib already. Unlike her sister Claudine, who lives in a showplace full of expensive furniture, Berthe has taken their small fale and transformed it into a home where people love to visit, even if there isn't room to sit down, except on the bed.
Ama joined the police force, so it is to be hoped that he makes a few good promotions before Berthe starts having all those babies she wants, because the house really isn't even big enough for one child...
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