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Now for the real story:
Now that it's finished, here are the actual observed game events that inspired the story:
-- Construction is completed on a power plant and two foreign engineers are hired: Susan Hill from London, England, and Sandrine (original last name unknown) from Paris, France.
-- Engineer Sandrine marries fisherman Rodrigo Alonzo, an immigrant from Caracas, Venezuela, and over the years has four children by him.
-- Presidente starts watching his engineers to make sure they're happy. Story "Engineering Romance" begins at this point.
-- Engineer Susan Hill, who lives in a nice blue house next to the power plant, marries Rich Garrison, a farmer and immigrant from Miami who lives in a shack on the far side of the island.
-- El Presidente, horrified at the prospect of an engineer living in a shack so distant from her job, orders their shack destroyed, hoping it will prompt them to move into her still vacant blue house, after which he can prompt him to take a job utilizing his college education.
-- The shack is destroyed. However, the couple does not move into the house, instead remaining homeless for a couple months.
-- Rich is observed to think, "This island isn't a good place to live any more. I'm leaving!"
-- Unhappy at the prospect of losing his expensive engineer when she leaves the island with her husband, Presidente decides to stop him. With no prison built and not trusting soldiers to get to him before he reaches the dock, Presidente instead invokes the "Muerte" cheat. Rich dies on the beach, paces from the dock.
-- Susan gets stuck in some kind of limbo. With her Rest all the way in the red, she wanders the island thinking, "I'm going home to get some rest" -- but since she has no home, she merely wanders for months.
-- Susan finally gains a home when she remarries. Her second husband is a Tropico native, scenic overlook attendant Rogelio Valderrama, sixteen years her junior; his shack is right next door to her old one that Presidente had destroyed. Knowing how poorly it worked last time, Presidente decides against bulldozing this one.
-- Susan becomes unhappy decides to leave the island. Presidente has no option but to watch her leave.
-- High-school-educated Rogelio decides on his own to take a job as a priest in the church in Susan's old hometown. With his new income, he can afford better housing, and moves into Susan's still-vacant former house just down the street.
After this tragic turn of events, I quit the game without saving, and the second time, fired Rich from his farm first. There were no educated jobs available, but he took a job at a farm close to the power plant. So this time, when the shack was demolished, the couple happily took the vacant blue house. in this alternate universe, Susan and Rich are still living happily together there. They live next door to Sandrine and Rodrigo, who decided to go to high school and took a job as a policeman. Luxury houses for both couples have been ordered to be built nearby. Rogelio never left his farm job, married a 19-year-old shopkeeper, and moved into a nice four-peso-a-month apartment.
A much happier ending for all involved (including Presidente), but much less interesting.
I hope that this story encourages others to pay more attention to what their Tropicans are thinking and doing. As the above example shows, sometimes, fascinating stories can result. I hope others will follow my example and flesh out some of these stories for us to enjoy here on the board. They don't have to be as long and involved as this one ended up -- I surprised myself that I made it through this one -- just sit down and start writing.
Have two brothers, one who became a soldier and one who ended up a rebel? There's a story. The story of the showgirl who quits her job to go to high school, then works her way through college, then goes to work -- back at the cabaret? How about your last electoral defeat -- written from the perspective of your opponent? Or the poignant prison memoir of the college professor jailed for protesting against your regime?
Open your eyes and watch your Tropicans. Read their little minds. Be inspired. Then POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST! 
The alternate universe:
on 07/04/01 at 7:13pm, RedSentry wrote:
amazing story flagator! bravo!
read quoted post
Thank you so much. What's more amazing is that, as you saw above, it's more or less true.
i am wondering though, what were the political views of each of the characters? 
Note that this has changed somewhat, since I started playing this game again after I finished the story and it's more than 15 years later.
Susan: Intellectual+++ (in fact, she's the faction leader), Environmentalist+++, Capitalist++. (As in the story, she's quite opinionated.)
Rich: Capitalist+++ (you can see how he was so unhappy as a shack-dwelling farmer), Environmentalist+.
Sandrine: Environmentalist++, Intellectual+ (last I checked; see below).
Rodrigo: Capitalist++, Militarist+, Environmentalist+ (last I checked; see below).
Rogelio: Environmentalist+++, Intellectual++, Communist+ (you can see why he was such a good match for Susan).
By the way, a 17-year update since I've been playing the "alternate universe" where Susan and Rich survived:
-- Susan's now 51 and the senior engineer at the power plant, supervising a crew of 7, mostly recent graduates who need her expertise.
-- On his own, Rich left the farm and became a doctor as soon as the island's first hospital was completed. He lives in a new luxury home along with Susan and their two children, Corazon, 13, and Efren, 11. She got the family she wanted after all. 
-- Sandrine and Rodrigo have both passed away.  However, their children all got educations and became productive adults: Nomar, the youngest, is a police officer; Briana, their only daughter, is married and an engineer at the power plant under Susan (she put her husband through high school, and he just joined the police force with her brother); and the oldest, Pablo, is a valued member of El Presidente's palace guard and married a construction worker. I've lost track of the middle boy; he may have died or left the island.
-- Rogelio, instead of having his heart broken and joining the priesthood, in this alternate world, attended the new college when it opened and got his degree, and now teaches there. He married his sister Rosana, a shopkeeper, and together they have four little beautiful inbred children. 
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