I think that appropriate townspeople should leave the town for periods of time. One of the crazy things about life is that things inevitably happen, even if you don't want them too and sometimes that means people sometimes leave. Sam and Vincent can tell you all about that with their Dad. The thing is that... the dad never goes leaves again, even though the war isn't over. He clearly cares enough about his country to leave his underaged son once, so why not again, after a year or so? He could be gone, for a while. I think this would create urgency to speak to him while he's here and just make the character seem more alive. Along with this feature there could be time specific scenes to see him leaving/coming back, and maybe a scene where Alex shows you a post card, if your good enough friends with the family. The thing is that I think a few characters have some reasons to leave for a bit so I'll list some ideas here. The time spans obviously change where appropriate, but the big thing is that the characters are gone for at least a few days, and you can't find them no matter how much you may want to. Abigail can spend a semester (2 seasons) working extra hard at university. Maybe you go visit her for a day, if you're close. Alex can make the Gridball team and move to the city. Monday nights you can join his grandparents (or the saloon) to watch him play. Not to mention a big event if his team makes it to the finals. Sebastian gets a coding project and temporarily crashes with his partner in the city to work on it. Maru gets a summer research opportunity at a lab. I don't quite know how old she is, but if you're smart this happens at all levels of education. You could visit, maybe? Demetrius leaves for a week to visit a research conference and maybe takes Maru with him. Works for Harvey too, and Elliot if you dress it as a writer's workshop. Willie goes to Fishing Paradise (TM), an ocean fishing tour. Heck, maybe he goes for his birthday with his fishing buddies and you just can't give him a gift that year. George has a health problem and goes to the hospital. Little heavier event. This could also happen to anyone really. Sam, Abigail, and Sebastian, do a gig or Leah visits an (her?) art exhibit. OK, I know this actually does happen as part of Sam's heart events but you can't miss it so its more of this annoying thing where the world waits on you. Some, problems: this kind distributes events asymmetrically. Some characters just have less going on. That's fine though, that adds to the realism. This might also make the town feel a little too empty if events line up wrong but, again, that sometimes happens. Have Gus be sad when the saloon is empty on a Friday.
