1.10 Letting Go

We really are starting to feel more like a family.

Rosalyn continues to worry me. Last night, she convinced herself there was a zombie underneath her bed trying to grab her and pull her under.

The effects were… dramatic. I was up with her half the night, trying to calm her down.

Timi’s still spending most of his daylight hours on the water.

Through some combination of lucky salvage and his usual superheroic ingenuity, he’s put together a mask and breathing system, and he’s been exploring the local reefs.

And me, well, I started wondering if I was really doing us any favors to keep Jesse at a distance. Who am I protecting? Me? Him? We don’t know how long we’ll be on this island. Maybe forever. We’re all we have.

We don’t talk about where we came from. I’m not sure why, but none of us do.

Jesse’s never hidden his interest in me. It feels good to be appreciated, but it’s also frightening.

And I knew that if I started to let him in, I wouldn’t be able to slow down.

After the first time, I just held on to him and cried. I was afraid he’d think it was something he’d done, but he seemed to understand. I guess it’s not such a big mystery in a refugee camp.

I miss Terrence so much, but I guess I’m ready to let go.

———-

For some reason, EA only lets you dive in historic gear after you have level 10 in scuba. Let’s pretend that Timi doesn’t look like he just blew his savings in a dive shop.

Outtake: Damn photobombs.

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1.9 Friction

In my more romantic moments, I think of us as a big family, but we’re kind of a dysfunctional one.

You can hardly be surprised. Most of us have lost our loved ones, and we’re all cut off from our people. One evening, Adelle and Jesse had an enormous fight. I don’t know what it was about.

The next morning, Adelle took out her pent up rage on the sandcastles she and I had built the day before. Adelle is such a quiet, gentle girl that it frightened me to see this side of her.

But by that night, the two of them talked things out. From that day forward, they seemed to share a bond.

They would sometimes spend entire afternoons working on their personal projects in companionable silence.

Rosalyn is an odd child, and I worry about her. She seems to be perpetually lonely but wary of letting any of us get close.

I worry about her, and I do my best to draw her out in a nonthreatening way.

I am still a terrible cook. I admit it.



I haven’t talked to Jesse much. I guess, to be honest, I’m kind of avoiding him. It seems like if we start talking, I’ll have to face things I’m just not ready for. We’re the adults here, and we have three children to care for. That’s all I can think about now.

Adelle and Timi, on the other hand, seem to be seeing each other for the first time.

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1.8 Growing

Timi has built himself a boat.

I’m as impressed as you are. We now share enough language to talk about simple things, but I’m still not clear if he has a nautical background or if he just figured it out on his own. It’s possible he built up the design from first principles. Even with the language barrier, I can tell he’s a lot smarter than I am. And I don’t want to toot my own horn, but let’s just say I’m no slouch myself. You have to have something in your head to finish as many years of school as I have.

Or wait, if you know what it’s like to be a graduate student, maybe my own intelligence isn’t that convincing.

Now he spends a lot of days exploring the sea around the island. It’s not a trustworthy enough craft for him to take on the open sea. So far, he’s found a lot more island, but no people.

I can’t let Adelle and Timi have all the fun.

I’ve been doing a lot of experiments with the local flora, and I’m starting to be able to weave and dye some passable fabric.

I think the foraging is the best part.

When I returned home one afternoon, I was met with a huge surprise.

Our little refugee camp has two more members:

Jesse

and Rosalyn.

They washed up on the island sometime this week. They were so overjoyed to find other living souls that we ended up laughing and playing long into the night.

And Jesse…



I don’t think I’m ready for the way he looks at me, but I just can’t stay away.

We have a regular barracks now.

Rosalyn is a withdrawn girl who seems scared of her own shadow. And yet when she starts talking, it seems like she can’t stop. I can’t follow most of it, but it seems like all she really wants is someone to listen.

She clearly has a reverent appreciation for nature. When she’s not talking your ear off, she seems to find a friend in the island’s beauty.

Jesse is the kind of site manager we needed from the start. In only a day or two, he had the entire camp spotless and organized.

When he is not scouring and organizing, he spends his time drawing the sunset.

As the days passed, one thing became clear, though.

Adelle was becoming a young woman.

———-

For the record, I had no intention of pairing Echo off with the first adult to join the household, but she and Jesse can’t stay away from each other.

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1.7 Top of the World

Since I somehow washed up on and island and made a life for myself, the same thing could happen to Terrence, right? He’s probably living his own life someplace that would be painfully close if we only knew about each other. Each of us, living our our lives separately, but joined in our hearts.

I know it’s a fantasy, but sometimes it keeps me going. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him.

I’m a lousy cook.

But they eat it anyway.

I guess, after you’ve been hungry, burnt pancakes are still the food of the gods.

Timi’s prized piece of salvage is a working telescope that he pulled from some wreckage that washed up near the shore. I think it might have been pirate plunder. Even if it didn’t work, it would be beautiful as a piece of art.

He scans the sky almost every night. I don’t know if it’s the heavens he searches or the horizon for signs of other ships.

I guess what we have now is something you could kinda call life.

We dug a permanent latrine

And plumbing from the well to the bathtub.

And presto, an outhouse!

I am on top of the world.

———-

This kind of wrecks the mood, but I had to share this one. That bathtub was a Sims Medieval conversion that was apparently not updated for Pets.

Thus, this outtake:

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1.6 Comforts

His name is Timi. He puts up a brave face, but I don’t think he’s more than 14 or 15. Barely more than a child.

He didn’t need much persuasion to stay. He seemed so lost when we found him. Whatever he was doing in his previous life, it didn’t involve outdoor skills.

While I was out foraging, I happened upon something that we’d all be fantasizing about and dashed home to bring the kids with me up the hill.

In the tropical climate, the natural spring wasn’t even that cold. I don’t think any of us have been anywhere near clean since we got here. It was almost a transcendental moment.

Adelle was the youngest, and we let her go first. The prospect of an almost-real shower made me and Timi slap-happy. 

Better yet, I’m getting better at weaving fibers, and I was able to make us a change of clothes that would hold together and didn’t feel like wearing a burlap sack. We won’t talk about my first attempts.


Adelle cleaned up so sweetly.




I have no intention of putting on any coconut bikinis, but the grass skirt was the first wearable thing I made, and I’m proud of it. Also, it’s pretty cool in this climate.

Timi finished his shower with a flash of inspiration.

He may not be a survivor, but he’s clearly a scientist and engineer. Though we still speak only the rudiments of each other’s languages, he can draw an amazingly clear diagram. I’m used to living in the rough for a few months at a time, and I’m handy, but I’m no engineer. You don’t need to hear the one about how many paleontologists it takes to screw in a lightbulb.

But with Timi’s vision and a whole lot of sweat and dirt, we managed to dig a well! Drinkable water at the campsite! It’s hard to believe.

And assemble a more permanent fireplace with a usable cook surface.

Best of all, we can use this thing to heat water for a bath in our freshly-built outhouse.

All the comforts of home. Well, maybe not exactly, but considering our earlier lifestyle, this is high luxury.

———-

Nobody pester me about the feasibility of digging a freshwater well by the beach. Or about the fact that I couldn’t completely color over the iPod on Echo’s outfit.

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1.5 Refuge

It’s hard to describe what it’s like to have a friend when you’ve gone without one for so long.

I’m supporting us primarily on forage. On an island like this, it’s all we need to keep us pretty comfortable.

One of the few possessions Adelle had with her was a notebook and pencil. She spends hours writing on it. I feel badly about leaving her alone for such a long time each day, but she doesn’t seem to mind at all.

In the evenings, we work on learning each other’s languages over fruits and vegetables roasted over the fire.

At night, we sleep side-by-side.

One night, I had a shocking wakeup call.

Adelle picked him up somewhere along the beach.

Where did he come from? Isn’t this supposed to be a deserted island?

We couldn’t fully understand each other, but he got across the most important part.

There’s a war on. These children are refugees.

———-

Timi was the babysitter, who was inexplicably auto-called while Echo was away collecting and Adelle was home. I’m pretty sure children don’t need babysitters.

Adelle is an Athletic, Family Oriented Bookworm. Timi is a Brave Genius Computer Whiz (and something I forgot) — poor fellow. I doubt there will be computers in his lifetime. Fortunately, we now have someone Brave in case of fire.

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1.4 Home

She was gone the next morning, but I hoped she’d be back again. I hoped so much that I made a salad to sit out while I was gone. It would be almost like eating as civilized people.

She doesn’t have anywhere else to go, does she?

It’s time for her to have a home. It’s time for me to have a home. I had skills before I came here. It’s time that I used them.

Her name is Adelle, and she’s going to live here now.

———-

I tried to turn on Ask to Move In for children using Twallan’s Retuner, but I think I set it so that children could ask adults to move in instead of the reverse. They were best friends, so I gave up and moved her in the cheat way.

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1.3 Communication

Sometimes this kind of life isn’t too bad. When I don’t think about Terrance and the rest of my crew, I can get to enjoy it.

Other times, I really miss my old life. Tropical rains are one of those times.

The plus part is that the drenching as a sort of halfhearted shower. It was nice to feel a little bit clean.

One day starts to flow into the next. After a while, even the beauty gets to feel routine.

I looked all over my corner of the island for some sign of the girl, and I couldn’t find any. I started to wonder if I’d imagined her. Then some supplies started going missing at my campsite.

Then one day I woke up, and she was standing right there in the middle of camp, watching me.

I tried to approach her non threateningly this time. I didn’t want her to leave!

We tried so hard to communicate, but she doesn’t speak Simlish. I still have no idea who she is or why she’s here. If she has an adult, she gave no sign.

But we found something that didn’t require language.

It’s so wonderful to not be alone.

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1.2 Habitation

I guess this piece of beach is my home. It’s getting to feel familiar.

There are still crates of supplies from my ship washing ashore. Almost everything has a little something I can use.

You do what you can to fill the time.

Wait!

Don’t leave! Let me talk to you!

———-

I’ve done some extensive updates to the About page. This is getting to diverge quite a bit from the standard NIF rules, but it’s unscored, so who cares?

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1.1 Necessary Steps

It didn’t take long to be sure that nobody was coming for me.

I felt like I should be setting huge bonfires to burn all night, flashing mirrors during the day, shouting at the ocean. But I had to admit that, deep down, even if it worked I was terrified of who might find me. I had never imagined we had enemies, but we had been attacked from nowhere. And now… everyone… Everyone but me, I guess.

I guess eventually you have to start figuring out how to live.

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