The Saga of Penn Vale The Ash Mallory Blog It seems as good a time as any to start a blog, I suppose. My name is Ash which is short for Ash, OK? I scraped up a baccalaureate from Penn State and there being not much to inspire me to go home I chose to settle here in Penn Vale. (I’m an only child and my folks were killed on their way home after dropping me off at the freshers’ reception. You think that’s a bummer? I didn’t find out until two weeks later. Something to do with administrative oversight, they said. Anyway, I got over it and the insurance money sure came in handy.) Let me tell you about Penn Vale, in case you haven’t heard about it. Well, it’s a new suburb of Pennfield. The old state capital is growing like a mould on a week-old pie; it also smell’s as bad too when the wind blows from direction of the glue factory. Anyway the city fathers, in their speculative wisdom chose the valley, here, as an area ripe for expansion. I heard the mayor owned all the farms up here and she made a serious killing over the sale of the land. Anyway it’s a right nice ‘hood and the air is clean. The soil is also rich-looking and that suits me because I hope to find out if I inherited my mum’s green fingers. I've got quite a nice sunny back yard and it seems a waste not to grow some food and stuff. Hey! I might even get a dog. Well that’ll be enough for now. I haven’t yet unpacked all my stuff and I’m expecting AKIE to deliver my new furniture in an hour or so. Hopefully, I’ll find time to get out later and explore a bit. There’s a couple of business lots I want to check out before dark. It’s always good to know where one can lay hands on a bag of sugar or a magazine without trekking out to those ghastly strip malls.
The Journal of Brighton Mayes Well Ive arrived, dear diary. The taxi dropped me at the address Id been given and, frankly, it didnt look all that Id been led to expect. For a start there was a large pile of mangled wreckage on the front garden. Ominously it was still smouldering slightly and fizzing sparks. Still, beggars cant be choosers and I have to live somewhere. I sure cant afford a place of my own and renting down in the city is out of the question. So lodgings it is for the time being, at least I have a nice room and the landlords family keep pretty much to themselves I dont expect Ill see much of them anyway. I start work at the school tomorrow. This is a stupid country. I mean I have a decent degree but just because I didnt get it here, I am apparently required to start at the bottom and work my way up. I wonder what a classroom assistant actually has to do. Hope I dont have to work with that creep of a head teacher, he eats like a pig. I better wrap this up. Looks like the landlord is back home. Looks like hes been to a funeral .
The Ash Mallory Blog Well my furniture arrived and as soon as the van had gone a bunch of neighbours showed up. Nosey buggers. I mean Im as neighbourly as the next guy but I like to think I know when is not a good time to visit. There I am up to my ears in corrugated card and polystyrene and polythene bags trying to figure out how to match up Part 23 with the slot in Part 71 blasted self-assembly Swedish furniture and heres this guy, with a nose like a Concorde, getting in the way and asking if I got the weather channel on the TV. In the end, I just ignored him. He left after a while. The other two neighbours werent quite so bad. Pete Ottomas has a house only a block away from me. There was also a woman called Marisa; I didnt find out too much about her. She seemed a bit stand-offish, either that or shes a bit shy. Shes also very blonde and not at all my type.[FONT="][/FONT] Pete seems like a decent enough sort of fella but he got called away, not long after he arrived, so we didnt get to talk a whole lot. He got a call on his cell-phone, and to judge by his expression the news wasnt good. I hope things are OK for him. I might go around there later.
The Journal of Brighton Mayes Well the good news is that Im too good be a classroom assistant. Ive been given a lively classroom full of little kids. One of them is my landlords daughter. I cant say I think its a great idea to be teaching a kid that I live with, even though little Sharla is a sweet little kid, but I laid it out straight for her. At home I am Brighton, the lodger, but at school I am strictly Miss Mayes and shell forget that at her peril. All the same I do feel for the poor kid, because the bad news is that my landlord, Peter, actually was coming home from a funeral the other day. It was his wife whod died. That big pile of junk in the front yard had apparently just fallen out of the sky and crushed as flat as a bug. As if that wasnt bad enough the poor woman was pregnant with twins. Its lucky he has his mother living in or I fear he mightve expected me to help out with the child care hes got that, you know, slightly olde-worlde chauvinist air about him. Well I better sign off. I promised to show Sharla how to bait a fish hook after supper. I forgot to mention that weve got a really great little fishing pool and old Mrs. O does a mean plate of blackened catfish when she can tear herself away from the soaps on SBN honestly! I swear that if they showed Porta De Luca 24/7 the old dear would never sleep at all!
The Ash Mallory Blog Poor old Pete. It must have been an awful shock, losing his wife, like that. It wasnt even one of our satellites! According to the paper, today, the Ottomas will probably not even get any compensation. One funny thing was that a Simplovian diplomat showed up at Petes asking for the return of his countrys property. I heard the ruckus from my deck. For a while there I thought ole Pete was about to start a war. I finally got around to taking a tour of the valley. It sure is pretty, but theres almost nobody here. The Ottomas have a place out on Bridge Street, its a bit ramshackle, but it looks kind of homely, too. A little further out on Bridge, right by the actual bridge, in fact, theres an old roadhouse that sells everything from TV dinners to the kind of cheap, stinky cologne that hicks like to use instead of bathing. They also serve food, mostly local caught fish and, according to the sign outside, they have a pool table and a couple a bowling lanes upstairs. I didnt go inside the smell of fried fish and toilet-block cologne is not my idea of heaven. I walked back past my street and on down to the grandly named Square. Its, er, square, all right. Theres a big park in the middle that looks like a nice place for a picnic and some optimist has built a roller skating rink on one side. Theres also a little junkyard that looks fascinating I just love rummaging in junk and maybe Ill find it open one day if the owner can be bothered to show up. Oh, yeah theres also a church with one new resident resting peacefully under a stone. Poor Mrs. Ottomas, I wonder if shell come back and do some haunting . The churchyard backs onto my property, I wonder if it was a good idea buying so close to a churchyard. Im not one to believe in the supernatural, but I really dont like the idea of ghosts. Oh yeah. While I was out I bumped into a really cute gal whos lodging with the Ottomas. She told me her name was Brighton, but all I really noticed was her hair; it was like burnished copper. I was still trying to figure an angle to ask her if she fancied keeping me company for a couple of hours when she rushed off. I guess I blew it. Or maybe shes just shy. I just hope shes not got the hots for Pete, what with him being on the market, so to speak.
Boy, is my face red . I thought the link in your signature was back to your Worldsims "Saga of Penn Vale" thread. I was waiting patiently for the illustrations. Just went to look at your REAL blog of Penn Vale. Pretty cool. Thanks for the link to Dagmar Diaries, too.
The Journal of Brighton Mayes Maybe the Union of Sim States isnt such a bad country after all. I cant seem to help getting promoted almost every week. Im actually starting to make some money, although Im still a long way from ever being able to afford a place of my own. Not that I want to live alone, of course. Oh no, diary, thats not part of the plan is it? What I need is someone tall, dark and handsome but Im flexible on that. Seriously I just want to meet someone kind and, well, you know, settled. Stable, is what I think mean. Maybe I should marry a horse then, ha-ha. I did bump into someone in my age bracket the other day. He fitted the appearance criteria but he seemed a bit pre-occupied. I sort of got the impression he was gearing up to ask me for a date, but he kept clamming up. I think he was blushing but hes pretty dark-skinned and I wasnt sure. We chatted for a bit but I had to dash away after a few minutes because I bursting for a wee. We were outside a skating place and I was so desperate I was tempted to dash inside and use their toilets but I was worried that he might get the wrong idea. Geez. Im such a dork. Ill probably never see him again, or if I do hell have a absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and super confidant girl on his arm and Ill just blush and scuttle off home to my spinsters room to write in my diary. I walked by his house this afternoon Maxoids! I sound like a stalker and its a lovely looking place, quite large but not sprawling. I guess hes not hurting for cash. I found out that hes a roadie for one of those manufactured boy bands, so hes away a fair bit. Pity.
Enjoying your tale, Mirelly! Like Lynet, I didn't realize about the link to the actual blog (with pictures!) I guess I gotta pay more attention! Looking forward to that Special Story Section Josh has been teasing us with - All my favorite (Sims) writers gathered together in one place!
I am sort of spamming my own thread at the moment. I did have this semi on the back burner pre-seasons and then after Seasons came out I kept it simmering because I was waiting to see if Josh's story would appear. Meanwhile I started playing Ash and Brighton and now I can't continue with them or else I'll end up vastly out of synch with their story in prose versus their "life" in simality. Then I decided that I might as well use my blogspot account to create a home for Penn Vale ... though using flickr.com for the pics is less than satisfactory ... The real problem with the blog style presentation for fiction is that the most recent posts are the first offered and it can be close to impossible to set up (for the traditional "Gentle Reader") so that the first unread episode is easy to find. For this reason I spit on the blog format. If writing does not have a begining, a middle and an end then I don't want to read it ... I ceratinly don't wanna read it out of order :(
Two Epsiodes If Telephone Could Tell Tales Hullo? Oh, hello, can I speak to your Daddy, please honey. Eh! Im sorry, but Im just the lodger and Mr. Ottomas isnt in. NO! You blithering idiot! Oh dear. I am so sorry. You must be, Brighton. We, um. We met the other day . Maxoids! You sound like a tongue-tied schoolboy! Youll be gulping next. Oh, I thought I recognised your voice. Its Ash, isnt it? Thats me , Ouch, dont blow out down your nose like that, youll give the poor girl the creeps. I er, I mean, um, it was a shame you had to dash off the other day . Yes. Is that it? Geez, say something else, then. Did you, um, enjoy your walk? Is the best you can do, girl? Theres no hope for us if it is! Were doomed to shelfdom for ever. Yeah it was OK. Exploring the Vale doesnt take long, does it? Brighton answers with a chuckle. I made her laugh! Thats good. Quick ask her out while youre ahead. Um, I was thinking of, you know, maybe going for another walk this afternoon and see if therere any fish in that pool in Square Park. Perhaps I could pick you up, if you fancy joining me ? That would be lovely. Dont sound so excited, its only a walk in the park! Fantastic. Ill pick you up at 2 oclock, then, if thats OK. Sure, erm, do you want me to get Peter to call you? Eh? Peter? You asked if he was in? Asterisks! Oh, er, no it was nothing, Ill catch him later. Oh, oh, oh, lame attack warning. Kid, your excuses are past crutches, they need wheelchairs. Ill see ya later, then . Hang up quick! Bye Oh, hes gone already. Ash Mallory's Private Diary Im smitten. At least I think I am. I met this girl that I cant stop thinking about. I wish I wasnt so awkward with the opposite sex. I had a bad time at uni and I suppose that marks a guy. Long before the first semester was over it had gotten out that Id lost my folks and come into a large pot of cash and before I knew what was what I was up to my ears in gold-diggers and what was infinitely worse a plague of bossy-knickers types looking for someone to pet and mother. I put up walls which have been pretty hard to tear down. More by luck than judgement I finally managed to get a date with Brighton. I really was phoning her landlord (would I lie to my diary? I wouldnt have called her honey, thinking she was Petes daughter, if Id been on the pull, for one thing. Why am I trying to convince a diary for Maxissakes!) I picked her up and we walked to Square Park. Its not far. Nowhere in Penn Vale is very far from anywhere else. She asked me if I liked working for Banned Alive and I confessed that Id hated every minute of pandering to the spoilt little brats. I loved the sound of her laugh as I told her the ins and outs of being a roadie to a bunch of tone-deaf jerks. We stopped off to look through the chain-link fence at the incredible stuff in the junkyard. I now know the place bears the unlikely name of Sphinxy Bills Flea Market, but like every other time Ive passed byit was closed and we could only gawp. I told Brighton that I wanted to buy the enormous plastic gorilla for my front lawn. She fell about laughing and told me that I had no taste and that the planning office might object and I said if it was going to do that it would have stopped Sphinxy Bill from displaying the thing in the first place and she snorted that, for all I knew they had and he was in jail for contempt; why else was his junkyard always closed? She had me there. I liked her even more for being smart as well as funny. After playing catch with a ball we found, we had a go at fishing. We really tried hard but after a couple of hours neither of us had caught a thing. I have to admit that Im not much of a fisherman but then I never thought catching fish was important on a date. Instead we talked and talked while we stared at our lines. I cant believe some of things we talked about . I started to feel like we had known each other all our lives. We finished up, after it started to get dark, by sitting on a bench, just cuddling for warmth and swapping little jokes about the people we saw walking by. One guy, who was wearing tartan shorts, proved to be a rich source of material for us both. With almost no debate we nicknamed him Goopy because we thought he looked a little goofy as well as the undeniable fact that wearing plaid shorts has to be a sign of severe loopiness. I walked her home and extracted another date. I rashly promised to wow her with my cookery. Im going to cook up lobster thermidor; Ive never done it before, but how hard can it be?
I decided to read your entire story in the blog, rather than here, and I see what you mean about how it doesn't take well to stories, unless you've been following them closely and only need to read the most recent episode. There should be a Next / Previous button. Ash is a nice looking guy. It's funny, but in RL I don't go for the unshaven look at all :yuck: , but on sim guys, it's a turn on. :drool: Things are going too smoothly for Ash and Brighton. I'm getting nervous. :bitelip:
Clippings From The Penn Vale Recorder Curio Dealer Hits Town We can report that rumours Penn Vale is to be home to a business dealing in used items, bric-a-brac, and curios are true. Long time resident of Pennfield, Guilliam Giza, has moved his home and business to our new suburb. Guilliam, or Bill to his friends, trades as Sphinxy Bill, a nickname he says dates back years. Bills yard has been stocked for some weeks now but the grand opening has been delayed while he concentrated on getting his house built next door. Bill is careful to remind patrons and passers by that his Doberman, Fonzie, is not a pet and will chase any citizens whose intentions are less than honest. When not striking a bargain, or closing a sale, Bill loves to roller skate and play darts and he looks forward to becoming a regular at the nearby Valley Roller Rink. Sphinxy Bills Flea Market will open its doors for the first time on Monday. Normal trading hours will be 8am-6pm Mon thru Sat, and also by private arrangement. Bills phone number is 888 SPHINXY, his email address is bill@pennvale.sim.
The Journal of Brighton Mayes Oh dear. I think Im in trouble. Im supposed to be having dinner with Ash tonight but Im getting terrible cold feet. You see, last night I went out for a walk and kind of ended up at the roller rink. Yes, I know, I am so transparent. Id read in the paper that this Sphinxy Bill character likes to hang out there so I thought Id go check him out for meself. Well he was there all right. Large as life and twice as hunky. And, asterisks, if he isnt as dark and gorgeous as my Ash (yes I gotta admit it, I really fancied him like crazy . ) Anyway, Bill was on his own and looking sort cute in a fish out of water kind of way. For a start he was a wearing suit! I mean, a suit to go roller-skating! I decided I needed to get to know this king of comedy, so I put on some skates and joined him. It wasnt long before I knocked him flying. (Im not good on wheels to be honest, Im positively lethal in a car!) Next thing I know were chatting away like weve known each other for ever. Hes very charming, but sort of odd and scruffy. That suit, for example, had a strong odour of mothball. I have to admit that if I wasnt already nurturing someone elses affections I might be tempted to go in for a fling. Nothing long term, but Bill is a fun person, no doubting that. Bill said I was dangerous to skate with and that hed take a chance on my being less hazardous with darts, instead. I am. I almost beat him. The trouble is that I was so engrossed that I failed to spot Ash arriving. When I finally did spot him I could see him scowling and trying not to look in our direction. I must admit that Bill and I were rather badly flirting by then. To Bills credit hed made a clumsy sort of pass earlier and Id brushed him off with a simple explanation you know, sort of, Im not interested in that right now, kind of thing. It was no problem and we went on to have a whale of time, joking, laughing, teasing, doing silly dances to some of the dreadful golden oldies the rink was playing over the PA . Suddenly Ash charged over and said something to Bill. I didnt catch what was said, but I could see Bills face fall and cloud over. I felt so sorry for him and I cant think what got into Ash. Meanwhile I am so confused as to whether I really want to go and have dinner with Ash, now. I mean jealousy is sort of nice when you think about on one level, but jealous people dont really get over it, do they? I wish I had someone to talk to ....
