Thank you! I chased my poor husband away from the desk and computer (made him do his work at the kitchen table) so I could write and post. It's a shiner. There's a bruise on his chin as well. It may all be more visible in next couple of chapters. I created it quite a while ago with the help of my son in Body Shop. Needed it for my little (unfinished ) movie. Skin and eyes from Helaene. The hair is probably XMSims2. Don't quite recall off hand about the gypsy clothes. Might have been Parsimonious but won't bet my life on it. Adding 5 more pictures of the village. I enjoyed building it so much I almost didn't bother with Errol and Harcourt's story. And now I'm thinking about their next exotic location. p.s. you might note the microwave on the deck of the boat. How else are you going to cook on the high seas? It's the same boat, by the way. I just built the village around it. p.s.p.s. I spend an enormous amount of time and energy trying to hide the blasted roads, which explains my heavy use of the giant rock/mountains.
that lot is absolutely amazing Lynet. And I love the water effect...you didn't by chance upload this to the main site at all did you? Ooooh! And you also have to let us know when that movie is finished.
I want to vacation there. I love the details! You SAY you can't build houses but I no longer believe you ... So very cool.
Sorry, no chapter yet. Tomorrow I hope. Meanwhile--- The island ladies' hair is not from xmsims. It's by someone called Seomi that I found on MTS2. Also, I found the gypsy dresses on Mermaids Cove under Female Young Adult/Adult. Interesting site, Mermaid's cove. Wrong, Emma Babe, you are super intelligent. I was wanting to vacation there, too, SBW. As for house building--Thanks. I'll admit I've gotten good at building huts. With lots of trees around them. (I'm waiting for the grass roof recolor) I should send in an application for Survivor. And Shana, I'm afraid to upload to the main site, especially lots like this one that are loaded with downloads from all over the place. Don't want to get creators mad at me. :bandit: Also, hacks piggy back, I think, and I've got one or two that might be dangerous.
I went ahead and made my own shiner makeup, with or without split lip. Look for it soon at a Port near you ... It does seem more realistic, with all the fights certain sims get into.
I didnt see Harcourt for the rest of the day. A couple of the men brought me a bowl of mush to eat in the middle of the afternoon. There were grey lumps mixed in with the cereal. Fish. I dont like fish and found It hard to swallow even after persuading myself that it was not chopped sea people. I worried about Harcourt, too, because in spite of his obvious science know-how he was an idiot with people. I paced the small hut. I punched the hard wall on occasion. I took off my jacket in the heat. I talked to myself. There was a hole in the floor with an obvious purpose and the main source of the stink. I added my own to it. By the fading light from a crack in the roof beam I knew when the sun set. When I heard the bar being removed from the door I grabbed my jacket off the floor, shook it out and put it on. Come with me, she whispered. Did I trust her? Not really. But Id get out of the hut. The breeze off the water hit my sweaty face and I sucked fresh air into my lungs. The woman was ahead of me, moving quickly between the buildings toward the boat. I ran to catch up and grabbed hold of her elbow. Wheres Harcourt? The man I came with? They have him up in the lodge. We need to be quick. Please, to the boat, then you and I will leave through the mountains and cross the bridge to the desert. Thats right. But not until you tell me what they are doing with my friend up there in the lodge. He has offered himself for the fight. He will fight Wanikiya and if he wins you and he will be set free. If he loses then you will be sold. He will lose. Wanikiya is young but very strong and a good fighter. Forget this man you came with. He is stupid. She looked up at Jurgs boat. Now, do what you must do here and we will leave. I have a roll of supplies waiting along the path to the mountains. Hold on. Has the fighting started? Hes been there all day long. Not yet. He talks, your friend. He talks a lot, about everything, about the sea and the sun and the earth and the mountains and his travels. I have no interest in this talk but the others have questions for him and he has questions for them and in the end he decides to fight. That is stupid because Wanikiya will kill him, or nearly so. I have seen men die from fighting. Me, too. I ran past her, up the hill to the huge lodge balanced on stilts. The fight had just started. How did I know? Only because Harcourt was still on his feet. I pulled him away and shoved my face in, eyeball to eyeball with Wanikilicky, or whatever she called him. Then Wanikiscrewit leaped at me. If youre thinking boxing matches, forget it. Outside the ring no one fights like that. You try to hurt the guy any which way you can. Strangleholds are popular. Punches to the kidneys or the breadbasket are good, too. My favorite is a simple, solid uppercut to the chin. Rattles the brain and slows him down. I won, of course. Experience makes a difference and Id had plenty while in prison. Wanikick limped away but I knew, from the look in his dark eyes, that he wasnt finished with us. Didnt matter. Harcourt and I were going for the mirrors whether Harcourt wanted to or not. I grabbed his arm and pulled him down to the boat. He didnt resist and it was after we got there that I realized why. We were too late. The mirrors were gone.
More pictures of Errol fighting Wanikiya. The fight lasted a long time and I didn't know who would win. Neither one had a single body skill point and they are equal on the active vs lazy scale. Anyway, Errol won. By the way, I moved the fighters out of the dust cloud because I couldn't move the dust cloud itself.
Wow, Lynet. As always, this is amazing stuff ... your characters are so well drawn, the pictures are fabulous ... brava.
Fortunately for Harcourt he knew enough this time to keep his mouth shut. I shoved him hard against the bulkhead and stomped up out of the hold, steaming mad. I’d been all wound up like a clock spring before the fight. Pounding on the island kid hadn’t helped as much as you‘d think. I stalked off along the rocks, away from the village, muttering to myself. No one came near me. At the far end of a finger of land sticking out toward the sea I sat on the rocks and watched the moon. It looked exactly the same as the moon shining down on my house in the city. I jumped to my feet and shouted at it, the moon, expecting my words to bounce off and come down in another place and time, “I’m coming back, Kate. I WILL come back!" Another day on this island and anything could happen. Jurg might take his boat and go back to sea. I decided to stop moping around and go make sure the boat wouldn’t leave. I took my time walking back and found the village dark and quiet. I sat on the pier for awhile, waiting to be sure everyone was asleep. Nothing moved except a breeze in the palm trees. How best to sink a boat? Quietly. I walked into the water and looked at the hull. The old, weather-beaten planks were caulked with sticky pitch over something that looked like strings of twisted cloth, maybe yarn. Removing the planks would be noisy and might wake someone, but removing the caulk? Messy but easier. I prowled around in a nearby shed until I found some tools that were obviously for boat repairs, particularly caulking hulls. A big heavy chisel and a wooden mallet. That last could be loud but not if I was real careful and used it infrequently. I went back to the boat and set to work. The boat was pulled halfway up on sand next to the pier. I’d seen the tide come and go and knew that Jurg had come in at high tide, beaching his boat. On purpose, I presume, but you never know. The tide was out when I started work but beginning to creep back in. It was up to my waist by the time I finished. Soaking wet to the skin I carried the tools back to the shed and took only a second to gaze proudly at my work. That boat was not going anywhere until they hauled it out and re-caulked it. A lot of work. It would take days. Pulling the yarn out of the seams is a fast job, faster then stuffing it back would be. I gathered the piles of pitch soaked cotton and carried it all into the hold where water sloshed with every step. I loaded it in the crate where Harcourt and I had been locked up. It took several trips and the sky was starting to lighten when I closed the crate and went looking for dry clothes. I remembered the box on the roof of the cabin and quickly changed. I stayed there, just sitting, when my lady friend showed up and started playing with the telescope, glancing at me. “You fight good,” she said at last. “Better than Wanikiya.” “Give him time.” Waves slid up the beach and back. The boat sat solid like a boulder, weighed down by the water inside it. The woman didn’t seem to notice. She spun the telescope back and forth, around toward the sea then back toward the mountains, looking through it. Then she turned suddenly with a gasp, “They come. The traders are here!”
Just for your information, friends, I have had experience caulking a big old fishing boat, stuffing cotton into the seams and then caulking it all heavily. Very dirty job, crawling around under an old boat, scraping crud off, pulling out old caulk, etc. So what Errol did to keep Jurg's boat from going out to sea is very real, let me tell you.
I took a look through the telescope myself. Three men were just coming out of a gap in the rocks and walking into the village. I straightened up and started for the stairs off the roof, but the woman caught my arm. You will go with them? To the desert? Why would I want to do that? Because your friend wants to go. He searches for his woman. You will go, I know, and I want to go with you. I will do anything for you, whatever you wish. I knew little about Jurg but it was enough to sympathize. I took her hand, Jurgs boat isnt going anywhere, my dear. Its full of holes. There isnt any need to run away to the desert. By the time he gets his boat fixed Ill be back. I smiled. She laughed. I finally got away from her. I went looking for Harcourt and found him in the lodge, eating cereal. He said, I have been wanting to talk with you. I am extremely indebted to you for taking my place in the trial by combat last night. I am willing to fight but do not have the experience. I was believing my need was great enough to bring about success. Never mind that. I enjoyed it. The desert traders are here. He stood up, Then I will ask Bad idea. Dont ask them anything. You probably wont get the truth for an answer. I do not understand why. I have learned that Jurg sold a woman to these traders on his last supply run here. I asked her description and I am sure it is Alka. I need to know where they took her. You have something to trade for this information? Trading is what they do. He considered this idea then shook his head. So lets go introduce ourselves and find out what kinds of things they like to buy. Down at the beach we found Wanikiya already dickering with one of the traders. The deal, whatever it was, was falling though. The trader was shaking his head. Until he caught sight of me and Harcourt. I should have left my foolish partner up in the lodge quietly eating his cereal. Must have been the long sleepless night that addled my brains. I didnt leave him in the lodge. Nor did I clamp a hand over his mouth when he walked right up to the trader and said, We want to go with you, to that place where is the trading that you do. The man blinked, a little puzzled. Then he grabbed Harcourts hand and pumped it up and down. Agreed, he said. Agreed. This one, too? He looked at me. I looked at Harcourt. There is not a shred of cunning to be found anywhere in that man. Did he realize what hed just offered them? All night long as I tore up Jurgs boat I was thinking of Kate. Shed been a policewoman. She understood about watching your partners back, even if hes an idiot. Kate, I thought, what would you have me do? What would you expect of me? And the answer was obvious. Yes, I nodded. Me, too. We had just traded ourselves. For what end, I didnt know for sure, but I could guess. Forced labor somewhere. And it was best to pretend ignorance of the traders plans. As I had finally scuttled the boat I decided that Kate was safe in our house. Alka and Harcourt, on the other hand, were not safe here in this world. Could I save them? Probably not. But I couldnt abandon them, either.
Oasis might be a better word than island. We left it behind on the following morning, as the sun rose. We left behind a cool sea breeze, palm trees and bamboo, the smell of fish, the sound of birds in the brush and waves on the shore. Within an hour we had heat on our heads and under our feet, and rock on all sides. Our clothes were heavy but I knew wed be grateful for them when the sun set and the night turned cold. The traders were long accustomed to this. They trudged methodically and without resting and carried very little in the way of supplies with them. When I had tried to pack for me and Harcourt the guy in the hat had insisted that all the supplies we would need were stored along the route, where we would camp for the night. I scratched at my collar where the sweat collected. There was a few minutes of relief when we crossed the narrow waterway, the small arm of the sea that allowed the villagers to refer to themselves as islanders. The bridge was short and primitive, and on the other side of it I found white bones. I studied them only long enough to realize they were human. We moved deeper through rock canyons.
As always, this is just great ... more please! Errol is a really good guy, and his adventures keep getting more and more interesting. Can't wait to see what happens next!
I must introduce Jack. It's so difficult to stay focussed on this story with this guy Jack hanging around. I burst out laughing every time he walks into the scene... And thanks so much, SBW. I'm hoping I can maintain it.
I found him at MTS2. The creator is Drachenfel (best to do a search for his stuff). It's the Skeleton Skin Pack v3.0. I'm not sure what led me to him, but I was probably searching the Sims Downloads over there. Bink13y also has some cool sci-fi stuff. About 4 am this morning I woke up and thought, OMG, Jack is the name of SBW's guy. I had simply been thinking of Jack Skellington in the Nightmare Before Christmas when I named my skeleton. Before I confused myself with all these Jack's (it's also the name of my husband's business partner) I put Merola's painting in Jack's house and renamed him McJagger ... something about the skeletal frame ...
When I saw McJagger laying there "dead" I envisioned a satellite falling from the sky. Errol would sure get a surprise then!
