Strange Tomato (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strangetomato) wrote2008-11-17 07:29 pm
strangetomato) wrote2008-11-17 07:29 pm
Entry tags:
The Round Robin Legacy Generation Five: part two
The Round Robin Legacy
Generation Five: Nyssa
Part Two: Magic and Loss
"There's a bit of magic in everything, and then some loss to even things out"
Warnings: sexual situations, drug use, some minor language
The move to Veronaville went just as we had planned it.
We settled into our new home, relieved to be away from the public eye. Veronavillers were far too posh and refined to raise an eyebrow at our Sim City fame, and they had their own scandals and family disputes to distract the media from us. Living there promised to be calm and pleasant, and we looked forward to that privacy.
We were so happy. It was just one big public display of affection after another. It's a good thing there were no paparazzi or anyone else around to see us.
Well, except for that modern-day prophet guy who showed up to talk about the coming of the end times, and the New Third Kingdom of Sims that we need to prepare for.
No matter where you move these days, you can't seem to hide from those witness types.
Yeah, those guys are everywhere.
We barely paid him any attention, the poor guy. And he even gave us a free computer to get his message across. That's some serious dedication to the cause.
But we were just thrilled. Out on our own, playing away at our domestic life together. Neither of us was exactly the marrying type, but, in that moment, I wouldn't have been surprised if he had popped the question, and I might even have said yes. But why bother with such things? We both got by quite well without making things a legally binding contract. What's romantic about that?
Well, it's a good excuse for a party, and you get to wear a grogeous gown.
I could do that anyway.
I don't mean to take away from the whole institution of marriage, but it just wasn't for me. Or, anyway, not at the time, it wasn't.
What do you mean by that?
Well... we did get married. Eventually. We never told anyone.
Oh, really...
Yeah. I just felt like it would be nice to somehow make it official. And, well, he asked me. After all those years, he took it in his head to pop the question. It's amazing how you'll just suddenly want to do something that never occured to you before. Something you maybe even feared. Then one morning, you just wake up and you roll the want.
It's funny isn't it?
It's one of the mysteries of being a sim.
What's even funnier is that I came to realize that I really wanted it too. I wanted us to stay together into old age, and celebrate our golden anniversary together. It's so sentimental, but that's how I felt.
So we did it. And it was wonderful.
Was this during your disappearance?
No, just after.
And about that... the disapppearance...
It happened shortly after we moved to Veronaville.
To celebrate our arrival at our new home, we took a walk into the forest, with the whole family. We went to the forest in the faerie territories, to the south of Veronaville. We were going to have a picnic.
There was a place there that Constantine wanted to find. His mother had told him about it. Helena had lived in that area with her father and twin sister, until the day he had suddenly and violently died by being crushed by a satelite. Constantine had always loved her stories about the forest. It seemed so simple and filled with beauty. Maybe even magic.
So we went there that day, and we didn't come back. We were gone in a blink of an eye, and we didn't come back for many, many years.
It was about fifteen years, I believe.
Yes, I remember the day that finally made the news. Public interest in you was still high, even though you had managed to avoid much media attention after your son was born. And that really made headlines. One day, while wandering the countryside with her family, Nyssa Lioncourt vanished as mysteriously as she had appeared.
Yes, I can imagine.
Well, I'm all ears, and so are my readers. Where exactly did you go?
We were walking in the forest, and we were still in the same forest, only not the same forest at all.
We were in Faerie.
Wait... what?! Faerie?
Yes, that's the realm of the good folk. The faery folk.
That's not a real place.
Oh, it's real. It's not the same sort of place we live in, and not the same sort of reality, but I will assure you that it is real.
Faerie is on an entirely different plane of reality from Veronaville. Even the faery territories, and all of that forest, it's not even close to the same thing. It's there, but it's not there. It is, but it isn't... do you understand?
Not really.
Yeah, I don't really get it either, but Constantine's grandparents used to live there, he says. Not that they talk about it...
It's funny. Faerie occupies the same space as the faery territories, in a sense, but it's completely seperate too. You have to wonder just how many different realities are out there. Maybe there are even multiple universes. Like me, for example... they tell me that I've been here all along, and Ancha never existed, but I know I was there. In my heart, I know it was true.
Contantine said that his mother told him about something very similar to that once. When she joined her band, back when she was new to the city and barely scraping by, she met the lead guitarist, and had this flash of recognition. It was like she knew him from somewhere before. It was very vivid. She said she saw this whole other reality, where they had children, even triplets, exactly like Constantine and his brother and sister, but... different.
Maybe it was just deja vu.
No, she said that she saw them, the same two sims, in an entirely different outcome.
That's strange. Couldn't it maybe just be explained by her lifestyle at the time? I mean, she WAS a rock musician... and there were rumours of amphetamine abuse...
Maybe. But weird things like that... well, some of them are probably true, you know.
I met someone at a party once that told me there were only 27 different templates for faces, and they just keep getting recycled over and over again in different sims.
Yeah, and those third-coming people go on about how this will all cease to exist one day, and we will be replaced by an extirely different "engine," as they say. And you know how sane they sound...
Well, maybe they're right... maybe the very structure of our whole universe will change, and sims will continue to exist, but nothing will be the same ever again. How can we be sure it isn't true? I've seen a lot of weird things in my lifetime.
Sounds like crazy talk to me.
Yeah, well I thought Faerie was crazy talk too, but I went there.
This is... even more unbelievable than your first story.
Well, do you want to hear about it or not?
Yes, yes. Go right ahead.
We walked into a clearing in the forest, and found a cabin. It was just standing there, waiting for us to move in. It was magical, I'm sure, as most things are in those parts. We moved in, because we had little choice. We needed a place to take shelter. The weather is mild and pleasant in Faerie, but a shelter is still needed.
We thought it was only temporary. Just until we found a way out.
It wasn't long before we realized that it wasn't going to happen so easily, and we settled in. It wasn't a bad place to live. The cabin was sparse, but solid. It was quite suitable for our needs: a place for us to relax and live our life, all off to ourselves.
And there was a place to rest our children's heads. That was enough. The rest, we could figure out.
For many years, it was our home.
The land provided everything we needed, or nearly so.
I took to learning magical skills, since the air was filled with faery magic, and our cabin contained all the impliments needed to get started. Constantine had no interest in it, despite his status as having 1/4 faery blood. He said my nature elemental side would probably make me just as qualified, if not more. He figured that nature elemental was just another word for faery, and I was just a specific type of faery. He'd heard of such things as faeries of the garden, or pixies, plant faeries, whatever you might call them.
And in Faerie, the place, that meant I could use magic powers. So, decided to give it a try, and I started to learn the ways of magic. I spent many hours perfecting my skills, and it provided us with many things we needed, and some of the things we wanted too.
As did our well, which was deep and mysterious, and filled with magic too.
The soil was very rich, and it was easy to grow all manner of plants.
I spent most of my time there, and then, one day...
I became more connnected to it. Something happened.
We decided that it was my nature elemental side coming to life. It was unusual, but, like everything else that was happening there, I accepted it.
The garden prospered.
Including my cowplant, which I grew from calflings taken from my earlier attempt. That first successful sample didn't grow to its full size, but there, in Faerie, it grew a mighty beast of a plant.
I loved that guy. He reminded me of Ferdinand, my first cowplant, so I named him after him: Ferdinand II.
You name them?
Well, yes. They're plants, but also sort of animals too, so they're like pets. Dangerous pets, though, so you have to be careful.
Yes, you've said that they... eat people?
Only if they're hungry. And we fed him well.
At his full size, he was really a sight to behold.
Strangely, though, he produced milk. They aren't supposed to do that unless they're feeding on live prey. I knew this was its nature, but I wouldn't have allowed it to eat anyone, if I could help it.
I had no idea what it could be feeding on.
If people wandered into our corner of Faerie, I wasn't aware of it.
But I did what had to be done. A cow must be milked.
We had very few cares in the world of Faerie. Our lives were blissful and content. There was work to be done, and it was tough, but it was also fulfilling, and there was plenty of time to rest and play too.
And play we did.
The years passed in a blink of an eye, it seemed.
Soon the babies were children, playing and helping in the garden.
Then they were teenagers before I knew it.
They grow up so fast.
Neil and Calli were good friends to each other.
Well, they had their moments, as all siblings do, but mostly they got along perfectly.
There were your typical teenagers, despite the fact that they lived in a magical forest.
Concerned with their appearances...
Keeping themselves fit...
Harvesting food from the garden...
Catching fish to eat...
Doing the ocassional craft or two...
And helping with the household chores.
They were good kids.
I loved my family, and I realized that I felt like having another child. This desire grew day by day, and then one day...
I did.
I sprouted a child, like a plant.
Like a plant?
Yes, exactly like a plant. It was incredible.
We named her Rosa, since she was a sweet little rose, and very much a chip off the old block. Even as a baby, I could see how much she was like me.
Neil and Calli were very helpful, and Neil especially loved to teach Rosa new things. I guess it's true what they say. After you have so many children, they almost raise themselves.
When I was younger, I would never have thought I'd want a large family, but the more children I had, the more I appreciated them.
Well, you'll see...
Rosa grew up so fast. She went right from toddler to adult, which really took me by surprise. That's how it is with plant babies.
She was a sweet girl. Very helpful in the garden, and always very nurturing to her siblings.
She loved Ferdinand II. He was more her pet than anyone else's. She called him Fluffy for short.
She took excellent care of him.
As well as all of the other plants. Most of her time was spent in the garden. It was a natural place for her to be.
She also loved practicing ballet, and that's where she spent the rest of her time.
As I was saying, I was very enamoured of my growing family, and it wasn't long before I missed having a baby around.
So I sprouted another one.
We named him Cyclamen.
Cy was welcomed into the family with open arms.
And, as it was with Rosa, there was no shortage of hands to help out with caring for him.
My fires still burned just as brightly for Constantine, after all those years. It's clear to me that we were meant for each other.
If anything, we were closer than ever, and the familiarity only make things better between us, and more rewarding. We couldn't keep our hands off of each other. There was such a joy in it.
And soon I found myself pregnant once again. The tradiitonal way, this time.
Our family was growing and growing, just like our thriving garden, and I couldn't have been happier.
Like Rosa before him, Cy grew up in the blink of an eye. Still so young to the world, but so full of his own special knowledge of nature and of the magic that brought him forth.
Like Rosa, he was drawn to the garden, and also to dancing, now that I think of it, but his true love was art.
After I taught him how to paint, well he just couldn't get enough of it.
The kids all enjoyed each others company, and spent a lot of time together. Not surprisingly, they were all very social.
They played many games of Don't Wake the Llama (which is popular in Faerie too - it's truly universal, it seems), and spent many hours fishing together.
The kids soon caught on to the powers of the magic well, and each took a turn at unlocking its mysteries.
Especially the mysteries of romance. It's not easy to date people when you're isolated in the forest, so it served a valuable purpose.
In turn, they each were granted a fleeting moment with someone who fulfilled their deepest desires.
Neil conjured up quite a specimen.
I have no idea where the boy comes up with things, but he has quite an imagination.
He seems to have a thing for older women. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose.
Rosa and Neil were both pretty casual about the well. They had their fun and quickly move on, and back to their hobbies.
Cy, however, was different.
Cy is a romantic. He's always had a big heart, and I know he's all about looking for The One.
The One ended up being Mr. Right, not Mrs. Right. This also didnt really surprise me. A mother can often sense these things.
Yes, I believe that.
Personal experience?
My brother. It's a long story, and I'm here to interview you, not the other way around, so please continue...
Yes... so, the man that appeared out of the well was a dashing young creature in a cowboy hat.
He was named Ira Inada. Cy fell head over heals.
They spent many an hour in the hot spring.
But, like the others, Ira's moment was fleeting. He was there for no more than a day, and Cy was heartbroken to see him disapear.
Shortly after this, he became sick.
None of us could believe that he might be pregnant at first, but soon it became quite obvious that he was. There must be something in the plant biology that makes it possible. I was just blown away. Not only because he was a man, but because he was still my baby. My little baby was having a baby. He was a man now, but still so young in my eyes.
He was happy about it, though, after he got over the shock. I think he appreciated having that little bit of Ira to remember him by.
We were all happy.
He didn't gain much weight, but you could see that glow in him, and he had that way of walking.
We were pregnant together, for a short time, which was a very interesting experience. A mother and child, pregnant at the same time.
My twins were born first.
Romulus...
...and Remus.
Twin boys, and very different from each other. We were all very happy to have babies in the house again, and Cy was probably happier than any of us, because it gave him a chance to practise his parenting skills. With so many hands to help out, it made for light work.
There was plenty of time left over to enjoy ourselves.
Times were good, but I felt like I was being absorbed by the forest. The magic was seeping into me so much that I gave off an aura of light.
I felt beautiful, and more like myself somehow, but also like I was losing myself to it. The nature elemental inside me was breaking free and the rest of me was slipping away. It was a little unnerving, but what could I do? I let it happen.
The twins evenually grew into delightful little toddlers, and they were very different from each other in more than just looks.
Cy also gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and named him Thymus.
It was around this time that I noticed Rosa was spending more time with Constantine than she had been. She really sought him out and they spent many hours in conversation.
She fell for him, I think. I could tell. She was very girlish, and flirty with him. And, well, it made sense. It makes sense because she was really just a replica of me. We shared a personality, and part of my very essense was in her. It was in them both, Rosa and Cy, but with her, it was like looking into a mirror. I know Constantine could sense this too.
As far as I know, nothing happening between them, but I know that she wanted it to. Maybe he did too. I wouldn't really blame him. In a sense, she was just a variation on me.
So things weren't all perfect for us. Like any family, we had our issues and our secrets.
Not only that, the forest we lived in wasn't always a friendly place. There were darker sides to living there, I won't lie to you.
There were the ghosts, for one thing.
The ghosts haunted us. Nobody was spared. We all felt the stress of these attacks.
Some more than others.
Sometimes I wondered if it was really safe for us to live there at all. We had many discusions about it, but the good always seemed to outweight the bad, and so we kept things the way they were. We didnt want to leave, but we wondered if one day we might have to, for our own safety.
And it was Neil who finally convinced us that returning was a good idea.
He'd been getting himself into heaps of trouble. Always off on adventures, stuff like that. That boy was a handful. He was a real firecracker.
Constantine blames it on the red hair. I guess he would know.
I very much doubt that the hair had anything to do with him getting struck by lightning, but you never know.
Neil conjured up some very interesting things with that imagination of his. For a while he had an imaginary friend, a giant stuffed bunny.
As a mother, it's hard not to worry about things like that, but he seemed to grow out of it.
And who knows? Maybe some of it was true. We did live in a magical forest.
Neil was like that. It was just one thing after another with him.
But it was the abduction that really set him off on wanting to leave.
After that, we explained the situation with the aliens to him, and he started to ask about the world back home.
Once I mentioned the word Space Pirate, he was sold. He wanted to go off and study to become one, and go into space himself. He would wouldn't be able to do that if we remained in Faerie.
As for myself, I was just as content where I was, maybe even more so, but I wanted to make him happy. A mother wants her children to follow their dreams.
To do that, we'd have to leave.
So Neil and Constantine went off in search of an answer, and found it in the form of a faery named Cale Mustardseed.
The answer we had searched for in those early days was really quite simple.
To leave Faerie, we'd just have to walk out the way we came in, but we had to really WANT to leave. Our desire to escape had brought us into this realm, and our desire to return would bring us back.
Simple enough. Magic is weird like that. It's not a whole lot different than a prayer, really. It works for you if you believe in it.
Wait. Nyssa...
Yes?
This story... it's even more outlandish than your story about your upbringing. I mean, do you really expect me to believe all this about plant babies, magic wishing wells, COW plants, and the magical realm of Faerie? And to leave you just had to really want to leave? Like, the power of positive thinking brought you home? Please... If your first story was science fiction, this one is the most ridiculous fantasy story I've ever heard.
But it's not a story, it's the truth.
Well, I guess it's still a story, either way, but it's still true.
I can't print this. Nobody will believe it.
Then don't. It makes no difference to me. Do you want to hear about how we came back, or should I just end the story now?
No, go ahead.
So we decided to leave. We left on a big transition day for the family.
Thymus became a toddler...
The twins became children...
And Neil. He became an adult.
That night, when the celebrations were over, we left. We took nothing more than what we had come with. Constantine had explained that someone else would come to occupy the house, that it was probably part of its magical enchantment, so there was nothing to worry about.
Magic is a bit like an hallucinogenic trip that way. It has it's own internal logic, and you're best off just going with it, or you risk souring the whole thing. I guess that's why Conner took it all in stride so easily. It's all just par for the course for him. And, well, I may have even tried it once or twice myself, back in the day.
That's what the rumours say.
So, anyway, we left it all as it was, for the next occupant. Even the cowplant would be fine. It was better to leave him, anyway, since he probably wouldn't survive the journey. Rosa was a little heartbroken about leaving Fluffy, but she accepted it. I took a clipping, and promised her that we would try it again when we got back home.
Out through the forest, we left the same way we had entered it.
When we came out the other side, I knew right away that we were back in Veronaville. The air felt different. Thinner... and cooler. There was more of a breeze.
And I was no longer a plant.
I looked down at my hands, and they were no longer green. Not the same green, anyway. They were back to my old familiar hue. The faery spell had been broken. It seemed as if nothing magical could pass through the boundary. It would sense, wouldn't it?
Then, in a flash of realization, I turned and looked around.
Rosa and Cy, my plant children, were nowhere to be seen.
They were gone.
I ran, frantically, searching. It couldn't be happening. Not again. Conner tried to calm me. He said that maybe they didn't really want to leave Faerie, deep in their hearts. As much as they loved us, maybe they didn't want to leave the place they were so much a part of.
Or maybe they just couldn't.
They were part of the forest. They were faery matter, when it came down to it. Maybe that was what happened. Whatever the reason, they were gone. I mourned the loss, but there was nothing we could do about it. They were gone.
And that was that.
We settled into an ordinary life once again, back in our Veronaville home.
Neil headed off for college, with plans to go on to be a great adventurer. He wanted to see everything that this, and many other worlds, had to offer.
I wished him all the best, but we didn't see much of him after he left home.
I know he was bothered by the disappearance of his siblings. We all were, but he seemed to take it especially hard. I've been there, so I know what it's like to lose family at his age.
I knew he'd continue to look for them throughout his life.
Who knows? Maybe he eventually found them. Maybe they left the forest, but just went somewhere else. It happened to me.
Maybe they're in our world somewhere. It's a big world.
Maybe they're still in Faerie.
Maybe they went on to another world, another reality. Who's to say?
We'll probably never know.
So that's the story of my disappearance.
Well... well, then.
The years haven't changed you, Nyssa. You're still just as perplexing as you've ever been.
Would you expect any less?
No, of course not. Thank you for agreeing to sit down with me today.
It was my pleasure.
Oh, there's Conner now. We're right on time.
Notes (lots and lots of them):
Meeting deadlines is hard, and I fail at it. Sorry for holding up the show.
I borrowed the whole Faerie thing from Neil Gaiman. I doubt he'd mind, since he does stuff like that all the time. (I named Neil after him too. I just made it Corneilius to match the other names better. He's "Neil" in the game.)
The Merkabah and Tulip Grove Estate are both from Holy Simoly. I altered the Merkabah just a little, to give it a balcony on the third floor, and to create an area for a band (I'll be using this lot in other stories too, because it's a great music venue). The apartment was Apartment01 from Loco-Plus, a discovery from the Spring4Sims site (check it out - there are lots of great finds posted daily!). I built the lot in Faerie myself, from the ground up. Nyssa bought the largest lot size, and I used her sizeable fortune to add all the plant life and landscaping, and to build the house. The waterfall and various harvestable trees are extracted from Castaway Stories (you can find them on MATY - just search for CS).
The other faery house is something I did a while back in preparation for my other story, so those shots are doing double duty, as are some of the faeries. The lot is a heavily altered version of The Little lost Cottage by Nano_Nona from MTS2, and the faeries are cameos by guest sims.
I know you know that Cale is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dothesmustle's Cale Peet (Nathan's father and winner of the first ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
legacy_writers founder challenge), but did you recognize these two? That's Candace Piper (also dothesmustle ) and Mateo Valenzuela (music_simbol). Helena Summerdream belongs to simgaroop. Any other sims are my own creations (or game-borns) or someone I spawned with the townie creator.
I have to give an extra special thank you todothesmustle, since I've been collecting a number of her sims for stories purposes. She gives good faery.
I've used a lot of cc from people I know here on livejournal in this, here and there, and I should give a special thank you tokinemortophobia for Constantine's permanent uniform (he even got married in it -LOL- and he wears it as an elder too - what a grup!), and the many, many hair recolours that I am obsessed with. They rock. *rubs them all over body*
Nyssa didn't actually move into the house in Veronaville until my stretch of the legacy officially ended. Once Neil transitioned, I moved them there, so I could take some pictures, but I only played in the apartment and the big empty lot that became the forest.
Constantine was never moved in, so I didn't break the rules that way either. Nyssa just invited him over almost every day, so I could fake it. All the child-rearing and bread-winning were done by Nyssa and Nyssa alone. I mentioned some things that brought money in, like the music video and experimental film, and those were HUGE chance card bonuses. She also picked up every single AL repuation bonus. Cheaper buy mode items, promotions, blind dates, cheap rent, higher pay for her job... you name it. She was rolling in simoleans.
Nyssa and Constantine were triple bolters, and most of their romatic interactions were autonomous, thanks to ACR. I couldn't resist those little light kisses and the classic dancing. So cute. ACR is also responsible for Conner being a jealous romance sim. It's because he's grouchy. I like the little details like that included with ACR.
All of Nyssa's pregnancies were the result of her autonomously trying for baby. The plantsims were grown by me, but if ACR factored that in, she would have done it herself, I'm sure. She had family as a secondary aspiration, which I'm sure is obvious.
I was working with three different LTWs for Nyssa over the course of the story, since I achieved the first two while she was living in the city. In case it wasn't completely obvious, they were Become a Proffessional Party Guest, Become a Visonary, and Reach Golden Anniversary (which I plan to achieve, now that I can ignore legacy rules and have moved Constantine in for real).
The last part feels rushed, but I really couldn't get my head around a way to make it work better. It was all a little rushed for me, since I'm a slow-moving creature, but I hope you'll enjoy the resulting story anyway.
And now... TIME TO VOTE!
Generation Five: Nyssa
Part Two: Magic and Loss
"There's a bit of magic in everything, and then some loss to even things out"
Warnings: sexual situations, drug use, some minor language
The move to Veronaville went just as we had planned it.
We settled into our new home, relieved to be away from the public eye. Veronavillers were far too posh and refined to raise an eyebrow at our Sim City fame, and they had their own scandals and family disputes to distract the media from us. Living there promised to be calm and pleasant, and we looked forward to that privacy.
We were so happy. It was just one big public display of affection after another. It's a good thing there were no paparazzi or anyone else around to see us.
Well, except for that modern-day prophet guy who showed up to talk about the coming of the end times, and the New Third Kingdom of Sims that we need to prepare for.
No matter where you move these days, you can't seem to hide from those witness types.
Yeah, those guys are everywhere.
We barely paid him any attention, the poor guy. And he even gave us a free computer to get his message across. That's some serious dedication to the cause.
But we were just thrilled. Out on our own, playing away at our domestic life together. Neither of us was exactly the marrying type, but, in that moment, I wouldn't have been surprised if he had popped the question, and I might even have said yes. But why bother with such things? We both got by quite well without making things a legally binding contract. What's romantic about that?
Well, it's a good excuse for a party, and you get to wear a grogeous gown.
I could do that anyway.
I don't mean to take away from the whole institution of marriage, but it just wasn't for me. Or, anyway, not at the time, it wasn't.
What do you mean by that?
Well... we did get married. Eventually. We never told anyone.
Oh, really...
Yeah. I just felt like it would be nice to somehow make it official. And, well, he asked me. After all those years, he took it in his head to pop the question. It's amazing how you'll just suddenly want to do something that never occured to you before. Something you maybe even feared. Then one morning, you just wake up and you roll the want.
It's funny isn't it?
It's one of the mysteries of being a sim.
What's even funnier is that I came to realize that I really wanted it too. I wanted us to stay together into old age, and celebrate our golden anniversary together. It's so sentimental, but that's how I felt.
So we did it. And it was wonderful.
Was this during your disappearance?
No, just after.
And about that... the disapppearance...
It happened shortly after we moved to Veronaville.
To celebrate our arrival at our new home, we took a walk into the forest, with the whole family. We went to the forest in the faerie territories, to the south of Veronaville. We were going to have a picnic.
There was a place there that Constantine wanted to find. His mother had told him about it. Helena had lived in that area with her father and twin sister, until the day he had suddenly and violently died by being crushed by a satelite. Constantine had always loved her stories about the forest. It seemed so simple and filled with beauty. Maybe even magic.
So we went there that day, and we didn't come back. We were gone in a blink of an eye, and we didn't come back for many, many years.
It was about fifteen years, I believe.
Yes, I remember the day that finally made the news. Public interest in you was still high, even though you had managed to avoid much media attention after your son was born. And that really made headlines. One day, while wandering the countryside with her family, Nyssa Lioncourt vanished as mysteriously as she had appeared.
Yes, I can imagine.
Well, I'm all ears, and so are my readers. Where exactly did you go?
We were walking in the forest, and we were still in the same forest, only not the same forest at all.
We were in Faerie.
Wait... what?! Faerie?
Yes, that's the realm of the good folk. The faery folk.
That's not a real place.
Oh, it's real. It's not the same sort of place we live in, and not the same sort of reality, but I will assure you that it is real.
Faerie is on an entirely different plane of reality from Veronaville. Even the faery territories, and all of that forest, it's not even close to the same thing. It's there, but it's not there. It is, but it isn't... do you understand?
Not really.
Yeah, I don't really get it either, but Constantine's grandparents used to live there, he says. Not that they talk about it...
It's funny. Faerie occupies the same space as the faery territories, in a sense, but it's completely seperate too. You have to wonder just how many different realities are out there. Maybe there are even multiple universes. Like me, for example... they tell me that I've been here all along, and Ancha never existed, but I know I was there. In my heart, I know it was true.
Contantine said that his mother told him about something very similar to that once. When she joined her band, back when she was new to the city and barely scraping by, she met the lead guitarist, and had this flash of recognition. It was like she knew him from somewhere before. It was very vivid. She said she saw this whole other reality, where they had children, even triplets, exactly like Constantine and his brother and sister, but... different.
Maybe it was just deja vu.
No, she said that she saw them, the same two sims, in an entirely different outcome.
That's strange. Couldn't it maybe just be explained by her lifestyle at the time? I mean, she WAS a rock musician... and there were rumours of amphetamine abuse...
Maybe. But weird things like that... well, some of them are probably true, you know.
I met someone at a party once that told me there were only 27 different templates for faces, and they just keep getting recycled over and over again in different sims.
Yeah, and those third-coming people go on about how this will all cease to exist one day, and we will be replaced by an extirely different "engine," as they say. And you know how sane they sound...
Well, maybe they're right... maybe the very structure of our whole universe will change, and sims will continue to exist, but nothing will be the same ever again. How can we be sure it isn't true? I've seen a lot of weird things in my lifetime.
Sounds like crazy talk to me.
Yeah, well I thought Faerie was crazy talk too, but I went there.
This is... even more unbelievable than your first story.
Well, do you want to hear about it or not?
Yes, yes. Go right ahead.
We walked into a clearing in the forest, and found a cabin. It was just standing there, waiting for us to move in. It was magical, I'm sure, as most things are in those parts. We moved in, because we had little choice. We needed a place to take shelter. The weather is mild and pleasant in Faerie, but a shelter is still needed.
We thought it was only temporary. Just until we found a way out.
It wasn't long before we realized that it wasn't going to happen so easily, and we settled in. It wasn't a bad place to live. The cabin was sparse, but solid. It was quite suitable for our needs: a place for us to relax and live our life, all off to ourselves.
And there was a place to rest our children's heads. That was enough. The rest, we could figure out.
For many years, it was our home.
The land provided everything we needed, or nearly so.
I took to learning magical skills, since the air was filled with faery magic, and our cabin contained all the impliments needed to get started. Constantine had no interest in it, despite his status as having 1/4 faery blood. He said my nature elemental side would probably make me just as qualified, if not more. He figured that nature elemental was just another word for faery, and I was just a specific type of faery. He'd heard of such things as faeries of the garden, or pixies, plant faeries, whatever you might call them.
And in Faerie, the place, that meant I could use magic powers. So, decided to give it a try, and I started to learn the ways of magic. I spent many hours perfecting my skills, and it provided us with many things we needed, and some of the things we wanted too.
As did our well, which was deep and mysterious, and filled with magic too.
The soil was very rich, and it was easy to grow all manner of plants.
I spent most of my time there, and then, one day...
I became more connnected to it. Something happened.
We decided that it was my nature elemental side coming to life. It was unusual, but, like everything else that was happening there, I accepted it.
The garden prospered.
Including my cowplant, which I grew from calflings taken from my earlier attempt. That first successful sample didn't grow to its full size, but there, in Faerie, it grew a mighty beast of a plant.
I loved that guy. He reminded me of Ferdinand, my first cowplant, so I named him after him: Ferdinand II.
You name them?
Well, yes. They're plants, but also sort of animals too, so they're like pets. Dangerous pets, though, so you have to be careful.
Yes, you've said that they... eat people?
Only if they're hungry. And we fed him well.
At his full size, he was really a sight to behold.
Strangely, though, he produced milk. They aren't supposed to do that unless they're feeding on live prey. I knew this was its nature, but I wouldn't have allowed it to eat anyone, if I could help it.
I had no idea what it could be feeding on.
If people wandered into our corner of Faerie, I wasn't aware of it.
But I did what had to be done. A cow must be milked.
We had very few cares in the world of Faerie. Our lives were blissful and content. There was work to be done, and it was tough, but it was also fulfilling, and there was plenty of time to rest and play too.
And play we did.
The years passed in a blink of an eye, it seemed.
Soon the babies were children, playing and helping in the garden.
Then they were teenagers before I knew it.
They grow up so fast.
Neil and Calli were good friends to each other.
Well, they had their moments, as all siblings do, but mostly they got along perfectly.
There were your typical teenagers, despite the fact that they lived in a magical forest.
Concerned with their appearances...
Keeping themselves fit...
Harvesting food from the garden...
Catching fish to eat...
Doing the ocassional craft or two...
And helping with the household chores.
They were good kids.
I loved my family, and I realized that I felt like having another child. This desire grew day by day, and then one day...
I did.
I sprouted a child, like a plant.
Like a plant?
Yes, exactly like a plant. It was incredible.
We named her Rosa, since she was a sweet little rose, and very much a chip off the old block. Even as a baby, I could see how much she was like me.
Neil and Calli were very helpful, and Neil especially loved to teach Rosa new things. I guess it's true what they say. After you have so many children, they almost raise themselves.
When I was younger, I would never have thought I'd want a large family, but the more children I had, the more I appreciated them.
Well, you'll see...
Rosa grew up so fast. She went right from toddler to adult, which really took me by surprise. That's how it is with plant babies.
She was a sweet girl. Very helpful in the garden, and always very nurturing to her siblings.
She loved Ferdinand II. He was more her pet than anyone else's. She called him Fluffy for short.
She took excellent care of him.
As well as all of the other plants. Most of her time was spent in the garden. It was a natural place for her to be.
She also loved practicing ballet, and that's where she spent the rest of her time.
As I was saying, I was very enamoured of my growing family, and it wasn't long before I missed having a baby around.
So I sprouted another one.
We named him Cyclamen.
Cy was welcomed into the family with open arms.
And, as it was with Rosa, there was no shortage of hands to help out with caring for him.
My fires still burned just as brightly for Constantine, after all those years. It's clear to me that we were meant for each other.
If anything, we were closer than ever, and the familiarity only make things better between us, and more rewarding. We couldn't keep our hands off of each other. There was such a joy in it.
And soon I found myself pregnant once again. The tradiitonal way, this time.
Our family was growing and growing, just like our thriving garden, and I couldn't have been happier.
Like Rosa before him, Cy grew up in the blink of an eye. Still so young to the world, but so full of his own special knowledge of nature and of the magic that brought him forth.
Like Rosa, he was drawn to the garden, and also to dancing, now that I think of it, but his true love was art.
After I taught him how to paint, well he just couldn't get enough of it.
The kids all enjoyed each others company, and spent a lot of time together. Not surprisingly, they were all very social.
They played many games of Don't Wake the Llama (which is popular in Faerie too - it's truly universal, it seems), and spent many hours fishing together.
The kids soon caught on to the powers of the magic well, and each took a turn at unlocking its mysteries.
Especially the mysteries of romance. It's not easy to date people when you're isolated in the forest, so it served a valuable purpose.
In turn, they each were granted a fleeting moment with someone who fulfilled their deepest desires.
Neil conjured up quite a specimen.
I have no idea where the boy comes up with things, but he has quite an imagination.
He seems to have a thing for older women. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose.
Rosa and Neil were both pretty casual about the well. They had their fun and quickly move on, and back to their hobbies.
Cy, however, was different.
Cy is a romantic. He's always had a big heart, and I know he's all about looking for The One.
The One ended up being Mr. Right, not Mrs. Right. This also didnt really surprise me. A mother can often sense these things.
Yes, I believe that.
Personal experience?
My brother. It's a long story, and I'm here to interview you, not the other way around, so please continue...
Yes... so, the man that appeared out of the well was a dashing young creature in a cowboy hat.
He was named Ira Inada. Cy fell head over heals.
They spent many an hour in the hot spring.
But, like the others, Ira's moment was fleeting. He was there for no more than a day, and Cy was heartbroken to see him disapear.
Shortly after this, he became sick.
None of us could believe that he might be pregnant at first, but soon it became quite obvious that he was. There must be something in the plant biology that makes it possible. I was just blown away. Not only because he was a man, but because he was still my baby. My little baby was having a baby. He was a man now, but still so young in my eyes.
He was happy about it, though, after he got over the shock. I think he appreciated having that little bit of Ira to remember him by.
We were all happy.
He didn't gain much weight, but you could see that glow in him, and he had that way of walking.
We were pregnant together, for a short time, which was a very interesting experience. A mother and child, pregnant at the same time.
My twins were born first.
Romulus...
...and Remus.
Twin boys, and very different from each other. We were all very happy to have babies in the house again, and Cy was probably happier than any of us, because it gave him a chance to practise his parenting skills. With so many hands to help out, it made for light work.
There was plenty of time left over to enjoy ourselves.
Times were good, but I felt like I was being absorbed by the forest. The magic was seeping into me so much that I gave off an aura of light.
I felt beautiful, and more like myself somehow, but also like I was losing myself to it. The nature elemental inside me was breaking free and the rest of me was slipping away. It was a little unnerving, but what could I do? I let it happen.
The twins evenually grew into delightful little toddlers, and they were very different from each other in more than just looks.
Cy also gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and named him Thymus.
It was around this time that I noticed Rosa was spending more time with Constantine than she had been. She really sought him out and they spent many hours in conversation.
She fell for him, I think. I could tell. She was very girlish, and flirty with him. And, well, it made sense. It makes sense because she was really just a replica of me. We shared a personality, and part of my very essense was in her. It was in them both, Rosa and Cy, but with her, it was like looking into a mirror. I know Constantine could sense this too.
As far as I know, nothing happening between them, but I know that she wanted it to. Maybe he did too. I wouldn't really blame him. In a sense, she was just a variation on me.
So things weren't all perfect for us. Like any family, we had our issues and our secrets.
Not only that, the forest we lived in wasn't always a friendly place. There were darker sides to living there, I won't lie to you.
There were the ghosts, for one thing.
The ghosts haunted us. Nobody was spared. We all felt the stress of these attacks.
Some more than others.
Sometimes I wondered if it was really safe for us to live there at all. We had many discusions about it, but the good always seemed to outweight the bad, and so we kept things the way they were. We didnt want to leave, but we wondered if one day we might have to, for our own safety.
And it was Neil who finally convinced us that returning was a good idea.
He'd been getting himself into heaps of trouble. Always off on adventures, stuff like that. That boy was a handful. He was a real firecracker.
Constantine blames it on the red hair. I guess he would know.
I very much doubt that the hair had anything to do with him getting struck by lightning, but you never know.
Neil conjured up some very interesting things with that imagination of his. For a while he had an imaginary friend, a giant stuffed bunny.
As a mother, it's hard not to worry about things like that, but he seemed to grow out of it.
And who knows? Maybe some of it was true. We did live in a magical forest.
Neil was like that. It was just one thing after another with him.
But it was the abduction that really set him off on wanting to leave.
After that, we explained the situation with the aliens to him, and he started to ask about the world back home.
Once I mentioned the word Space Pirate, he was sold. He wanted to go off and study to become one, and go into space himself. He would wouldn't be able to do that if we remained in Faerie.
As for myself, I was just as content where I was, maybe even more so, but I wanted to make him happy. A mother wants her children to follow their dreams.
To do that, we'd have to leave.
So Neil and Constantine went off in search of an answer, and found it in the form of a faery named Cale Mustardseed.
The answer we had searched for in those early days was really quite simple.
To leave Faerie, we'd just have to walk out the way we came in, but we had to really WANT to leave. Our desire to escape had brought us into this realm, and our desire to return would bring us back.
Simple enough. Magic is weird like that. It's not a whole lot different than a prayer, really. It works for you if you believe in it.
Wait. Nyssa...
Yes?
This story... it's even more outlandish than your story about your upbringing. I mean, do you really expect me to believe all this about plant babies, magic wishing wells, COW plants, and the magical realm of Faerie? And to leave you just had to really want to leave? Like, the power of positive thinking brought you home? Please... If your first story was science fiction, this one is the most ridiculous fantasy story I've ever heard.
But it's not a story, it's the truth.
Well, I guess it's still a story, either way, but it's still true.
I can't print this. Nobody will believe it.
Then don't. It makes no difference to me. Do you want to hear about how we came back, or should I just end the story now?
No, go ahead.
So we decided to leave. We left on a big transition day for the family.
Thymus became a toddler...
The twins became children...
And Neil. He became an adult.
That night, when the celebrations were over, we left. We took nothing more than what we had come with. Constantine had explained that someone else would come to occupy the house, that it was probably part of its magical enchantment, so there was nothing to worry about.
Magic is a bit like an hallucinogenic trip that way. It has it's own internal logic, and you're best off just going with it, or you risk souring the whole thing. I guess that's why Conner took it all in stride so easily. It's all just par for the course for him. And, well, I may have even tried it once or twice myself, back in the day.
That's what the rumours say.
So, anyway, we left it all as it was, for the next occupant. Even the cowplant would be fine. It was better to leave him, anyway, since he probably wouldn't survive the journey. Rosa was a little heartbroken about leaving Fluffy, but she accepted it. I took a clipping, and promised her that we would try it again when we got back home.
Out through the forest, we left the same way we had entered it.
When we came out the other side, I knew right away that we were back in Veronaville. The air felt different. Thinner... and cooler. There was more of a breeze.
And I was no longer a plant.
I looked down at my hands, and they were no longer green. Not the same green, anyway. They were back to my old familiar hue. The faery spell had been broken. It seemed as if nothing magical could pass through the boundary. It would sense, wouldn't it?
Then, in a flash of realization, I turned and looked around.
Rosa and Cy, my plant children, were nowhere to be seen.
They were gone.
I ran, frantically, searching. It couldn't be happening. Not again. Conner tried to calm me. He said that maybe they didn't really want to leave Faerie, deep in their hearts. As much as they loved us, maybe they didn't want to leave the place they were so much a part of.
Or maybe they just couldn't.
They were part of the forest. They were faery matter, when it came down to it. Maybe that was what happened. Whatever the reason, they were gone. I mourned the loss, but there was nothing we could do about it. They were gone.
And that was that.
We settled into an ordinary life once again, back in our Veronaville home.
Neil headed off for college, with plans to go on to be a great adventurer. He wanted to see everything that this, and many other worlds, had to offer.
I wished him all the best, but we didn't see much of him after he left home.
I know he was bothered by the disappearance of his siblings. We all were, but he seemed to take it especially hard. I've been there, so I know what it's like to lose family at his age.
I knew he'd continue to look for them throughout his life.
Who knows? Maybe he eventually found them. Maybe they left the forest, but just went somewhere else. It happened to me.
Maybe they're in our world somewhere. It's a big world.
Maybe they're still in Faerie.
Maybe they went on to another world, another reality. Who's to say?
We'll probably never know.
So that's the story of my disappearance.
Well... well, then.
The years haven't changed you, Nyssa. You're still just as perplexing as you've ever been.
Would you expect any less?
No, of course not. Thank you for agreeing to sit down with me today.
It was my pleasure.
Oh, there's Conner now. We're right on time.
Notes (lots and lots of them):
Meeting deadlines is hard, and I fail at it. Sorry for holding up the show.
I borrowed the whole Faerie thing from Neil Gaiman. I doubt he'd mind, since he does stuff like that all the time. (I named Neil after him too. I just made it Corneilius to match the other names better. He's "Neil" in the game.)
The Merkabah and Tulip Grove Estate are both from Holy Simoly. I altered the Merkabah just a little, to give it a balcony on the third floor, and to create an area for a band (I'll be using this lot in other stories too, because it's a great music venue). The apartment was Apartment01 from Loco-Plus, a discovery from the Spring4Sims site (check it out - there are lots of great finds posted daily!). I built the lot in Faerie myself, from the ground up. Nyssa bought the largest lot size, and I used her sizeable fortune to add all the plant life and landscaping, and to build the house. The waterfall and various harvestable trees are extracted from Castaway Stories (you can find them on MATY - just search for CS).
The other faery house is something I did a while back in preparation for my other story, so those shots are doing double duty, as are some of the faeries. The lot is a heavily altered version of The Little lost Cottage by Nano_Nona from MTS2, and the faeries are cameos by guest sims.
I know you know that Cale is
dothesmustle's Cale Peet (Nathan's father and winner of the first legacy_writers founder challenge), but did you recognize these two? That's Candace Piper (also dothesmustle ) and Mateo Valenzuela (music_simbol). Helena Summerdream belongs to simgaroop. Any other sims are my own creations (or game-borns) or someone I spawned with the townie creator. I have to give an extra special thank you to
dothesmustle, since I've been collecting a number of her sims for stories purposes. She gives good faery. I've used a lot of cc from people I know here on livejournal in this, here and there, and I should give a special thank you to
kinemortophobia for Constantine's permanent uniform (he even got married in it -LOL- and he wears it as an elder too - what a grup!), and the many, many hair recolours that I am obsessed with. They rock. *rubs them all over body* Nyssa didn't actually move into the house in Veronaville until my stretch of the legacy officially ended. Once Neil transitioned, I moved them there, so I could take some pictures, but I only played in the apartment and the big empty lot that became the forest.
Constantine was never moved in, so I didn't break the rules that way either. Nyssa just invited him over almost every day, so I could fake it. All the child-rearing and bread-winning were done by Nyssa and Nyssa alone. I mentioned some things that brought money in, like the music video and experimental film, and those were HUGE chance card bonuses. She also picked up every single AL repuation bonus. Cheaper buy mode items, promotions, blind dates, cheap rent, higher pay for her job... you name it. She was rolling in simoleans.
Nyssa and Constantine were triple bolters, and most of their romatic interactions were autonomous, thanks to ACR. I couldn't resist those little light kisses and the classic dancing. So cute. ACR is also responsible for Conner being a jealous romance sim. It's because he's grouchy. I like the little details like that included with ACR.
All of Nyssa's pregnancies were the result of her autonomously trying for baby. The plantsims were grown by me, but if ACR factored that in, she would have done it herself, I'm sure. She had family as a secondary aspiration, which I'm sure is obvious.
I was working with three different LTWs for Nyssa over the course of the story, since I achieved the first two while she was living in the city. In case it wasn't completely obvious, they were Become a Proffessional Party Guest, Become a Visonary, and Reach Golden Anniversary (which I plan to achieve, now that I can ignore legacy rules and have moved Constantine in for real).
The last part feels rushed, but I really couldn't get my head around a way to make it work better. It was all a little rushed for me, since I'm a slow-moving creature, but I hope you'll enjoy the resulting story anyway.
And now... TIME TO VOTE!
no subject
Thank you. I think some of these photos worked out very well, so I'm glad you liked them. It's probably the most set building I've ever done (I usually have something to start from), so that was a learning experience. Doing lanscapes like that waterfall and the forest is pretty fun.
Yeah, there are lots of cameos there, if you want to hunt around, and even some hints of things to come. ;) And how could I have an art gallery without Buck, our tireless painter, in it?
That's such a classic shot, isn't it? The whole "look again and they weren't even there" scene. I figured it was the best way to open up possible exit strategies for the next participant. They have a whole handful of options for where the heirs might go after that. Anywhere, really.
They do, don't they? :) They really grew on me.
I love metafictional things too. There was always the chance that S,HWC would just descend into a murky sea of meta as Sims 3 approaches, but I'll try to keep it in check. Mr. Humble was my favourite part. I'm totally going to continue with the whole Sims 3 witnessing idea.
It's very cool that you wrote a thesis on that. It sounds like something I'd like to read.
Thank you. :)
no subject
The "look again and they weren't even there"-scene is indeed a classic - and very cinematic too! You captured that very well :)
It's so very easy to get lost in "the meta" and even forget about telling a story with a "deeper" meaning. It's a bit too much fun, it seems :) (You're nowhere near that danger zone, though ;)