In the middle of the night....
I go walking in my sleep
From the moutains of faith
To the river so deep...
Eridanos. It was the name of a river in Greek mythology which supposedly ran around the entire world. A constellation of the same name now represents a flow of water from the urn of Aquarius. Rivers are all about going with the flow and letting that flow move you from one stage of life to the next. So, what's the point? Well, Eridanos is the name of the new neighborhood in my Sims game.
This is something I've been thinking about for awhile now, but of course haven't had any time to work on it. After reading about the wonderfully lovable versions of Ripp Grunt in laridian and pixel_and_bean's Sims stories, I got the urge to play with my own Ripp (I'm having a Lazlo Curious urge too, but not as powerful). But, I'd messed up my own Strangetown through the addition of original characters, and Ripp's heart had been captured by a teen version of Yuuki, so he was no longer pure and innocent, sooooo.... what to do, what to do?
Well, it so happened there was another character I'd sort of regretted messing up, as I'd quite thoroughly trashed my Pleasantview with original characters... and that is Dustin Broke. In my Pleasantview, he ended up being everyone's first kiss/boyfriend and I eventually married him to my first alien baby, and he had twin alien babies with her and then I stopped playing Pleasantview and blah blah. So, I thought, what if I did something about both Ripp and Dustin?
Well, I did! I made clones of both the Grunt family and the Broke family and plopped them down in a brand new neightborhood to begin new lives! Whee! And I've sort of plotted out a story in my head about the Broke family's move to a new town to start over after Skip's death, prompted by the death of Brandi's elderly uncle, who left her a trailer and a little bit of land in this distant city of Eridanos. She also hopes the change of location will curb Dustin's increasingly lawless tendancies. But in spite of getting a free place to live, the family still struggles since Brandi cannot work while pregnant, but she's hoping that things will change after the baby is born.
Brandi's uncle not having been much better off than Brandi, the inherited trailer is on the wrong side of the tracks, and so her wish that Dustin associate with better people is for naught. He quickly falls in with a bad influence.... a rough and angry kid named Dominic who knows the local underworld scene and helps get Dustin comfortably fitted into it. In the meantime, Dustin also meets Ripp at the local high school.
The Grunts are a military family, and thus Buzz has been transferred around a lot from place to place. The city of Eridanos promises to be the last stop for them, however, since he now has a permenant commission. He, Tank and young Buck seem pretty satisfied with their new location, but Ripp not so much. Being rather a wuss, he doesn't get on so well with a lot of the local teens, in spite of being outgoing. They simply don't like him, and the fact that he and his family live on the edge of the trailer park with the bad reputation does not help matters in the least. He's extremely unhappy, and generally ignored by most of his family. His best friend is the girl who lives across the street - one Kiley McKormick - though 'best friend' is probably a generous term. Kiley thinks that hanging around with Ripp is just like having a big sister to spend time with. Ripp does not take to this comparison at all.
So, Dustin, Dominic, Ripp and Kiley. These four are fated to be swept along in the river-like flow of life into a common destiny.... though just what directions that flow will take remains to be seen (meaning: I had a plan for them, and the little buggers have already messed it up by doing what they wanted rather than what I told them to do!). River, blah blah - insert some poetic imagery here...
Yep! Here I go, starting another story when I haven't even posted up the ones I've been working on already! I need to grow some disipline and brew it as a tasty tea. Ah, well..... eventually I will get things posted. The "Common Hearts" story is sooooo close to being done! But I do want to seriously try to start posting updates to this Eridanos story and keep up with them. I'm planning on the updates being dairy/journal updates from the various main characters, so that we'll get a variety of points of view.
Anyway, I thought I'd share a few random pictures from my new Eridanos neighborhood. First off, I wanted to show pixel_and_bean that I used her skin tone! Oooo! Pretty! This is Vlax Ambrose (heh, yep! Those were the names I suggested for your podling... I liked them too much to abandon them) and he was created to be a Townie, but in the story he's also shown up as one of the high school teachers.
And this is just a funny picture of Vlax sobbing because another one of my created Townies - Edanel - has made fun of him or something. Edanel sports a skin tone I made myself, as he's based on the reptillian-type species in my original fiction writing (Stacey's Koushirou! You'll remember this guy better by the name of Daniel ^_^ ). Needless to say, Edanel isn't the nicest of fellows.
Most everyone knows what Ripp and Dustin look like, but Dominic and Kiley are my originals, so I figured I'd show them off a little. First we have Dominic. He's preeeetty! He's a modified clone of a Sim I created a long time ago named Sasaki, whom I never actually got around to doing anything with (and that Sim, in turn, was based off a very unpleasant and sadistic RP character I had at the time). Anyway, Dominic is different than Sasaki, both in looks (I changed some of his features, but he kept the scowl) and personality. He's an incredibly unhappy boy. Needless to say... this story is not going to be a comedy. Anyway, don't worry about that now... just look at the prettiness! (And yeah, that is Dustin having a fit over something in the background. I think Tank was fussing at him for some reason.)
Next, we have Kiley. She actually comes from a Sim story I long ago abandoned that was called "Veronaville Secrets" and was a much put-upon housewife and the mother of one of the main characters in the story. It, and its Sims, are long gone, but I kept many of the clones around because I like how a lot of them turned out (Vlax is cloned from one of those characters too), and plus I'd grown a soft spot for Kiley in particular. So, here she is again! In this incarnation, she lives with her father across the street from the Grunts. She loves bugs and spiders and will likely go into the Natural Sciences career if she makes it into college (in this picture, she's in Ripp's bedroom, and has just finished making his bed, because he's a slob).
The next picture is simply for the "Awwww!" factor, and is special because it's something you would never see in a game played purely the way Maxis intended - Beau Broke and Buck Grunt giving each other a big ol' hug! Cuuuuute!
Here's my three boys, dancing! Whooooo! *luvluvluv* And yes, they've been drinking, as evidenced by the beer bottles on the ground. In addition to not being a comedy, this is not going to be a G-rated story either. It's going to be much more real-to-life. Besides, the only way to get a smile out of Dominic is to either get him drunk, or let him participate in a fight. He has zero niceness points. ^_^ (Seriously. I let him push around another kid at the arcade, and he was grinning from ear to ear).
This is just a funny glitchy picture! That man needs some serious medical attention! Eep! Incidently, the lady in the picture with the "WTF!" expression on her face is my latest self-Sim. She was also made into a Townie, and she's one of the underworld characters that Dominic uses as a contact. The lady in the back of the picture, facing away from the camera and wearing something that makes her look seriously like a hooker... is a hooker. She's also Dominic's mom. Again - not a G-rated story.
Lastly, we have the picture that prompted me to want to post about this story tonight. Just a seriously cute shot of Ripp and older bro Tank. Tank has surprised me by developing a personality and making me like him, when I've always been rather indifferent to him before. Though he's not likely to become a truly main character in this story (four main characters are more than enough to juggle!), he will (and already does) have a part. That will likely come as quite a shock to Ripp. But the main reason for posting this picture? C'mon! It's boys in their jammies! That's reason enough!
Well, that's all outta me tonight! Now that my internet connection has returned, I can finally post this and head to bed, as I am tired (thus you will excuse spelling and grammar errors in this post, I demand it!). Tomorrow I have to run to the campus library, and if I have time, I might go see the movie Akeelah and the Bee, because I'm a sucker for things like that. But top priority for tomorrow is finishing a certain someone's birthday present. ^_~
I use this icon because I don't have one for Eridanos yet. Whee! Bologna! And I dance....!
From the moutains of faith
To the river so deep...
Eridanos. It was the name of a river in Greek mythology which supposedly ran around the entire world. A constellation of the same name now represents a flow of water from the urn of Aquarius. Rivers are all about going with the flow and letting that flow move you from one stage of life to the next. So, what's the point? Well, Eridanos is the name of the new neighborhood in my Sims game.
This is something I've been thinking about for awhile now, but of course haven't had any time to work on it. After reading about the wonderfully lovable versions of Ripp Grunt in laridian and pixel_and_bean's Sims stories, I got the urge to play with my own Ripp (I'm having a Lazlo Curious urge too, but not as powerful). But, I'd messed up my own Strangetown through the addition of original characters, and Ripp's heart had been captured by a teen version of Yuuki, so he was no longer pure and innocent, sooooo.... what to do, what to do?
Well, it so happened there was another character I'd sort of regretted messing up, as I'd quite thoroughly trashed my Pleasantview with original characters... and that is Dustin Broke. In my Pleasantview, he ended up being everyone's first kiss/boyfriend and I eventually married him to my first alien baby, and he had twin alien babies with her and then I stopped playing Pleasantview and blah blah. So, I thought, what if I did something about both Ripp and Dustin?
Well, I did! I made clones of both the Grunt family and the Broke family and plopped them down in a brand new neightborhood to begin new lives! Whee! And I've sort of plotted out a story in my head about the Broke family's move to a new town to start over after Skip's death, prompted by the death of Brandi's elderly uncle, who left her a trailer and a little bit of land in this distant city of Eridanos. She also hopes the change of location will curb Dustin's increasingly lawless tendancies. But in spite of getting a free place to live, the family still struggles since Brandi cannot work while pregnant, but she's hoping that things will change after the baby is born.
Brandi's uncle not having been much better off than Brandi, the inherited trailer is on the wrong side of the tracks, and so her wish that Dustin associate with better people is for naught. He quickly falls in with a bad influence.... a rough and angry kid named Dominic who knows the local underworld scene and helps get Dustin comfortably fitted into it. In the meantime, Dustin also meets Ripp at the local high school.
The Grunts are a military family, and thus Buzz has been transferred around a lot from place to place. The city of Eridanos promises to be the last stop for them, however, since he now has a permenant commission. He, Tank and young Buck seem pretty satisfied with their new location, but Ripp not so much. Being rather a wuss, he doesn't get on so well with a lot of the local teens, in spite of being outgoing. They simply don't like him, and the fact that he and his family live on the edge of the trailer park with the bad reputation does not help matters in the least. He's extremely unhappy, and generally ignored by most of his family. His best friend is the girl who lives across the street - one Kiley McKormick - though 'best friend' is probably a generous term. Kiley thinks that hanging around with Ripp is just like having a big sister to spend time with. Ripp does not take to this comparison at all.
So, Dustin, Dominic, Ripp and Kiley. These four are fated to be swept along in the river-like flow of life into a common destiny.... though just what directions that flow will take remains to be seen (meaning: I had a plan for them, and the little buggers have already messed it up by doing what they wanted rather than what I told them to do!). River, blah blah - insert some poetic imagery here...
Yep! Here I go, starting another story when I haven't even posted up the ones I've been working on already! I need to grow some disipline and brew it as a tasty tea. Ah, well..... eventually I will get things posted. The "Common Hearts" story is sooooo close to being done! But I do want to seriously try to start posting updates to this Eridanos story and keep up with them. I'm planning on the updates being dairy/journal updates from the various main characters, so that we'll get a variety of points of view.
Anyway, I thought I'd share a few random pictures from my new Eridanos neighborhood. First off, I wanted to show pixel_and_bean that I used her skin tone! Oooo! Pretty! This is Vlax Ambrose (heh, yep! Those were the names I suggested for your podling... I liked them too much to abandon them) and he was created to be a Townie, but in the story he's also shown up as one of the high school teachers.
And this is just a funny picture of Vlax sobbing because another one of my created Townies - Edanel - has made fun of him or something. Edanel sports a skin tone I made myself, as he's based on the reptillian-type species in my original fiction writing (Stacey's Koushirou! You'll remember this guy better by the name of Daniel ^_^ ). Needless to say, Edanel isn't the nicest of fellows.
Most everyone knows what Ripp and Dustin look like, but Dominic and Kiley are my originals, so I figured I'd show them off a little. First we have Dominic. He's preeeetty! He's a modified clone of a Sim I created a long time ago named Sasaki, whom I never actually got around to doing anything with (and that Sim, in turn, was based off a very unpleasant and sadistic RP character I had at the time). Anyway, Dominic is different than Sasaki, both in looks (I changed some of his features, but he kept the scowl) and personality. He's an incredibly unhappy boy. Needless to say... this story is not going to be a comedy. Anyway, don't worry about that now... just look at the prettiness! (And yeah, that is Dustin having a fit over something in the background. I think Tank was fussing at him for some reason.)
Next, we have Kiley. She actually comes from a Sim story I long ago abandoned that was called "Veronaville Secrets" and was a much put-upon housewife and the mother of one of the main characters in the story. It, and its Sims, are long gone, but I kept many of the clones around because I like how a lot of them turned out (Vlax is cloned from one of those characters too), and plus I'd grown a soft spot for Kiley in particular. So, here she is again! In this incarnation, she lives with her father across the street from the Grunts. She loves bugs and spiders and will likely go into the Natural Sciences career if she makes it into college (in this picture, she's in Ripp's bedroom, and has just finished making his bed, because he's a slob).
The next picture is simply for the "Awwww!" factor, and is special because it's something you would never see in a game played purely the way Maxis intended - Beau Broke and Buck Grunt giving each other a big ol' hug! Cuuuuute!
Here's my three boys, dancing! Whooooo! *luvluvluv* And yes, they've been drinking, as evidenced by the beer bottles on the ground. In addition to not being a comedy, this is not going to be a G-rated story either. It's going to be much more real-to-life. Besides, the only way to get a smile out of Dominic is to either get him drunk, or let him participate in a fight. He has zero niceness points. ^_^ (Seriously. I let him push around another kid at the arcade, and he was grinning from ear to ear).
This is just a funny glitchy picture! That man needs some serious medical attention! Eep! Incidently, the lady in the picture with the "WTF!" expression on her face is my latest self-Sim. She was also made into a Townie, and she's one of the underworld characters that Dominic uses as a contact. The lady in the back of the picture, facing away from the camera and wearing something that makes her look seriously like a hooker... is a hooker. She's also Dominic's mom. Again - not a G-rated story.
Lastly, we have the picture that prompted me to want to post about this story tonight. Just a seriously cute shot of Ripp and older bro Tank. Tank has surprised me by developing a personality and making me like him, when I've always been rather indifferent to him before. Though he's not likely to become a truly main character in this story (four main characters are more than enough to juggle!), he will (and already does) have a part. That will likely come as quite a shock to Ripp. But the main reason for posting this picture? C'mon! It's boys in their jammies! That's reason enough!
Well, that's all outta me tonight! Now that my internet connection has returned, I can finally post this and head to bed, as I am tired (thus you will excuse spelling and grammar errors in this post, I demand it!). Tomorrow I have to run to the campus library, and if I have time, I might go see the movie Akeelah and the Bee, because I'm a sucker for things like that. But top priority for tomorrow is finishing a certain someone's birthday present. ^_~
I use this icon because I don't have one for Eridanos yet. Whee! Bologna! And I dance....!