The world was dying. Everyone who lived there could sense it coming. The Powers That Be were fighting it with all they had, but it was obviously a losing battle. Day by day, the trees were browner, the grass more withered. Food – which had seemingly always been scarce – was ever harder to come by. And worse than all this – was the sky. It loomed above them with a hazy, miserable semi-darkness that seemed to be neither day nor night. Some doubted that the sun even still existed past the grim murk that was their daytime. Even when night fell, the ambient light didn’t fully dissipate, and the smog above remained. It was becoming unequivocally evident that the knowledge to fix their world was no longer available in this world.

So, they posited, it was time to look elsewhere for the solution to their cataclysm. The strange portal shimmered, and each individual that came through had the whole weight of the world’s hopes on their shoulders. One by one, they turned out to just be another mouth to feed. Doubts began to creep in. What if there wasn’t anyone who could fix their world… anywhere in the universe. Or the next Universe. What if they were simply damned?

The attempts began to try to escape through the portal, but every attempt invariably failed. The luckless traveler would be sent right back, with a sense of dread overwhelming their every thought. Finally, it became clear that they were stuck here. The cawing of the crows mocked the escape attempts of the Powers like a Harbinger of their ultimate downfall.

With a renewed determination, they fired up the portal again. And again. And again. One by one, the disappointments came in. One by one, the new settlers were abandoned to their dismal future here. And still the portal brought them in. Even as hope died, the portal found more souls. The Powers had to try to find help, even when, deep inside, their hearts told them it was folly. And so the arguments broke out. The researchers grew more and more desperate, as the days grew shorter. Signs of life faded as an alarming crawling darkness crept in. It began to take over not just the world, but the thoughts of everyone in it. A writhing, slithering, living darkness it seemed no one could heal.

Slowly, even the Harbingers fell silent. … And through it all – despite those who fought it – everything inexorably died in a slow, painful, starving atrophy of the soul.

Story Info | Chapter 1

Chapter Six | Island Spirits Welcome page | Chapter Eight

Nork was getting so close to finishing his life-long goal of becoming a master angler. All he needed to do was collect some more types of fish to be considered a true master. He’s heard all the stories about where to find these fish, and one morning, he decided it was past time to start hunting them down. Packing some food – mostly herbs and spices to cook whatever fish he caught, and a small package in case of.. well, whatever might happen.. Nork waved goodbye to a bewildered Utel and headed off.

Much of the journey was one he’d already undertaken, so he remembered the way and where to stop for food and rest. Granted, he was going the opposite way, but at least it was mostly familiar territory.

Finally, he returned to the land of his birth. The hot, dusty, inhospitable desert Utel and he had come from. He briefly considered going back to their old settlement area, but decided against it. Who knew what had ultimately happened, and seeing the bones of the ruined settlement didn’t sound like something he really wanted to do.

House 013 Chapter 7 < | > House 014 Chapter 2

First, we get a look at our brand new goals:

House 014 Building Goals:
2 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom home worth at least $40k Simoleons
House 014 Generational Goals:
Complete the Renaissance Sim Aspiration on Journey
Complete a second Aspiration of your choice on Journey
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage
*Note* Heir must take the Kleptomaniac trait before YA stage!

Wow.. that’s an interesting goal. And.. as in earlier houses, Journey is the only sim I can control. So, first thing I did was take some pictures of Journey’s starting stats.

Chapter 3.12 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 4.1

Generation Three: Red

Appearance: Red hair, scandalous clothing style
Traits: Romantic, Hot-headed, Art Lover
Aspiration: Serial Romantic
Occupation: Art Critic
House Goal: 30,000 worth

The Beginning of the End

My lovely daughter was growing up. And I couldn’t do anything about it. I tried to help her as much as I could by regaling her with stories of when I first started out, but she laughed, waved me off, and said she would figure it out when the time came. To myself, I muttered “And it’s coming!” and headed off to do some household chores.

I had become a real home-body these days. After reaching the top of my career, I had reduced my work hours, and I hardly ever even had to travel to the city anymore. So now, I spent most of my time home with my kids, husband, and Fish.

Chapter Five | Island Spirits Welcome page | Chapter Seven

Utel’s days were full of family life these days, but she certainly didn’t mind it. Young Saazul was learning more day by day, but she was still underfoot at nearly all times. She wanted to help in the garden, she wanted to cook, she wanted to follow Nork when he was leaving for the day – which had to be discouraged, because that wasn’t something girls really did, and she was just always busy. Utel disagreed with the gender roles in this tribe, but she wasn’t going to try to change things when she was so new to the tribe.

Saazul had finally learned to feed herself, at least. Utel could actually enjoy her own food without little fingers constantly walking across her plate. The chatter was never-ending, however. She had learned to just nod and agree with whatever babble was coming out at that given time.

Nork, on the other hand, had apparently had other things to do and had left camp practically at dawn. Utel assumed he was off fishing for the tribe. If she only knew how wrong she was….

Chapter 13 | Chapter 15

When Sonia and I pulled up in front of a huge, ugly mansion in a desert town an hour or two later, I sat there for a moment, completely nonplussed. I hadn’t even known there was a desert town anywhere close to where we lived… and I quickly made sure Sonia would let me take care of things by myself. She nodded, and replied that she would remain in the car, then expressed concern about me being in the bright sun.

With a hand on her shoulder, I assured her I had plenty of energy left from my meditation, that I would be just fine as long as he answered his door in a timely matter… and then left the shade of the car with a smile.

Chapter 3.11 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 3.13

Generation Three: Red

Appearance: Red hair, scandalous clothing style
Traits: Romantic, Hot-headed, Art Lover
Aspiration: Serial Romantic
Occupation: Art Critic
House Goal: 30,000 worth

Fish Arrives

All this domestic bliss must be getting to me. Because I brought home a puppy. He was just so darn cute in the rescue’s ad, so alone and needing a home… I couldn’t help but bring him home. I had called from the shelter on my way home, telling Kado to prepare the kids for something new… and then I chickened out. I know… me. Chickening out. Really funny. But I did. So instead of telling him I was bringing home a new pet, I said I was bringing home fish. Kado was (understandably) confused, and said he’d get the grill ready.. and I just laughed.

Chapter 12 | Chapter 14

The next day dawned behind a haze of clouds, for which I was incredibly grateful. I woke groggily and stumbled out of the tent to find Mariko eating some cereal on my … oops.. our… cooler. She smiled broadly at me, and quipped “Good Afternoon, sleepyhead.”

“It’s afternoon?” I asked, confused, and wandered over to my diminishing stash of plasma packs. I didn’t want to go find “breakfast” in the town square, and I wasn’t about to ask Mariko… that’s not why I married her, and it seemed extremely presumptuous of me to assume she would be okay with being “breakfast”.

By the time we were done with breakfast, rain had moved in to go with the clouds, and Mari pulled out an umbrella wryly, and made a quick call to Windenburg’s Camping Supply store, and ordered a delivery of new chairs so we could sit by the fire again.

Chapter 3.10 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 3.12

Generation Three: Red

Appearance: Red hair, scandalous clothing style
Traits: Romantic, Hot-headed, Art Lover
Aspiration: Serial Romantic
Occupation: Art Critic
House Goal: 30,000 worth

First Steps

I tried very hard to make our life all about the new baby, and to that end, I even arranged a date night for New Year’s Eve. We went out to Sulani’s only restaurant, and Mom came over to watch the kids. We had a lovely meal, and I even got to surprise Kado with a kiss under the Mistletoe they still had up in the lobby.

Chapter 11 | Chapter 13

The evening “dawned” slowly, with as keyed up as I was for tonight… and I woke up, took my shower, took care of my garden, and prepared for my “day” as best as I could.

Sighing, I found a human wandering around the town square looking very lost, and… steeling myself, I tried hypnotizing him as my blood told me how to do. It worked, and he grinned up at me emptily… so I leaned in, and took a bit of his plasma. It tasted a good bit better than the plasma packs – which, of course I had run out of…. but I didn’t like the guilty feeling I got afterwards, since he hadn’t been willing before I hypnotized him, only after. He walked away muzzily (I hadn’t drank enough to make him tired)… and I frowned to myself for a moment, watching him drift away. I hadn’t even asked his name! How rude of me…