Sunday, 20 January 2013

Time Marches On


As you can see not much has changed, I'm still fishing for our dinner...


And Nemo is still hunting around for something edible to plant in a home garden.  I don't think that looks good.  I draw the line at eating fungi which glows in the dark.

I am spending a bit of time playing around with some of the scrap I found up near the mine, trying to see if I can make anything useful out of it.  To be honest though I nearly hit my thumb more often than I hit what I'm working on.  I would probably get better with practice but so far I haven't really devoted the time needed to improve.


Now that I know I have a tent I could use if I wanted to it's even harder to accept getting regularly soaked when I'm trying to sleep at night.



I'm still not sure how Nemo would react though, so for now I'm just going to put up with it.  It's still not very cold so I have a bit more time before I need to make a decision.


At least one of us enjoys the rain.  Although he's not actually soaked like I am and it might just be him having a laugh at the fact that he's dry and can enjoy having a splash around while I'm totally drenched and feeling miserable because of it.


My sun umbrella also didn't like the rain that much.  Thank goodness I have somewhere shady to go when the heat gets completely unbearable.

Although the main heat of summer is really going and the nights often have a slight chill to them so I'm glad to be able to warm myself by the fire.


And, as the season continues to draw to a close,


I am no longer a child.

Exploration

Exploration

With a steady food supply and me feeling more comfortable in my new 'home' I had the time and the desire to explore the island a little more thoroughly.  Up the hill a little way is the remains of an abandoned mine, Nemo had mentioned this before when I asked him where he got the iron cauldron that we cook on, he said that he picked it out of the trash from this mine.   


I was quite excited about the existence of this because it proved that there must have been people here at some point in time and I started wondering who they were.  Nemo displayed no interest at all and just wandered off.  I don't know if he's been up to the mine in years.

I went up there to see if there was anything left worth salvaging and as I was searching around the undergrowth I saw something in the brambles that looked like...


STAIRS!


Holy Cow!  Is this what Nemo meant when he said that he found the pot in a trash pile?  Look at all this stuff, there must be all sorts of things buried in there!

And there seems to be a sort of work bench.  I'm not sure what that is used for.  Maybe I'll keep having a look around.


Showers in a Can?  Those might come in handy.  And a tent?


Now I'm not sure what to do.  Does Nemo know about this place?  Is this where he recovered his cooking pot from or was that somewhere else.  If I use the tent will he take it from me and still not let me shelter in his hut when the weather turns bad?

For now I'm not going to mention what I've found and I won't use the tent.  Maybe I'll have to when the weather turns colder as Nemo says it can.  Winter here is short but he says that you can still freeze if you don't keep warm.  With a tent and my sleeping bag I should be ok if he still refuses to let me take shelter inside with him.

Meanwhile I'll start digging through these piles of junk and see what I can find.  At least it's cool down here and I'm out of the sun.


Getting Along

Getting Along

It's very hot on this island and there is no really cool place to go when I want to get out from the heat of the sun.  Nemo has told me that there is some cooler weather at times and then he goes and lies down on his bunk inside his hut and leaves me outside to burn.


My shady umbrella can help a little but usually I'm busy when I'm outside and don't notice until too late.


Besides, if I did nothing but stand under an umbrella all day, who would catch the fish for our dinner?  Nemo basically never moves during the heat of the day and I would get bored sitting inside a small hut anyway. 


Nemo is happy to venture out once it gets a little cooler and roast his dinner in the iron cooking pot.  I guess that is a bonus as I'm a little wary of lighting it and I don't fancy raw fish for dinner.  Once Nemo has finished eating he leaves it burning and goes inside his hut again.  So I get my dinner, warm myself by the fire and curl up in my sleeping bag for the night.


Nemo does have hives of bees that he takes care of, usually once it's cooled down a little.  I wouldn't want to go near them as they seem to sting him a fair amount but he glares at me if I get too close anyway..  I would love to be able to taste some of the produce but he never shares with me just drinks it down and tucks any extra away in some hidden cache.


He's still happy to help himself to anything I fish out of the sea or the pond though.


He does occasionally join me in fishing.  He doesn't need to as I catch enough for the both of us but I think that he actually seems to enjoy it.  He rarely speaks to me even if he is fishing right next to me so I'm pretty sure that it's not any desire to speak to another human being.  Nemo doesn't like children at all but he also doesn't seem to like people.  I sometimes think that if I didn't provide him with dinner and respect his privacy as much as I do, he would put me back on my lifeboat and shove me back out to sea!


Nemo's other interest is plants.  The few times he has spoken to me he said that he once tried to make his own little home plot but he kept finding all these odd looking seeds that he didn't have the skill to grow and he gave up.  With me taking over the fishing duties though he does occasionally head out after sunset and looks for something which he might be able to plant.


His little hut is very primitive; it just has his bed and basin that he fills up with water and uses to clean himself with.


Naturally I'm not allowed to use it but I sneak in occasionally when he's asleep and do my best to clean myself up a bit.


So, this is my life.  Stranded on an island with only the company of a strange man who can barely stand having me around.  I should be miserable but for some reason I'm not.  I love this place and I have already decided that I don't want to leave.  For now Nemo and I have come to some sort of understanding.  We aren't friends but we are getting along.


Saturday, 12 January 2013

Nemo



Nemo


Who is Nemo?

I don't think that is his real name but he refuses to speak to me about who he is and how he came here.  In fact he refuses to speak to me at all.  I don't think he likes children much, at least he doesn't like me.  

'His island' is very beautiful and small enough to be easy to get around.  I've had a quick exploration and will no doubt spend more time over the next few days and weeks wandering all over.  I doubt I'll have much else to do.  I'd say that I hope to be rescued but looking at Nemo I don't know how long it has been since he was last in civilisation so I don't hold out much hope for myself. 


We are down in the corner of the south field, near the fishes hook at the beach.  It's a lovely place, especially when the sun is shining.


I love being outside which is lucky because Nemo only has a tiny hut for himself and he doesn't like me being anywhere near it.


So Peepo and I live in a sort of exile, being vaguely tolerated so long as we don't get too close or try to talk to him at all.

I'd say that Nemo was a totally humourless person but on occasion I have seen him laugh.  There was the time for instance that I was out exploring and got caught in a heavy downpour and was completely soaked.  On my arrival back at camp, looking like a drowned rat, Nemo found that very amusing.   Not amusing enough to let me take shelter in his little hut though.  I still had to huddle under a nearby tree until the rain shower passed.


On learning that I knew the basics of fishing Nemo announced that I would earn my keep by fishing for him and providing dinner.  I'm not sure just what sort of 'keep' I'm earning considering I'm having to sleep outside and he is providing me with nothing; however I don't have anything better to do and I'm determined to learn how to look after myself.  The orphanage taught me self reliance.  Learn to take care of yourself because you can't trust anyone else to.


The lifeboat I arrived on is broken and ruined, even if I knew how to sail and where to head to, it wouldn't be capable of any other trips out on the sea.  Maybe Nemo knows how to fix it, after all he managed to build his little hut even if it's not exactly anything much.  It still doesn't leak which is something.

There are some lovely fishing spots on this island.  It's so peaceful and quiet.  Nemo doesn't want me around but I prefer my own company anyway.  It's so restful here, without the screams and yells of all the children in the orphanage.  Maybe I'm not going to be in too much of a hurry to be rescued after all.


And if you get tired of fishing...


Ahhh.  What could be nicer?






My Note:

'Nemo' has the Loner, Inappropriate, Gatherer, Dislikes Children and Angler traits.

Monday, 7 January 2013

My Arrival

My Note:



Hello!  Welcome to my (slightly modified) Nothing is Free Sims 3 challenge (original challenge/rules here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?s=a9a676df410d742ef3e2ccbbcb1501b0&t=468464&c=1&ht=&page=1&pp=25#startcomment )


This is not a totally faithful following of every single rule.  For starters I created two sims in CAS because I wanted my main to be a child so I needed to find some way of doing this (as you can’t have a child alone).  I then came up with the idea of a previous shipwreck survivor who, but I’ll let him be introduced in the next chapter.  Suffice to say he won’t be contributing much to Whitney and won’t be passing on anything in his inventory  when he dies, so to all intents and purposes he will simply be a plot device to allow Whitney to exist as a child.



Whitney starts out with the Loner, Angler and Loves the Outdoors traits (chosen as good traits to have and attributed to her early childhood where she was neglected and developed a love for the outdoors as a way to entertain herself).  As there are no schools on the island and no teachers even if there were I won’t be able to select her next traits (see how important a good education is boys and girls?) so it will be more the luck of the draw.  Hopefully if I manage to keep her happy her traits will tend to the positive side of the spectrum.



My other deviation of the rule set is that there are going to be NO npc’s at this stage of the challenge.  Whitney and the yet to be meet older sim are the only isle inhabitants.  Story progression has been turned off for now and I used the register mod to remove the paparazzi who showed up and kept running around the b&^%$y island!  I may also need to use it to stop all of the tourists showing up.  Unlike the paparazzi who kept zooming around they just line up in lines of five or so and stand there.  I guess because I’ve deleted all of the lots on the island other than the one I am using to discourage any immigration (although with story progression turned off I might not get any) they don’t have anywhere to go so they just stand where they spawn.  It looks rather funny but because they occasionally sneak into my shots I’m probably going to remove them using the registry mod as well.



With no npc’s and no other lots for game sims to move into what is Whitney going to do with regards to raising a family you might ask?  Well you’ll just have to wait and find out :-)


Truth be told I’m not sure how this is going to work out.  I do have an idea but I don’t know if it will work as it has never happened to me before.  I’ve read that it’s possible so I’m not sure if I’m just unlucky or perhaps if it has been patched away or there is something I’m missing in my game which means it doesn’t happen.  Regardless I’m going to let the game progress and trust to the sim gods to steer my Whitney towards her destiny, whatever that may be.  One thing is for sure, with no other people around and no way of contacting any, Whitney (and her possible family) will have to look for love in the strangest of places.

 

Whitney Robertson's Posts

Hello, my name is Whitney and the bear I am holding is Peepo.  He was a present to me from the orphanage where I have spent all of my remembered life up until now.  A couple of months ago I heard that I had been selected for adoption from a couple in another country and I was to join them by taking passage in a ship.  This was to be my first trip away and although I'm used to the sea, having lived near it, I was still excited to be making such a long journey to my new life.


The trip turned out to be a little more eventful than was planned, partway through we ran into a strange storm; the lights flashing through the clouds were bright, vivid colours.  Blues, yellows, greens and reds.  I had never seen anything like it.

After being caught in this storm for what seemed like forever everything seemed to happen very quickly.  An order was given to abandon ship and everything became so chaotic I can't even remember who put me in a little boat.  I remember grabbing Peepo and some clothes to keep me warm and I was waiting in the dinghy when the ship gave a great lurch, the rope holding the life-raft snapped and I dropped down into the waves all alone.

I lost sight of the larger ship very quickly; I hope they are ok.

I clung on for dear life and eventually seemed to hit a quiet patch and being so exhausted fell asleep.  When I woke up it was to an irate voice demanding to know who I was and what I was doing on 'my island!?'