State of the story, state of the blog, state of me:
Jaromir, 79 days from having his elder-bar filled: Yeah, so, it would definitely be advisable to build our port here, but in essence, we can't really do anything storywise, if the lot won't co-operate... It's a hell of a bummer, really.
Remi's son, who's name I won't reveal because it's quite a revolutionary one decided upon by his mother, and, to be honest, it is spoilery enough you can now see, by the son, what the father would've looked like without his beard: No kiddin'.
I'm sorry I'm not posting, everyone! It's all a bit blurry at the moment and one has only so much free hours in a day. I can't really predict when the story returns. It will, but when? When?
Lots of hearts to those who would like to read on, and to those who caught up with the story recently, thank you 💛💛💛
Under the cut I've got some rambles in more detail. Advice certainly is welcome, especially on the tumblr purity policies thingy.
Warm, windy, cozy autumn wishes & until soon!
The hurdles:
In my current storyline the people are about to build a port community lot. The past month I've been negotiating with Northeney and CAW to get my desired port lot buildable, but at the moment I've only reached a stage called "it's doable, but it won't be fun".
And while I negotiated, I somehow lost a world ID, which means that my game won't recognize old save files as belonging to any Northeney.world anymore. I have lost access to them (?!). And while in my mind I already planned the Shipwrecked Christmas Special for this year, it seems I only can realize that now by re-building an "old save" on a new Northeney with lots from the bin. The amount of work, to simply make something fun, is a bit disheartening...
Next, for the story where it's at, at the blog, I'm in a sort of limbo too. The thing is, baby Ezra is about to grow up. And in my game all babies grow up naked. It's just the fun of, playing a BACC dependent on resources, my people having to make clothes themselves. But with tumblr's current policies I just very much fear to be thrown off the platform for showing a natural pixel toddler.
So my plan was to either reshoot Ezra's transition with clothes (I have no idea though if she would turn out looking the same if I did that (?!)) or to host the pictures on a Wordpress on my own site. But reshooting is out of the question, now that I lost access to old saves. And in the meantime I've found out my own site is currently down for no understandable reason, another thing to solve.
Add to that a mind-bothering development IRL, and the fact that I'm fleeing that by coming up with a totally new, soothing historical story, lined with leafy trees, candlelit conversations and summery alpine meadow vistas...
A little message to tell you new story posts are queued.
From Sunday to Wednesday, usual time, I've got a couple of weeks to go. I hope you'll enjoy!
Because it's been a while, here's a recap of what happened recently:
Madeira vowed to never go near a freaky light haunting the island's night sky
Leila fretted about a roof leak at which Moize suggested to use mud to clog it
Louelle Anna proposed to Remi and he said "Fine."
Bea protected her pet bowl from a weird cat-like creature
Hannah persisted in making peace with Lorck
Lorck got initiated in the process of axe-magic but still had energy left to pick on Argus
Argus finally decided to carve himself a new peg leg
Jaromir did nothing of exceptional consequence
We'll be back with Madeira and baby Ezra tomorrow 🤍
(Picture above is from my current save, last month. My first Sims 3 dive ever, it was so cool! To uncover another Northeney layer deep below the surface 😊 This is the girl from this post, and I never thought she would be the one to go there first!)
I've had a bit of trouble with my game the past month 🥳 Northeney suddenly lagged and crashed, and Old Saaqartoq (in the making) seemed to buckle under the load of new "old" CC I downloaded to make the place lively and different from Northeney.
And it just makes me restless, to not be able to run the game and see my sims when I want to, even if I don't play all that often generally. Getting this right was on top of the to-do list. And it is okay now, I'm so glad. It only took rebuilding a certain lot, clearing and merging most of my CC, a move, and a clean install of the game 😅
Removing that obstacle freed headspace to untangle some of the story screenshots, and finally write for them!
So there's going to be story updates, starting tomorrow (with two) and going one-a-day until wednesday after. Around 1:30 PM CEST as before.
A little note to you... I am sorry to say there won't be any story posts this week yet again.
At the moment I am a reader/feedbacker in a Writing Marathon taking place during all of March. Every day participants write & post 1000 fresh words of their story and us readers help them pull through. Kind of like NaNoWriMo, only with dedicated readers. I've participated in this many times myself, and it is great (but severely exhausting) to just "magically" have a complete tiny novel at the end of the month. With feedback and all. After a clash with the Covid-period I couldn't write for years, but now that I am again (here!), my fingers itched to be part of this marathon again too. But as you can imagine, it takes up a big chunk of my spare time.
So I leave you this time with just a genius in a tub, on a community lot. With yes, a slaughtered animal hanging next to him 🤦♀️ This lot is an all purpose mess, but none of the Northeneans are bothered enough to do something about it. And you know how it is, when you're a genius, in a tub. Your mind is everywhere, but in the present 💡
I do hope to catch up with some of your stories as well, over the weekend. I've missed them! And hopefully post again next week, or the week after.
I got injured... (while supporting a writing marathon, yes 🤦🏻♀️) Things have been tough and sometimes quite impossible these past months, but now it's getting better. And I’ve been writing for Shipwrecked on Northeney again.
This time "off" also got me to finally figure out how to move on from the pace the early days of the story are showing. I am so attached to what is happening in the story right now, that it always felt weird and sad it would probably take years to get to my "now" here on tumblr.
I'm going to thicken time a little. Instead of showing my people's whole days, upcoming story updates will be more about events. Still moving rotationally, only with bigger steps, sometimes back and forth. If that makes sense? You’ll see in my next Madeira scenes 😊
But first there’s still a conversation at the end of the perfect evening the group had, where we left off. One about Northeney, and where it all began.
I hope you’ll enjoy the story returning, starting next Sunday! Back to one post a day (Sunday-Tuesday), also queueing a little later than I used to. Oh, and I don’t use the app, so I haven’t got any control over misused mature labels my posts may get there. I hope it’s not a mess.
Thank you for tagging me @treason-and-plot! It's been quite a year for this beginning story simblr 😄 Let's say I'm already happy there are screenshots to pick those 24 from!
Starting of course (1-3) with my little AU story A man for Rachel, with Manon from Praaven presenting my three contestants for winning @kimmiessimmies Rachel's heart. Even though most of these rascals did very badly (in their own original way) in getting acquainted with Rachel - for me they did fine in helping me get this simblr rolling 😊 (So thank you again, Kim!)
During late spring and early summer I shared some current winter shots from my game: foal's first day out, the writing of Northeney's constitution, a vulnerable proposal... (4-6)
Until in early autumn, I finally started posting my gameplay story! The rainy introduction still has my heart (7-8):
Next (9-23) all screenshots from the first two days the people lived in Shipwrecked on Northeney. For me the most beautiful thing about these screenshots is seeing the island completely empty: just nature and scenery and a few stranded people. It is a BACC after all, and everything looks so different right now in game, I can never get this back!
(24) My favourite screenshot still is this one though, posted with my Simblr Resolutions for 2024:
This little kid and her quirks made me happy in game all through the year, and luckily she has yet some time before she grows up. So I'll take her with me to 2025 💛 But I also like the aesthetics of this one the most. I edited it with a simple app on my phone and I don't yet know how to recreate that in GIMP. So, let's see if that's something I'll dive into for 2025.
I know most of you have already done this or been tagged, but maybe @kimmiessimmies, @tidaldiariessimblr and @declaration-of-dramas? No pressure, though!
Simblr resolutions for 2025 ⭐️ wheee!
thank you for tagging me for this @tidaldiariessimblr!
For one I'm already happy there is a story and simblr to make plans for! My resolutions would be:
⭐️ to go back to one story post a day
I have a lot to sort out! I made a complete mess of the screenshot folders from those first seasons. The ones from day 1 and 2 I had already tackled before starting my story here, but the rest I've been, yes... 😩 avoiding... I better lower my writing time a little, until that's done.
⭐️ to finish up the (elders) clothes conversions I made last year so I can start posting that cc
⭐️ to figure out some elegant ways to speed up the storytelling in some places
I am very curious where the story will be next January 1st, but if telling it would take the same pace as it did the last months... 😂 I fear the first foundation stone of Northeney's first ever real, solid home will not be placed by then! (Tips are welcome!)
Happy new year to all of you ⭐️ thank you again so much for reading or following the story. (And if you like to be tagged for this, consider yourself tagged!)
Argus's Sim profile will be up in a minute. It's been quietly sitting in my drafts folder for months, and I kind of liked him being there! (I don't know but drafts I often look over, while published posts seem to lose my attention?)
There's just something about his picture, and him being a genuine sweetheart... Even though this is a sim who can look very ugly when the lightning is off or when he's tired, but when he's like this, or when he smiles, he surely is good for my endorphin levels 💛
So here he goes!
And only Lady Louelle Anna Aerdenwald is left for the sim profiles, as Madeira Edouardina and the children haven't reached YA yet. Louelle's story I know, but I haven't yet written any of it down... I'm still trying to come up with a format. I mean, with the men the paragraphs were easy: early life - career - death; and with Leila this turned into: early life - married life - death, but what can one do with our pampered lady Miss Aerdenwald?
Last but not least, tomorrow I'll post the first Resources post for my BACC Guidelines: Building resources. By now you've seen the sims getting the three building resources currently available to them. My plan is to add on these Resources posts as the story goes along and the people invent new things or methods.
