winter echo

An urban fantasy story set in the worlds of The Sims 4.

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Hello & welcome to Winter Echo, my Felix & Felicia AU!  

This is a completed urban fantasy story I created between June 2020 and September 2021. It was written as an alternate universe fanfiction of my friend @whyhellosims‘ Aldrich Legacy story, and stars her main characters, Felix & Felicia Aldrich. Creating Winter Echo was a really fun experience, and helped me improve my writing, worldbuilding, and visual storytelling skills immensely (skills which I’m finding incredibly valuable in my professional life).

Winter Echo was originally intended to be a short series of gameplay posts (a play through of Evergreen Harbor) but it turned into a long and complex tale of magic and alternate universes that people seemed to really enjoy. I’m no longer posting here, but I really loved creating this story, so I’ve left this blog up as an archive for myself and any future readers.

You can also find older posts of my original legacy story, Dynastia, here. Thankyou so much to everyone who has read and enjoyed my stories. I really appreciate all the kind, creative, and talented friends I met here so much.💗💗💗

You can read through the entirety of Winter Echo by clicking on the next links at the bottom of each post from this one. You can find an index of all my worldbuilding for the story here. ✨

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photos & video from a walk in march 🗝️

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"When you create an entire world - our world has all kinds of things in it already. There's a wonderful texture and depth to this world." - Jim Henson 🌈

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☀️

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Hey frens, I’ve been absent again this week because it’s the first week back of term 2 and once again I’m swamped with tafe work 😅 I’ve mostly been working on models for my end of year showreel (had to do a presentation on it yesterday) for which I’m building an exotic fantasy desert city. This model is the central building in the city, an observatory. The model is far from finished but I’ve been experimenting with some textures - these aren’t the final textures, but I’m kinda happy with some of them so far! 😊

The first half of my week is always busy during term time but I’m hoping to get some time to catch up on posts and play around in Dynastia over the weekend. 😊 Thanks for all the lovely comments on my posts lately, I know I haven’t been replying much for a while but I always love hearing what you guys think about my story! 🥰

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Eugene: So, how much did Bones tell you?

Naoyuki: He was at the part where Blakely decided to meet Mr Tozel at the lab-

Kerani: Naoyuki.

Kerani: You’ve just confirmed that your daughter is alive. I think my sister needs to know. I’m gonna go call her.

Kerani: Besides, I don’t care about the rest of the boring history lesson.

Eugene: Hey, wait, I forgot to tell you. Stay away from the possessed people, it’s dangerous for vampires to-

Kerani: Nothing’s dangerous for vampires, loser!

Eugene: Oh gosh, she should really know that-

Naoyuki: Kerani will be fine, trust me. So, Blakely went to the laboratory, and met Mr Tozel?

Eugene: Uh, yes. Yes, she did.

Eugene: And I wish she hadn’t, because that’s what started all of this.

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Kerani: Uh, Yuki? It’s only been a couple of years since Maya was a baby. That didn’t sound like a toddler to me-

Naoyuki: You don’t understand!

Naoyuki: I know Maya’s voice! I’ve heard it before!

Kerani: ...Okay... Well, anyway, I’m pretty sure the other one talking was Bones.

Eugene: I don’t know anything about your daughter, of course, but the girl we heard... Her name is Maya. I’ve heard them call her by name before.

Naoyuki: Them? There’s someone else with Maya besides Bones?

Eugene: Oh yes. Another male, he sounds older. And a... female... at least, I think it’s a female. That voice... well, it’s hard to describe.

Eugene: Your daughter was taken from you as a baby?

Naoyuki: Yes!! Just after she was born. But recently, I’ve been having these dreams... In the dreams, she’s a child, and she calls to me. She needs us to come to her, to hurry... Where is she?? Do you know?

Eugene: She appears to you in dreams??

Kerani: Dude, what? Why are you shocked by that? You believe in freaking aliens.

Naoyuki: Is she being kept at that laboratory? Bones was telling us about something that happened there, years ago, with Blakely Hyatt-

Eugene: Ah, Blakely Hyatt.

Eugene: I can tell you what happened at the lab with Blakely Hyatt. I suppose you should know everything, if you plan to go there.

Eugene: Like I told you, I’ve done a lot of research since my dad disappeared. He never found out why all the circus folk left town, but I did. I’ll tell you what happened, but I warn you, it might make you think twice about going there.

Naoyuki: All right. So tell me.

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Naoyuki: Will you tell me what you know about Maya, now?

Eugene: It’ll be better if you hear it from the source.

Eugene: Now, just give me a minute...

Kerani: Ooh, it’s a listening device. Dad’s got one at home. That’s how I found out that Julian likes to stand in front of the mirror and give himself pep talks.

Naoyuki: Who are we listening in on?

Eugene: Just a moment, please...

Listening Device: Pssshhhtt... ??? ...pssshhhtt...

Kerani: He’s gotta get reception on his spaghetti strainer first.

Listening Device: Pssshtt... arrived yesterday. I believe... psshtt...

Eugene: Here, I got it! Listen!

Listening Device: ...her parents. They’re looking for her, but-

Listening Device: My parents are here?

Listening Device: You can’t keep them away! I’ll tell them everything!

Listening Device: No, I don’t think that will be possible.

Naoyuki: That’s... that’s...

Listening Device: You have no idea what’s possible for me!!

Listening Device: We shall see.

Naoyuki: That’s Maya!

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Kerani: The town hall, huh? Yeah, Alien Central seems like the most logical place to hide out from aliens.

Eugene: Just stay cool. Don’t make eye contact with anyone.

Eugene: Follow me.

Naoyuki: To the basement?

Eugene: Shh! Keep your voices down, please.

Naoyuki: “Do Not Enter, Authorised Personnel Only”...

Kerani: My kind of invitation.

Eugene: Come on, before we’re spotted.

Kerani: Ah, a lair. I should have figured you’d have one of these.

Eugene: Welcome to the Bunker. I’m the only one with access, and I’ll need to you to swear to keep its existence a secret.

Li’l Spook: Grrr...

Kerani: Aw, yeah, I know, Li’l Spook. It’s a nerd nest, all right.

Eugene: I don’t care what your creepy dog thing thinks, this place is awesome.

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Kiwirrkurra

It’s been a while since I brought you a new build! I decided to take a little break from Dynastia to build this residential lot, in an unusual split level type design that I’ve been thinking about for a while. The style is a mix of Scandi and boho, and the kind of place I might want to live in if I was super rich, lol 😆 Once again I’m building on the Affluista Mansion lot in Oasis Springs, which seems to be becoming my favourite lot for residential builds 😁

Lot Type: Residential

Size: 50x50

§184,338

1 bedroom, 2 bathrooms

Room to expand in the empty attic and basement

2 spacious offices

Large enclosed chicken coop

Oasis-style outdoor entertaining area and pond

This build is cc-free so you can find it on the gallery 😊 My id is jeskittie 💗

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Hi! love your story and the characters you’ve brought to life! I am curious how have you kept interest for one save file for so long?

Is there any tips you’d give people trying to get back into storytelling to make that process of sticking with one save, easier?

Thank you! Have a lovely day ❤️

Hey, thankyou so much lovely! I'm so glad you're enjoying my story and characters! 😊🥰

Dynastia is actually the first save file I started when I got TS4. My original sim Tessa was a simself character and it started with pretty much straight gameplay with a loose story attached, but as Tessa met other sims, the story aspect started to come through more and more.

The way I've kept interest in the one save file for so long is by introducing new characters into my Dynastia save while keeping my original families in the centre of it all. So for example, when I wanted to do a rags to riches challenge, I introduced the character Frankie, and she ended up interacting with my main sims and several new character connections developed from her storyline (e.g. her psychologist Dr Perales is the son of Desiree Perales, who is a character in my current Strangerville arc). So it's these connections between all these diverse characters introduced slowly into the tangled web of my story that keeps my interest xD

Another thing that keeps my interest in my save file is worldbuilding. I love creating new and interesting "sets" for various parts of my story, new places for my characters to explore and interact with each other. One of my goals in Dynastia is to replace every lot with my own builds and have a fully realised world for my characters.

I also love incorporating canon sims characters in my stories and developing them to fit into my various plotlines. Morgyn and other Magic Realm characters are in Dynastia, and right now Erwin has become involved in Strangerville (as "Eugene", actually canon Erwin's cousin 😁). There are a lot of other canon characters that I've used as well!

sorry this was a bit longwinded! I'm pretty attached to the world and characters I've created for Dynastia, so it's really the only save file I play xD (Though I did create an entirely new story and world for my long urban fantasy story, Winter Echo, which you can find here if you're interested 😊)