juushika

Ghost and Aaron: Master List | Next Update

Words cannot even express how happy I am with this update. But first:


Let us speak of writing for a moment.
I caved and started scribbling down the many bits of Ghost & Aaron story which have been filling my head—because I was afraid of losing them, because I was afraid of being overwhelmed by them, because it seemed inevitable. And behold, a few days later I'm up to just over 10,000 words. These scenes stretch from pre-game events through their relationship now—and depending on how Plot plays out, I think there's scenes brewing for the future too.

I mentioned before how different Ghost and Aaron are from any other characters I've dealt with: they are remarkably real. This has only increased as I write them. It's not creation so much as discovery. With a little bit of time and thought, whatever I look for I can find, whatever I find I can record. I've never had story flow so smoothly, even when writing fanfic. The boys are writing themselves, and I'm enjoying being a part of it, because I find them fascinating and because, however biased this opinion may be, there's some good stuff there.

Knowing I have a few Ghost and Aaron fans reading, and as it seems silly to let story languish unread, I'll probably start posting a random scene with my G&A updates. I've written and may post explicit sex scenes; most of the snippets make reference to or directly concern the fact that the boys are cousins. If either goes against your taste, I suggest you skip the written bits. If you're vaga42bond, you can break out the horrified emoticons any time now. And of course there's no obligation to read. This is all for my own entertainment. If you do, though? I hope you enjoy. But first: pictures!


Not a shabby start, right?
This may be my favorite ever photo of the boys.

( +31 pictures: ghosts, money problems, arguments, big decisions, and beauty. )

The events in this update were—incredible. I knew what my user-directed stuff would be (repoman comes, Aaron gets a job) but the park bench? the arguing? the expressions? the fact that as soon as I took him to the cemetery Aaron zeroed in on a new bench? all of that was spontaneous, autonomous, and perfect. I've forgotten, playing Nika's household, that these two have such wonderful chemistry in their relationship, their traits, their plot. I don't even want to know what magic variables create it. I just never, ever want it to go away.

And there's something about Ghost, I think. I've learned from writing him that he's not strictly as passive as he seems—and right now, I think he's playing a tricky game, forcing Aaron to the end of his tether to make the boy do something about it all. And he has. It won't be easy for Aaron, though. He has a grudge against authority figures—and even if he'd never admit it, he's afraid of them, too. I doubt he'll find his job easy, but he definitely has the potential to be damn good at it.

In the world of random, unrelated photos, this time I come bearing pictures of Ghost and Aaron's families. I created their parents in CAS in order to get a grip on how they look (I can't visualize, so this is my best way to see them) and to lock in their personalities. No, I'm not playing them. No, they don't live in town. But I did plop them down in a set piece for some pictures, so you get to meet them all.

( 7 pictures of Ghost and Aaron's family, real and potential. )

Would having siblings really have changed anything for Aaron? I doubt it. It may may have redirected some of the pressure off him—but I suspect it wouldn't have been much better to be constantly compared to the successes of a brother or sister. But, yes, it was an interesting experiment.

I conclude this massive entry with the first bit of Ghost and Aaron written story—which, fittingly, is one of the longer chunks. Enjoy!

Storybit 01: Aaron on the doorstep.
1700 words
Occurs a two years before the start of gameplay. Aaron is 18, Ghost 20, and they're distant friends.
No romantic or sexual content; some foul language.

( After Aaron calls, it takes him only four hours to make the six hour trip to Ghost's house. But Aaron calls at almost ten at night, so he arrives late by any reckoning. )

Ghost and Aaron: Master List | Next Update

Nuthin' too special this time. With a house as full as Nika's a coherent narrative is harder, but I offer what I can: parent troubles, blossoming romance, kids growing up, and a bit of the pretty. We begin with Manson, who has become my unapologetic favorite (other than Nika, of course!):


Manson takes quickly to painting, and only wishes he were big enough to hold his mother's spare guitar.
He is also (and I can't believe I'm saying this, what with my opinion of kids) adorable on his little step stool.

( +16 more under here. )

Random pretty pictures this go around:


Oh no Nevera, not you too...

( +3 photo studio shots. )

Ghost and Aaron: Master List | Next Update

Everything changes, everything stays the same... Social and very much private, trips into town and long days spent in the house on their own, changes and thefts and ghosts and bills and friends and sex—a few more days in the lives of Aaron and Ghost.


Robert commissions a painting and when Ghosts delivers it, dear Billy tries to start flirting like they used to...
Ghost is having none of it. They decide to just be friends.

( +26 pictures. Beware a bit of pixel nudity and tasteful sexual content. )

So while everything is different now, it's all as natural as can be. And as for my anxieties? Though events and time have not erased them (I never do let go of worry easily), they have at least eased them. I am foolishly happy for my little polygon boys.

Random shots this go around:

( Some eyecandy, some humor. )

And I've been meaning for a while to post pictures of the house the boys share—and now that I learned how to change the lens angle in my shots (I are slow learner), that's much easier to do. Ergo:

The one weed-torn lot on an otherwise manicured suburban street, the boys live in Jcperk's Parker Place, a modest but attractive single-story suburban home—which has since fallen into disrepair. The layout and most furniture is as original, but everything has worn through, fallen apart, or quietly gone to seed after significant modding. Their house never could have reached its current condition without Guatla's Paint on Paint wood textures; Cyclonesue's Peeling Paint texture is also a great help (grab it here). All of my pics can be clicked to go through to the Flickr page where they can be viewed in larger sizes—that's especially useful for these.


Street view.

( Take the tour: 8 pictures. )

Ghost and Aaron: Master List | Next Update

Ghost and Aaron: Master List | Next Update


Aaron's bed looks so empty...
The new day does not dawn well.

( +23 pictures featuring plentiful boykissing--you have been warned. )

So, perhaps nothing so exciting as a TV fire and if you're not enjoying this romance as I am then it may be a bit boring. But I cannot even tell you how close they came to taking things one step further, this time. It was pretty intense and YES I am a massive geek thankyouverymuch.

Meanwhile: Outtakes and random pretty shots!

( An amusing townie, Aaron in conversation, and Nika Sarto, my could-be self-sim. )

Which, yeah, is a bit odd. She was never intended to be a self-sim, and objectively we look little alike. But as she came together—with her red hair and freckles, with her glasses and green eyes, her tiny body and big head, she started to mirror if not my physical self then at least my mental self-image. Things like eye color: I have blue eyes, but all of my avatars and my mental self-image all have green eyes. Why? Couldn't tell you—aesthetics, wish-fulfillment, it's the color I imagine my cat eyes must be—but somehow in my image of self my eyes are always green, 'though my body boasts different. But what really tipped the scales with Nika was her hairstyle—I'd never wear my hair like that, having it so loose and flyaway would drive me crazy, but it hides her human ears and that is a huge part of how I see myself: no human ears, because I have cat ears instead. It's carried over from my militant non-fourear neko identity in Second Life, but is still enough that Nika is the one I've adopted as a sort-of-me. For now, at least.

But goodness do I need to get her a better exercise shirt, if she's going to live in it just like all of my other inactive sims. One day, I shall actually play that household! It's full of interesting folks.

You may also have noticed that Aaron has new piercings. I grabbed an early, still-in-beta set of piercings which are an actual mesh, not painted on. They may not be perfect yet but they're fun to test and still a great improvement. Sure they're in different locations, but Aaron ain't attached to which piercings he has just as long as he has a good few—and poking new holes in his face is fun.

So: pics, of course!


I can't help it if Aaron abhors clothing.

( And the other side. )

Ghost and Aaron: Master List | Next Update

Ghost and Aaron: Master List | Next Update

You guys have no one to blame for this but yourselves—but after a few folk actually enjoying my Sims 3 picspam, I feel free to post more Sims 3 pics now. ^_^ Mostly, though, I'm posting due to interesting and amusing events. But to begin at the beginning...

With, er, some pretty pictures! No, really, these are just pointless shots that I like but don't make for much in the way of a narrative.


Ghost learning chess, in the park, at night, after playing in the sprinkler.
He just keeps growing on me.

( +3 more. )

Meanwhile, things with Ghost and Aaron precede apace. It'd odd—for a while I was playing with very full households, so there would be more chance of, more variety in, inter-sim interactions. Then I dumped these two in a rundown house with nothing more exciting than a splintered foosball table—and they've proven to be endlessly entertaining. I finally took away almost all their cash (thank you, familyFunds cheat), so they're living off produce from Central Park's community garden and Ghost's part-time job. Aaron could pawn off the goods he steals, but they make too pretty a collection. They've developed a comfortable routine: Aaron makes messes, Ghost cleans them, and they occupy each other's hours in comfortable companionship. So:


We begin our story with Aaron, who is sort of a dick.
He's expanding to petty vandalism as well as petty theft.
Meanwhile, his klepto's trove has grown by a light fixture, flower vase, and second headstone.

( +5 more. )

See? Proceeding apace! Ghost got a job, Aaron stole another light, everyone played in the park sprinkler and was happy. And then AwesomeMod updated to support the 1.3 patch, so I downloaded the patch, updated AwesomeMod, beat myself over the head with my computer (the game-breaking problem turned out to be really small and easy to fix, but it was a pain in the ass to find), and then sent out to test the patch. There are reported problems with it, you see, so I figured I'd run a day or three on super-speed, sit back and watch for bugs, and then quit without saving.

Except the following day of complete autonomy was ... interesting. All I did was speed up and slow down time—I didn't even cancel actions. They made food, slept, peed, watched some crappy TV, played foosball, painted, each of the boys hanging out on different halves of the house and killing time. Then Ghost's image popped up on Aaron's queue, so I slowed time down to find:

( 7 pictures. )

Known issues with the 1.3 patch include everything from disappearing households to freezing and crashing, so there's a chance that the boys may lose all memory of their Very Odd, Unexpectedly Amorous Autonomous Day. But for now I've saved it to a new file and shall see where it goes. I initially had vague plans to leave these two to their own interpersonal ends and decide for themselves whether they were friends or lovers, but the new direction they've taken still came way out of left field. Not that I don't approve (although it is a bit odd to sit back and just watch the game like it were TV ... and still have it be nearly as interesting as player influence makes it), mind, but I am surprised.

Ghost and Aaron: Master List | Next Update

I have disappeared into the ether because Devon bought me a copy of Sims 3 and it has turned out to be addictive beyond all reason. I've not played the Sims since the original game, which had a little bit too much micromanaging for me; I wasn't interested in the Sims 2 aesthetic. But for whatever reason this version has captured me. The game is fairly vast and looks beautiful, and now that custom content is coming out there's a lot of variety for sim creation. (Still not enough for me to create a self-sim, though—but I hope for a day of catparts.) Anyhow, I'm not posting to write a review so much just as to share some pictures and a download, because one sim in particular has proved amusing enough to warrant sharing:


Meet Tomi Dalton

DOWNLOAD
Sims3Pack (double click to open the installer) or
.sim (paste into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\SavedSims)
You could call Tomi a deadbeat, but the truth is that he lives more than most folk could dream. He has a child's wide-eyed fascination with the world and plentiful joie de vivre. Sure, he has no ambition and he's not the sharpest tool in the shed—but he is the brightest crayon in the box. Tomi sees life as a game, and he wants to play.

In my game Tomi's turned out of be quite a character. I tend to find him goofing off in front of a mirror, and he's been known to pull the whole household into a rousing time on the swings. (His favorite activity seems to be swinging in his underwear at sunrise.) He makes a good flirt but is too easily impressed with other sims to attempt monogamy. He's generous but not always thoughtful, and he doesn't get along well with everyone. But he's colorful and adorable, and never boring. He may well be my favorite sim thus far.

Hair: blue (and purple, and teal)
Eyes: purple

Traits: childish, clumsy, excitable, easily impressed, good
Favorites: cookies, electronica, aqua
Lifetime wish: jack of all trades

( +4 pictures )

Tomi uses a couple of pieces of custom content, including (and, yes, most of these downloads require registration):

Slider hack: link (or his shape will snap back to normal parameters)
Skin: link (pg version) or link (adult version)
Eyes: link or link (optional; I've used both, and currently prefer the first)
Nail polish: link
Contrasting briefs: link (there's an in-game single-color brief, but this is far suprior)
Tie tee: link
and the easiest way to install it all: link