The Shyr Twins: Move to Neverglade

From this point on, the story will be told, first-hand, by Ellarain.

The trip to Neverglade was a long one, but we're here now and to our surprise it is beautiful! Nestled comfortably in a large valley at the foothills of a glorious and lush mountainscape, the town stretches as far as we can see. I took a deep breath of the clean crisp air. It's as if I'm breathing in purity, the quality of the air here is definitely a step above what it was back in Abbotsford.

Ellarian, or Rian, as I like to call her, slid to my side and wrapped her arm around me, giving me a tight hug. We stood there at the outskirts of town just drinking in the scenery watching as the sun set over the mountains. I could feel wonderment blooming within me, this is where we are going to live now!

Our Uncle Evindal had not lied when he told us that the town was new and we would be the first residents to move to Neverglade.  It was completely empty except for the few sims who work in the community lots. Uncle's friend, Dane Barksdale, the developer of Neverglade, was supposed to meet us at City Hall, so I waited there while Rian explored the building.

I was napping under a red-leafed shady tree out in front of City Hall when Mr. Barksdale finally showed up. He made his apologies saying he and his team were testing the integrity of a bridge in his latest town and got delayed there.  Rian met up with us and we went on a tour of the city. There are soooooo many houses to choose from, I don't know how we are going to decide.... But then we spotted the perfect house.

The Orchard House, 3 bedroom, 1 bath. Located at Hungry Holly Street 78. It is perfect for us for a couple of reasons, it's not too big, it's not too little, and we love the two extra buildings in the back. Rian wants to eventually turn the bigger building into a garage for her vintage cars - did I mention she loves vintage cars? I don't see the lure and think that the rusty broken down cars she likes are eyesores, but it's what she loves.  The smaller building we both agreed we'd turn into our hobby/music room.

Though we had a trust fund that our grandparents had intended for us to use at our leisure, once our Uncle took over the estate and the trust fund account, he limited our access to it - we'd only receive a small stipend each month.  The house, we were told, is valued at approximately $108,000 (lower costs since they're trying to populate the valley and move these houses for quick sales). We don't have to pay that, as this is our Uncle's "gift" to us, but if we want to add/change/decorate it to our liking it would come out of our own money.  We got a couple of things for the house, just comfort stuff, but mostly made sure our entertainment was covered and filled the hobby/music house and bought new cars - well I bought a brand new economical Toyota Prius, where as Rian bought a rusty old classic Retro Ride, and a broken down fixer-upper. We plan on redecorating slowly, we especially need to add another bathroom.

Money is now an issue for us, so we had to get jobs. I'm still not sure what I want to do in life, but I know I like music, so I'm going to give the Music Career a shot and see how I like it. Rian, surprise, surprise, got a job in the Motor Mechanic Career.

We're home now, home sweet home. Rian immediately set to work on her car, while I practice on guitar.

It started to get dark and we were both starving. Rian thought she would cook us mac and cheese, we'll unfortunately her cooking skills aren't that great and we ended up with a fire!!!

We both freaked out, and it took us a moment or two too long before we grabbed fire extinguishers to attempt to put it out.

The fire grew so large that it took out the cabinets on either side of it, including the sink and stove.

Our insurance company gave us a few hundred dollars for damages, but that didn't even cover half of what we had to pay to replace the stove, two cabinets, and a sink.  It all but wiped out the rest of our money except for $531.

Needless-to-say we ended up eating cereal for dinner.

The fire put a little worry in our minds about our financial situation, not to mention the need to get a fire alarm (a burglar alarm wouldn't hurt either), so we put our heads together and came up with the decision that since we have an extra bedroom that has two single beds in it, we could add a privacy divider and put out an ad for two roommates.  We'd require first and last month's rent at a monthly rate of $531 per roommate.

With that settled, we also thought it would be a good idea to try to work on our skills whenever we could so that we could sell whatever we made and turn a profit.

Living on your own is hard! I don't think we realized just exactly what it meant until now. Hopefully, someone will answer our roommate ad soon!

(picked out from google, thanks google :O))

Sim-u-later!

The Shyr Twins: Backstory Part 3 (Final)

Dr. McSimmons, with his tired dull grey eyes, sagging bristly white-whiskered jowls, and age-slouched gait, swept the minty green surgical cap from his head as he approached the waiting party. He knew the family was anxious to hear the fate of their Elora and hastened, albeit in his own slow-motion-like mannerisms, to relay the news.

He told them that Elora had pulled through, they had managed to resuscitate her, however, she was still in pretty bad shape. Already weakened from her illnesses and the stress of the c-section, her body sustained even more stress-injury and would take even longer for her to recover - at minimum, several weeks.

The family was relieved, however, that relief was short-lived as Elora ended up having a heart attack during the night that followed. She never got to meet and fall in love with the doting Deputy Boyd, never got to re-establish a relationship with her parents, never got to get to know her younger brother or his wife and children, and as fate would have it, she never got to meet her precious twins - later named by their grandparents - Ellarian and Ellarain - beautiful sweet babies who inherited their mother's mesmerizing green eyes, lovely dark hair, and indomitable spirit.

Elidry and Eunice did what they could for the twins, tried as they could to love them as they would their own children, but it was hard for them. As the girls grew older and their features developed, they looked more and more like their mother, and every day was a struggle for the elder couple as the twins were a constant reminder of Elora and the past.

Deputy Boyd became like an uncle to them, he made sure to be a part of their lives, bringing them gifts, taking them out to play, doing fun activities with them.  He never got married and never had children of his own. In part it was like he was trying to fill the void that Elora had suddenly placed in his heart by her act - however unbeknownst as it was to her - of coming back into his life so quickly and leaving just as quick. The girls loved him, he was the only real male figure they had in their lives.  He was killed on duty while responding to a bank heist in progress, the twins had just turned ten the week prior.

Their real uncle, Uncle Evindal, though a nice man, kept his distance from the twins, never really taking to them, nor allowing them to get to know his side of the family. He always made excuses.

Aside from the losses, the vacancy of real affection from their grandparents, and the absence of their biological father that they had no clue about, the girls didn't lack for anything - they had everything they asked for that money could buy. When they came of age and graduated from high school, their grandparents setup a trust fund for them that they could use at their leisure. It wasn't long after graduation that Elidry and Eunice passed away.

The Straeth Estate was left to Evindal, of course, and since he had an aversion to the twins, he found the girls a place far from Abbotsford where they could move to and "thrive" in - as he had put it.

He had an extended contact, a developer, who had just opened up a new mountain village called Neverglade. In the village, more like a massive town, currently and literally empty of residents at the moment as the population had yet to begin to fill, the girls would have their pick of any place they wanted.  Uncle Evindal, ever practical, thought it was the best decision for everyone that they move there and start their lives anew.

Ellarian and Ellarain, though saddened by the thought of leaving behind what little friends they had made through school, were also excited about the prospect of a new adventure away from the small resistant town that seemed to be ladened down by heavy baggage - old, raggedy and vintage, no less. They didn't have anyone in Abbotsford that cared for them, they only had each other. Neverglade seemed like an opportunity to "thrive" like their Uncle had suggested (even though they knew that it was his way of getting rid of them - out of sight, out of mind).

And so... Welcome to Neverglade.

[Just a small portion of Neverglade.]

Ellarian and Ellarain's story to be continued...

Sim-u-later! (and Merry Christmas BTW!)