The Road Back Home (A Day of the Dead Story)

[simgaroop]

This is a very small "Day of the Dead" story I'm offering as my treat for those of you who are celebrating Halloween tonight. It is not related at all with the Broke Legacy, so don't worry about spoilers :).






"Awwww! Come on! Come on, let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"




"I can hear them already! They are going to get all the candy for themselves if we don't hurry up! It's not like there are many houses around here after all!"




"Come on, Johnny! We've been here for HOURS! Tank and his friends left my place already... and I promised Buck I'd share half of my candy with him! Come on!"




"Come on! I'm so booooored! And I need some sugar badly! How am I supposed to get sick from eating so much candy if there's nothing for us by the time we go?! Come on! Don't you want candy too?!"




"My mom says that candy just fills our stomachs with empty calories and rots our teeth, so I don't really care about that. But I love going around town with you guys, so yeah, I also want to leave as soon as possible..."




"But we also promised Phi we'd help her with her offerings..."




"And you know how important this is for her..."




"I know that, Johnny. But I didn't know this would take so long!"




"And I really, really don't want to lose against Tank this year! I won't hear the end of it if he gets more candy than me!"




"In that case you can tell him that you got to be part of a very ancient and interesting tradition!"




"Just look around you! We are standing in the middle of an awesome party!"
"Yeah, I can see that, though I don't see the point of all these flowers and candles, unless there's a cake hidden around here..."




"You must be kidding me! Didn't you pay attention to Mrs. Specter's story?"




"Errr... I guess I didn't exactly listen to it..."





"Wha... that's exactly the reason you do so bad at school! You've got to start making an effort and pay attention at what's going on around you for a change!"




"Oh please, Johnny! Now you are sounding exactly like my Dad!"
"Wha...?"




"Don't get mad, Johnny. I can explain it again to you, Ripp. If you want to, of course..."
"Sure!"
"But you've got to pay attention this time!"




"All right! Well... this is a very special night, for the spirits that have crossed to the other side are granted one night to visit their loved ones in this plane. It is a long journey, of course, and some of them don't remember the road back home very well. That's why we left this trail of orange flower petals and candles, to light the way for them..."




"Imagine what'd happen if they got lost!"
"Yeah... that wouldn't be fun at all..."




"And what about the sugar skulls and all this food?"




"Well, the spirits will be hungry and thirsty by the time they arrive here. And as their hosts, we should make sure they get something yummy to eat. I really don't know which were the favorite food of the spirits that leave here, except for my Mom and Dad..."




"Speaking of, I've got thank your mom when we get to your place, Johnny!"




"Mom loved her chocolate muffins, so I'm sure she'll be very happy when she arrives here. Thanks again for asking your mother to bake some for her..."




"Aw, it's nothing, Phi! Anything for a friend! Besides, I know how important it is for you to celebrate this night with your parents,"




"Yup! Most people will think this is silly, but while I decorate their graves, I can actually... feel my Mom and Dad close to me. As if they were standing right here, right now..."












"Well, well... this looks very nice, Ophelia. You kids did a good job decorating the garden for our visitors. I'm sure they'll enjoy everything you prepared for them."




"You think so, Aunt Olive?"
"I have no doubts about it."




"Nonetheless, I think it's time you kids stop worrying about the dead and enjoy this night too."
"But I've not finished y..."
"I'll finish it for you Ophelia. You go and get some candy, all right?"
"Wow! Thank you so much!"




"Then what are we waiting for guys! Let's go!"




"Last one to get to the Beaker's house will have to ring their doorbell!"
"Hey! That's not fair Phi! I had to do that last year!"
"Then I suggest you to get moving, Ripp!"




*Sigh*




"Someday, those kids will have to learn the truth, Lyla Grunt. But sometimes I think that deep inside they already know you're not coming back..."

__________________________








"Uggghhh... Aghhh.... *cough*"




"Ughh! I... I swear I won't ever eat a single piece of candy.... at least until next week!"




"Are you feeling better now, Ripp?"
"Yes, Dad."
"Be sure to change out of those dirty pajamas, boy! And go straight to bed! You've got training at 0400 sharp tomorrow!"
"Yeah, yeah..."


















"... Most people will think this is silly, but while I decorate their graves, I can actually... feel my Mom and Dad close to me. As if they were standing right here, right now..."




"What if you're the same as them, Mom? What if you tried to come back, but got lost just like Phi said?"
















"I hope you like these cupcakes as much as I do. Mrs. Smith gave them to me tonight and I was saving them for a special occasion. Besides, the General won’t let me cook yet, so this is the only thing I found in our fridge..."




"He won't let me use the matches either, so I guess I'll just leave my light on, all right? I promise I'll leave it on all nights from now on! Just don't get lost and come back, all right?"




"Good night, Mom..."

_______________




















"Don't worry, Ripp..."




"I'd never forget the way back home..."
















"Good night, my child... I love you so much..."




"ZZZzzz... M-Mommy?"




"I love you too....ZZZzzzz"






________________________________________
Notes:

- The Lyla Grunt featured in this story was originally made by strange_tomato. Thank you so much for sharing her with us!
- Tomorrow I'll visit a graveyard with my family, so I'll share pictures later of the way the people in my country decorate them for the "Day of the Dead".
- For me, the sims don't have an specific nationality or religion, but I figured that the Specter family would celebrate a special day in honor of the spirits of their loved ones.
- Yup, Olive isn't exactly evil in this version of Strangetown. I left the "truth" about Lyla's demise open on purpose, by the way, so you can imagine how did she die and why is Olive keeping it as a secret from her family.

And as promised, here are two small treats for you:

1. These are some very simple recolors I did of Windkeeper's skulls, so they'd resemble the sugar calaveritas that decorate the Ofrendas of Muertos in my country, and I also used them in this story. I'm including the original mesh too. Feel free to do anything you want to with them.

2. This my favorite "Halloween/Dia de los Muertos" song. It's called "No es serio este cementerio" (This graveyard is not serious) and it was originally composed and performed by Spanish group Mecano. The version I'm sharing with you comes from the Spanish play "Hoy no me puedo levantar". I love this song very much!

- Anyway, have fun and eat lots of candy! (well, as long as you don't get sick, of course!).

Happy Halloween / Día de los Muertos!

Comments

[ownsimscorner.livejournal.com]

So beautifully done and sad! I loved it.

[yep-i-am-dennis.livejournal.com]

That was a fantastic read!

[pearkiwi.livejournal.com]

Agreed, fantastic read. It made me get all teary, thank you. And thanks for the skull recolors, as well. =)

[erraticxemotion.livejournal.com]

I loved it. Very informative for those that don't know much about Día de los Muertos too.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Ahh, just beautiful. What a lovely read. ^_^ As always, you spin a great yarn, and take wonderful photos. I really love how you handle these characters. I know my favourites are in good hands with you, and I always look forward to seeing you take them on in their "natural habitat."

I love that pic of Ripp rolling his eyes at Johnny. It's so cartoony and great. I love the shots of his feet running down the stairs too. It's very cinematic.

I love that Johnny's a superhero too. Nice nod to his sim bio.

Thanks for the shout-out on Lyla. It's cool to see you use my version of her (and I've noticed that she gets a lot of downloads, which surprised me). She has Ripp's eyes and (slightly modified) nose, and Buck's mouth, cheeks, and chin. Of course, we all know where Tank gets his looks. ;)

I think you're right to have the Nigmos/Specters celebrating Day of the Dead. It really does fit with them (well, with Nice Olive here. :P But I like her that way for something like this, even if I normally can't see it at all).

Día de los Muertos! I hope you have a great one.

[singindixie.livejournal.com]

Wonderful story. This is one of my favorite holidays and you captured the spirit of it perfectly! Thanks a bunch!

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful story. Happy Halloween/ Dia de los Muertos to you as well!

[rustedinkwell.livejournal.com]

This was really lovely. It had a sad ending, but understanding that she'll return next year or is always kind of watching over him makes it less so.

I downloaded the song. ^.^ I'll have to give it a listen later when people aren't sleeping and I don't have to worry about the music waking them.

Hope you have fun tomorrow with your family. :D

[inkspottedtea.livejournal.com]

LKSDJFdlfkjsldfkjsdlf

this was absolutely beautiful. I think el Dia de los Muertos is a wonderful holiday :)

[naughtydolphin.livejournal.com]

Oh that was lovely! The kids were so cute in their costumes.

[simsnowcherry.livejournal.com]

That was so beautiful! I loved especially the ending, it was so touching and sad. And I almost gave a little 'squee!' out loud when I saw little Ripp first time! Aww! He's so cute. So were Johnny and Phi. I loved their costumes.

Happy Halloween/Día de los Muertos for you too! I live in Finland, where we don't really celebrate either of them, though in the recent years, Halloween has come into our country too, nowadays shops are selling some Halloween stuff and some people hold Halloween parties, but it's not a traditional part of our culture. Here, kids dress up as witches and go to pick candy a week before Easter. :D Día de lost Muertos sounds like a wonderful holiday, by the way! Hope you have a great day with your family!

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

OMG!! That was amazing!!
I'm all teary now with that ending, sooo beautiful! :)
And the whole scene is just marvelous, the kids are adorable, the shots of Ripp just no words to say, and love your short take on Olive. She was actually nice?? :P i enjoy not so bad takes of usually mean characters lol ... Johnny amazing, so Johnny! worry about teeth and Ophelia, while Ripp only want to count his candy...

gosshh that was soo sweeet! thank you so much!! :D
and thanks for the skulls d/l ;)

and .... OMG .. U like Mecano too!!!??? <3
Guess who lived most of the teen years listening to mecano like 80% of the time ... WEEEEEEEE!!! (yeah, we, as in my husband and i)
i can't even name one song to be my fav, but if force to, i'll say Mujer contr Mujer ... LUVSS!!! I love Mujer contra mujer, there's not best!! <3 but i could name titles for hours here now
... TU, cruz de navajas! Naturaleza muerta!! Hija de la Luna!!!!

see what u did, now i gotta go looking for my old mecano cd and play it!!! :P ROFL!!!

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Aww, this was awesome. I love seeing Ripp and Johnny dressed up, and the banter was cute.

It was really nice that Olive and Ophelia celebrated Dia De Los Muertos. The nice Olive kind of threw me, but it worked. :)

And seeing Lyla was so cute! Great story!

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Thanks ^^

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much :)

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading the story. And have fun with the recolors too! :)

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

Día de los muertos is my favorite mexican tradition. It's a big deal in my family, so I love to talk about it, whether in my journal or with other people. I'm glad you found this bit of info interesting ^^.

And thank you very much for reading it too!

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

I was a bit unsure about using these characters for this story at first, because I'm not used to write them in their natural habitat, as you said. I'm afraid I've been so immersed in my crazy alternate universe that it's odd to see those three interact in my own game, although I'm used to (and love reading about) their friendship/love-relationship in your story :). One of these days, I'll just play with the maxis neighborhoods according to the "traditional way" (there's even a guide in the Prima book my sis gave that says the order in which you should play those houses in order to follow the pre-made scenarios. I've never seen those in action!)

I also had a similar pic of Johnny rolling his eyes, but I ended up using Ripp because he's the kind of sim that can display these extremely cartoony faces like a pro. Must be the huge eyes! I've read that a lot of people find these cartoony/exaggerated faces annoying for their storytelling. I just can't get enough of them although it is true they are often quite ridiculous (but so is the game IMO).

It was either the superhero or a dragon costume for dear Johnny (I didn't have many options for him, sim kids are so neglected). I confess I didn't remember that part of his bio, but I assumed someone as "perfect" and "goody-two-shoes" as him would aspire to be a hero. After all, his family (and him) are role-models for his friends. I also downloaded a villain costume for kids, and was tempted to show Tank with it, but then I figured that he wouldn't want to be a bad guy at all! He's too... correct.

Your Lyla is a cutie and this is the second time I play with her. When I re-created my neighborhood for Nth time, I no longer had my older Lyla (which is actually just a blonde female Ripp), so she's now playing the role as the zombie guardian of Strangetown's cementery. I can totally see the Buck traits in her, and I don't know if you've had him breed girls in your game in the past, but the daughters he had in my game are very cute too :). Can't say much about Ripp, 'cause he mostly had boys in my game. Yeah, Tank is mostly a Buzz clone, especially when he's older.

The Olive in this Bizarro-Strangetown is not nice either. Let's just say that she's a good woman that has been cursed by her fascination with the Grim Reaper, and therefore she's suffered a lot as a consequence. She's a bitter old woman, but not the evil lunatic we've used to read about in many stories.

Thanks! I hope you had a nice time too :)

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

You are very welcome :). And thanks for reading it too! ^^

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! :)

Same for you! (and I hope you're feeling better by now).

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

Yeah, for me the saddest part of this story is that Ripp is not even sure if his mother is dead or not. He just left her the food in case she might be a ghost like Ophelia's parents. At this point, the only thing he wants is for her to come back to their home, no matter how.

I hope you liked the song. I'll try to translate the lyrics soon :).

Thanks!

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

I guess I had the most fun looking for the right costumes for these kids. I was originally going to use them as teens, but changed my mind when I found the kid costumes!

Thanks for reading! :)

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the story ^^

Yup, we also don't really celebrate Halloween in Mexico. I mean, a lot of kids do go out and ask for candy on the 31st, but it is actually today when we celebrate this holiday.
It has a lot of elements in common with Halloween, because children also ask for money or candy around their neighborhoods (this is also known as "asking for a calaverita").

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

You know Johnny is concerned about his friend's health, but Ripp couldn't care less about his teeth or the sugar intake in his diet. Even less as an eight year old!

Olive is not completely nice, at least not in a traditional way. I guess she's just an old woman who's had very bad luck with the men in her life, so she's now a bit bitter. But she's not evil either, and she even cares about her niece.

Yup! I also love Mecano! I also like Mujer contra Mujer, but if I had to choose a favorite, it'd be "Me cuesta tanto olvidarte". Is so sad, but I love it! :)

Thanks for reading!

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

In this story, Olive was indirectly responsible to the death of all the people who now rest in her graveyard, so she makes sure she celebrates their day as some sort of pay off for the harm she caused them in the past. In my mind, she was cursed by the Grim Reaper because she got too close with him (and tried to win against him), so now she has to deal with the punishment of seeing every person she meets and cares about die one way or another. She cares for Ophelia, but keeps her distance because she wants her to be safe too.

Thanks for reading the story! :)

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

*nods*totally get what you mean with not-completely-nice, maybe I should had said She was 'almost'-nice!?? :P
I like that take, is generally my impression of her too, but i've come to a point in which i tend to see all sims in STown with good eyes LOL (not all nice, but none totally-bad either)

and yep, :D another amazing song, that reminds of when i was still dating my hubby <3 El 7 de Septiembre follows too, but i guess most of their songs can fight the top1 place for me. Specially love all the lit' stories, urban legends, and myths they used. Each song is visual, like reading a tale. Just too good! (and Ana Torroja is plain fabulous! <3 Ever saw her singing with Miguel Bose!?? *drools* ).
Basically I grew up listening to a couple of bands in english, but mainly three in spanish: Prisioneros, Mecano and Soda Stereo ROFL (my husb. always hated me for the last one tho lol)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

You did a great job with them in that thing your wrote to go along with your multi-PT set, and that was a canon version. I guess that's the only other time you've done it, but it stuck out in my mind. I like that you show them as friends like that, and I missed out on the childhood friendship thing in my story, because I changed it slightly so that both Ripp and Ophelia grew up somewhere else, and moved to Strangetown as young teens. It's really cute to see them together as children like that.

(And, as I'm writing this, I'm recalling a little short flashback type story that I was thinking of writing a while back, so maybe I will... I was inspired by the new playground equipment.)

I love those outlines of the original scenarios in the Prima guide. I try to stay true to them when I'm planning stuff for this story, though I truly believe that Don Lothario is meant to leave Cassandra at the alter, even though the guide more or less tells you to build up the relationship first.

I couldn't agree more about the cartoony expressions. Sometimes I want something a little subtler and restrained, but you can easily get that too. I love playing up the cartoon qualities. For me, if I wanted something grittier and more realistic, I think it would be better to use a different source material than the sims games. Some people pull it off pretty well, but it just seems like paddling upstream to me.

Yeah, Johnny has a serious hero complex. His bio says: Johnny dreams of being the hero that rides in on a white horse, or at least a cool sports car. :P

I agree. Tank wouldn't think of himself as a villain, but it would be funny to see him and Johnny in opposing costumes, being enemies and all.

Ripp's genes work pretty well on girls too, aside from the chin, which is a bit strong.

That's about as nice as I can imagine Olive. Even if the deaths of her husbands were accidents, she's still a fairly frightening lady, since she had a child with the Grim Reaper. And it is pretty likely that she'd be nice to Ophelia, I think. That could go either way.

[amaryssobellus.livejournal.com]

This was so well done. Thanks for sharing with us. :)

[a-gates.livejournal.com]

Que Bonito! Im a bit slow to get to reading because of my hectic schedule, but this tidbit is just breath taking, Maybe Im just hormonal *TMI* lol* but I am very touch and got a bit misty-eye.

[zaphod2008.livejournal.com]

What a sweet story - I found it last night, and it's still running through my mind 24 hours later.

Thank You for it :)

One question - Where did you find Ripp's little costume? I've scoured 3 sites so far, but haven't found it.

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry for the extremely late reply!

For Ripp's costume you have two options: You can look for it at the EA Store (at the original Sims 2 site, it's part of the Spooku collection), or you can also find it at MATY (more awesome than you) HERE (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13036.msg390903.html#msg390903).

[zaphod2008.livejournal.com]

No need to apologize - I know how things go, and especially around this time of year!

Thanks so much for the link - given the choice between the EA Store and MATY, well...

And again, thank you for that delightful little story :)
Hope you have a very Merry Christmas