The Monster and the Maiden: Ch. 03, Part I
February 4th, 2008
"Maybe you're not looking right. For the ghosts I mean. Maybe I can come in and check to see if they are there. Kids are supposed to be more open to the supernatural."
"No, Emily," he said, exasperation tingeing his voice. His hunger pangs were coming closer together now, if he did not have his potion soon he would most likely have to head downtown tonight for some hunting.
The girl's every emotion was visible on her face and the crestfallen look she now wore pierced his heart.
In an attempt to dampen the effect of his harsh tone, he said, "You have fulfilled the letter of the dare. You have come to my home and spoken with me."
She scuffed at the sidewalk with her pink converse sneakers and then peeked up at him through lowered lashes. "Well, there was one thing in particular that I was supposed to ask you."
"And what was that?" he asked as he glanced back at his house, thinking about the potion that cooled on the work table in the basement. He would allow her one more question and then he would send her off.
"Um," she started, and then sucked in her bottom lip worrying it with her teeth. "Are…are you"—the last words in a whisper—"a vampire?"
* * *
Author's Note: And so, the maiden has been introduced. Not quite what most of you expected, I think.
On another note, I'm not sure if you noticed it or not (and maybe I shouldn't even be pointing it out), but I ended up changing the front gate of Edmond's house in this chapter. I really tried not to, however the original gate was too ornate for Edmond and Emily to easily hold a conversation through. I hate changing things like that, but as the gate will be appearing in a few more chapters (heehee, it sounds like it's a character) I thought I'd better change it now.
You know, on second thought, maybe I shouldn't have made a big deal about it. Maybe Edmond got a new gate between Rafe's visit and now…yeah, that works. *rollseyes*
I also screwed up my courage and installed Bon Voyage for this chapter since I needed some of its animations, but I still haven't made up my mind as to if I'm going to keep it installed or revert back to Seasons. I love the animations in BV and the trees (they are awesome). However, my computer takes longer to load the game now, which is kind of annoying. I don't know, we'll see.
Edited to add–02/04/08:
I also noticed another thing with BV: doors that worked fine in Seasons (like a door I have down in the basement of Edmond's house) now looks like it has a wall going through it when it's opened. The sim can still walk through the door (and the wall) though. I've sometimes had doors act like that before when I moved them into place with the "moveobjects on" cheat, but these doors were fine. So, I'll probably have to go back to Seasons at least for a chapter or two since the doors in question need to be usable (or at least not have a wall running through them). *sigh*
23 Responses to “The Monster and the Maiden: Ch. 03, Part I”
February 4th, 2008 at 6:10 am
I love Emily! She's so cheeky. And Edmond is more patient with her than I would have expected. Especially since he considers himself a monster.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:16 am
You're right, Emily wasn't the kind of maiden I was expecting! I think she took Edmond by surprise as well 😀 She's very persistant isn't she, and not really all that she seems methinks (because of the way the wards reacted)? I wonder how Edmond will reply to her question ….? I'm loving the direction this is moving in, especially with Edmond's attempts to put off his feeding for as long as he can 🙂
*finds parachute and sits on the edge of the cliff again*
P.S. I hadn't realised that the gate had changed! And if it's any consolation it takes ages for BV to load on my computer as well – I guess that's the price we have to pay for animations and lovely trees 🙁
February 4th, 2008 at 7:53 am
February 4th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Ahhh, I'm not so surprised! I remember the first time I saw Brandee, she was a little girl, and then there was Tahlvin… 😉
I really loved their dialogue. Edmond does his part well, but Emily isn't having any of it. She's a persistent child, and not afraid of vampires? This will be interesting. I wonder what he'll say.
As for BV, I couldn't say if it loads slower. Too much CC. It takes 15 minutes to load the game regardless of how much RAM I have or what EPs I have, lol. I've noticed the door problem, too… but it seemed to fix itself? I dunno, I need to pay more attention to this stuff.
February 4th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
So much for Edmond’s “get away from my house kid†rant, Emily was not having any of it. Big A for effort on her part, she did try just about every tactic possible to get through that gate. They are both so incredibly resolute, that even though she was not what I anticipated would be his maiden, they are made for each other.
February 4th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
wow, that was a surprise! but I loved it, love her persoanlity and she is a cutie-patootie as well…great update Kara:)
February 5th, 2008 at 8:25 am
AHAHA, the maiden! (here's me thinking of a tall brunette woman who'll tickle Edmonds fancy 😉 )Emilys just awesome, her character reminds me of me sort of, a very curious little-un 😉
I hope her and Edmond become friends, it'll make a really good but wierd relationship. 😀 This story gets more and more interesting!
p.s The outfit Emily's wearing, if you can, could you tell me where you found it please? It is really cute
February 5th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Another great chapter. Emily is so cute and I love her interactions with Edmond.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:59 am
February 5th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
The conversation between Emily and Edmond was very well written. The characters particularly play off each other really well and I can already sense that Emily will perhaps teach Edmond something he is lacking in character.
BV does do an awful lot of weird things I've noticed. The walk through doors and floors and other sims is pretty common, at least in my game.
Great update. Already, Emily enchants me, completely and utterly. She's brave and she's stubborn.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:37 am
February 8th, 2008 at 7:29 am
I don't exactly know what Emily's role is in this….what exactly is a maiden again? Haha, sorry, but I don't think I've ever come across the term in a story. I could look it up, but only you know the real meaning of the term in context of this story. Um…I do love Emily. She reminds me of myself. Our mannerisms are so identical, I would guess that you were spying on me to create her.
February 8th, 2008 at 7:56 am
February 9th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Eek, I don't remember getting the email for this although I probably did and was so busy I forgot. I'm glad I checked your site just in case. I was right about the female part but completely off the mark about about it being Emily. I really like her- she's so zesty like girls should be. 😉 I can imagine that she'll be a very interesting 'alterego' (or whatever her role will be) to the monster.
I didn't notice at all about the gate. I know what you mean about making small decisions like that- we writers/directors agonize over the tiniest of details but I think for the most part, the audience doesn't notice the things we worry about. Sorry BV is an irritant. I ended up reverting all the way back to OFB for my computer. I really want Seasons installed but hey, we have to perserve our current projects.
February 9th, 2008 at 9:06 am
February 10th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I am loving the maiden! Although she wasn't what I expected! Kind of headstrong and precocious!
Note: I have found that ending all the processes running in the background except explorer.exe and taskmgr.exe have sped up the process of loading my 7 GB of CC!
February 11th, 2008 at 8:12 am
February 17th, 2008 at 10:50 am
This is a great story, especially the last part, the contrast of the vibrant Emily and Edmund is really interesting. I was a little worried the story would become a just a tedious romance, but you have a few aces up your sleeve it seems, nice.
About BV and the doors, if you decide to install BV again, sometimes when I get doors or windows that look like the wall's going through them it helps just to add a wall right next to it straight out (then you can delete the wall again) usually works on single doors and windows for me.
February 17th, 2008 at 11:19 am
February 17th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I was scrolling down to see what other people had written, and realized that we had the same name. (Well, Kara is quite a good name, if I do say so myself) ^^
Anyways, I wanted to tell you that I love your story so far; Emily isn't the typical "Mary Sue" character–she definitely has a mind of her own. And I really adore the settings that you have created…
arrrgh, the cliffhanger! Alright, you've got me hooked. Now I'll never be able to stop reading >.<
February 18th, 2008 at 9:31 am
February 18th, 2008 at 11:02 am
lol I'm a "care-ah", too… leads to interesting nicknames, doesn't it? (Care-bear, haha)
errr… former is the first one, isn't it?
Yeah I really like it… but I was reading the extra boys story now, and I'm really loving that one. ;D
February 18th, 2008 at 11:15 am