Day at the Park
Day: June 20, 2018
Nocturnal Activities
It’s easy to forget that I still technically have to work. I sort of tend to remember it at 2 AM, every night. If I’m being honest I’ve sort of started losing interest in my job. Our Selvadoradan adventures have left me for a taste for challenges and discoveries.
Hannah also tends to forget her homework until 2AM.
I don’t really have enough moral high ground to scold her about it.
Birthday Weekend
Hannah gets invited in Selvadorada for Sara’s birthday — that’s how close they are by now. Of course Hannah is thrilled to have a reason to go back, even if there’s no exploration scheduled.
It’s also her first time going alone, but she makes sure to send me pictures of her dancing the simrumba.
Many pictures.
Professional Work
The more time passes, the more Hannah feels trapped in the school routine. It doesn’t help that her omiscan findings have actually started bringing money in — when it isn’t from publishing her discoveries, it’s from being commissioned to analyzed and authenticate relics for the Windenburg Museum.
Hannah Stewarts is already a name the Historians and Archeologists community knows.
I think…
She’s got…
An Obsession with…
These…
Relics…
One More Blessing
There are also things to excavate and discover in San Myshuno.
Even Uptown, above the whole city.
While downstairs, Hanna, who hasn’t learned anything, goes and completes another relic.
What could be wrong with completing Balampalsoh’s Death Relic?
She runs up to the closest stranger (… stranger to her, at least…)
And activates the relic. She wouldn’t have done so if she hadn’t read somewhere that the Balampalsoh’s Death Relic granted a blessing, she assured me later.
The Omiscans had an odd notion of what defines a blessing.
He rolls with it, though.
You’re still grounded, Hannah.
Fatherly Love
When we head home, Hannah is still cursed — but we barely have time to explain that to Hugo as he’s already pulled her into an embrace. We may have been looking for treasures in Selvadorada for days, but Hannah’s his treasure, and it shows just in the way he looks at her.
With this last act of fatherly love, Hannah doesn’t feel that alone anymore. And after a good (take-out) meal and a nap, she feels better for the first time in over a day.
The curse breaks.
Relief.
And as a reward for breaking the curse through strength of character, Zazatototl blesses Hannah with Happiness.
“That’s right, call me the Curse Breaker”
It’s an unspoken omiscan rule that you gotta take a selfie after breaking an ancient curse.
Arcanes
Hannah’s almost there. She’s about to complete her goal of piercing the mystery of the omiscan relics. This is the first she manages to assemble, yet she does so with the confidence of a trained mage.
She assembles the Base of Chaos with the Head of Zazatototl…
She’s on the right path!
And now for the refined firestone…
Success! The completed relic flies from her hands, up and above, and shines the golden light that’s become synonymous, to us, with the promise of treasure.
Eager to see the effects, she activates the relic. Sara taught her the omiscan words she had to pronounce. Expertly she repeats them.
And catches the falling relic at the end of the ritual.
Did it work?
Oh, it worked alright.
Hannah got touched with the Curse of Atrophying Needs. And I witness, helpless, she spirals into neverending discomfort. She’s starving, exhausted, stuck in a turmoil of doubt and unhappiness, and she tells me she’s never felt more alone.
This is gonna be a fun plane ride home tomorrow.
Simrumba
You know the drill by now.
Back at the marketplace, we order our favorite meals, then head home to change into our favorite party outfits.
Hannah looks like an authentic Selvadoradan — and she dances like one, too!
Couple’s choreography!
Hannah’s just about legal age to drink now — and she’s past it in Selvadorada — but she sticks with the horchata.
Then as everybody’s still partying, she heads outside, and works on refining the ruby that set the Skeleton Curse on her to begin with.
Temple Time
The ever-changing temple is pretty much our second home now. What’s more, Hannah is officially a hundred percent in charge of the machete. Seeing her sway it expertly as the branches and leaves waterfall at her sides never fail to make me smile with pride.
I’m getting way better than I thought I would at this whole business. And to think I used to hate History and Geography class. My thoughts go back to Mr. WhatsHisName’s class back in high school. I’m positive Hannah and I are living through more thrilling experiences than he ever did.
Especially seeing as Hannah can’t stop triggering the temple’s traps.
Fire doors.
Ominous golden gards.
Switches to activate.
It’s an adventure we happily march into.
We’ve never gone this deep into the temple. We’re ready for it.
In a small side chamber, Hannah finds a chest and she opens it, already ready for the treasures inside.
This time I solve the brass bowls puzzle without any major incident.
It seems the deeper we go into the temple, the most beautiful it gets. The vegetation is prospering down here.
One more flight of stairs.
One more trio of solemn guardians.
And finally, a very deep treasure room. It’s different than the previous ones we’ve seen. It’s colorful, and it almost looks like a place where people used to live. It’s not as intimidating as the galaxy-walled rooms from before.
Treasure!
It’s two wooden bases for relics!
And a benediction!
“I’m pretty sure I could assemble two full relics now!”
“Do you know what they’re going to do?”
“Nope, but I can’t wait to find out!”
Jungle Team
In the Jungle, Hannah and I are a team.
Whether it is in bracing sneaky bat attacks…
… or digging to find relics together, we’re in it together. We work really well as a mother-daughter exploring team.
So it’s together that we appreciate the out-of-this-world beauty of the jungle.
We’re more confident now, so we’re more relaxed in our exploring approach.
So we head back to the Royal Baths, this time on purpose, and we enjoy the fresh water of the natural pond, until night falls.
And then we stargaze together, creating images out of the twinkle lights of the galaxy — which we’ve never seen better than here, far from the light pollution of sim activity.
I’m so happy to say, on this night out, Hannah and I get closer than ever before, exchange confidences, and develop the type of bond every parent wishes they could form with their kid.
We do change back into our usual exploring gear once the night gets colder though, because this is not a video clip and we don’t wanna catch a cold.
The Stewarts Family (and other shenanigans) 