1.1 Haze of Sunset

Aurora Skies. It's a remote northern town, on the ocean, though not the kind of hot grainy ocean Fairuza Law is used to. This one is icy, soggy, rocky, foggy, and altogether uninviting.

It's an inauspicious place to start a new life. The insular community doesn't exactly have a bustling economy or see many visitors, though it's supposed to have amazing scenery.

Fairuza's first idea of the town, as the cab piddles its way towards their destination, is that it's a dreary place. The houses looming over the street boast bright paintjobs, each different from its neighbors in both walls and roof color, but it's such a deliberate, obvious attempt to cheer things up that it has the opposite affect on Fairuza. It's ugly, she thinks, and she hates it.

She wouldn't be here if her father, a sports legend, hadn't pulled some strings and gotten her some low-pay PR assistant job. If she'd kept her nose out of trouble, she could have had this job anywhere, but because she's an idiot, it had to be in no-questions-asked middle-of-nowhere Aurora Skies.

The roads are mostly a grid, but turn into a swerving mess as the cab approaches steep mountains that serve as a barrier between the town and the rest of the mainland. It's at this point that Fairuza must admit... the waterfalls and geothermal lakes do look amazing.

"Wow!" her boyfriend chirps.

He's sitting next to her, but she's so sunk in self-pity, she almost forgot. She's not alone.

She's not the only one far from home, far from family, far from everything she's ever known.

"Foss View Road is right around this corner," the cab driver drones, as they pass a graveyard with architecture that strikes Fairuza as odd.

"That tour was very helpful, thanks so much," Fairuza's boyfriend has one note, and that note is upbeat.

That was my note before I screwed up, she reminds herself.

The cottage the couple rented, under a rent-to-own program, is purple with a green roof. Fairuza recognizes it from the photos. She knew it was across the street from a blue-roofed salon, but she didn't know she'd be able to see a graveyard from her front porch.

Even the mailbox wants to be its own separate color.

Fairuza is the first inside, leaving her boyfriend to further question the poor cab driver.

The cottage's amenities are as meager as one would expect given its price; there's a tiny kitchen with a tiny table and two colorful chairs...

...a ratty loveseat, a worn out coffee table, a rusted stovepipe furnace, a rug that's trying too desperately to fit in with its surroundings, a television set that looks as if it'll burst into flames the second it's turned on...

...a bathroom with a standing shower...

...and a bedroom that's somehow even harder to squeeze around in than the bathroom.

Feeling claustrophobic, Fairuza slinks out onto the back porch.

 She takes a deep breath. The air smells different, feels thinner somehow.

She exhales, trying to let go of her expectations, her preconceptions, her longing for home.

And the view...

...So. Much. GREEN.

Fairuza smiles.

Then she remembers she's not happy, and goes back inside.

"How are you doing?" Rock Woods, faithful boyfriend, stares at her with those wide green eyes she can't stay mad at.

"I can't believe I dragged us here," Fairuza grumbles.

"You don't like it?"

"It's not what I'm used to."

"We'll make it all look nice when I find a job, it'll be fine, you'll see."

Fairuza tries to smile for him, but can't.

What she's used to is palm trees and a big city. She never knew she'd be the kind of person to think "it's different so I hate it", yet here she is, sulking, while Rock takes everything in stride.

They've been together since they were teenagers.

They weren't supposed to leave Starlight Shores.

She wasn't supposed to need to run to the ends of the Earth to escape her stupid bad decisions.

"You swear you're not upset?" She wills her thoughts back to the present as best she can. "You loved Starlight Shores." Where everyone else saw a concrete jungle and a never-ending beach party, her boyfriend saw a threatened coastal habitat. He knew what all the trees were called, and when which birds would migrate though. He had such an affection for the area, she imagined he would take the move harder.

"If I were upset I wouldn't have run off with you," he reminds her, smiling patiently. "We may not have much here yet, but we still have each other."

"It's just... it's not home. It's all hitting me now." She's tricking herself into thinking it's the cold air and weird houses that are getting her down, when really it's her family she's missing.

"It's not home... but it's beautiful," Rock says. "I feel lucky we get to see it."

"Hmph. I wish I could look on the bright side right now."

"I think I know what will cheer you up."

"Yeah?"

"Let's go to city hall."

"Wait, what?"

 Rock's idea was a good one. It doesn't take long for Fairuza to acquire a fishing license.

While causing pain to animals isn't Rock's idea of fun, he doesn't fault Fairuza for the difference of opinion. Fish & chips is her favorite meal, and she spent too much time fishing with her father as a child to ever see the activity in a negative light.

While waiting for Fairuza to be done with the rules and regulations thing, Rock is distracted by a local politician bickering with another, and, as a concerned citizen with a fresh perspective, inserts himself into their conversation.

He's still talking with them when Fairuza is done signing things.

So Fairuza gets restless and goes for a jog. A few laps around the block should be good for her spirits, and keep her warm.

They're really proud of those hot air balloons, she scoffs to herself as she passes by the festival in the town's central park for the third time. Aurora Skies was the self-proclaimed home of hot air balloon racing at one point in a distant past, but nobody does that anymore.

It's about this time that Fairuza decides Rock is taking far too long, and she might as well head home...

...but when she gets home, she still feels like jogging, so she continues up towards the intersection of Sulfur Springs Road and Foss View, and keeps on running.

Supposedly there is a nice fishing spot at the end of Foss View. When Fairuza reaches it she glances out over the lakes at the rainbow of building clusters in the distance and... tries to keep her mind empty. The sight is too cute to deserve her hatred.

She texts Rock about where she is. Fiskar Fishing Park, 13 Foss View Rd. Come find me when you're done making friends with all the crooks in town.

OK, he messages back.

Maybe this won't be so bad.

As the hour grows late, Rock does indeed come to find her.

"Catch anything?"

"Yeah, but they were all too small. I had to throw them back."

He offers to take her to a restaurant, but she refuses. She's certain she can catch a suitable fish before the day is over. "Fairuza Law does not back down from a challenge," she says.

So Rock gives up on the romantic dinner idea, and tells her about his chat with the local politicians. He's already looked into 'all the issues' and volunteered himself to help campaign for some fringe candidate who embodies his views. It's not paid work, but it's something he can be proud of, and maybe in the process he'll find out where he can get a real job.

Fairuza's job won't technically start until the sport season begins, so she'll have a lot of free time on her hands in the immediate future, but she doesn't offer to help Rock with the campaigning. She's pretty sure she'd mess up and make the candidate look bad.

It's a weak excuse, but Rock doesn't challenge it.

He plops down on a rickety chair nearby and reads a book.

Sappy romance novels are his preference.

Fairuza eventually catches a fish worthy of eating.

They chop the fish to pieces and roast it over a fire.

Then they dine under the haze of sunset.

They stay out late, since there's nothing much to do at the cottage.

When they finally do go home, they can't sleep, and stay awake chatting for hours about their future.

A lot of things are uncertain, but the one thing they are sure about is each other.

___________________________________________________
Etc.: Wow, a lackluster introductory chapter!

Welcome to my latest Random Legacy Challenge blog. My rolled parameters include family structure, number of children, income sources, and various other fun stuff. If you're unfamiliar with the Sims 3 RLC, you should check it out! 

Anyway. For the curious, Fairuza Law and Rock Woods first appeared in my Goldbeard RLC. Fairuza makes her first appearance as a baby burrito in chapter 85, and leaves the household in chapter 124. The events in this blog occur in a different cycle ("timeline"), so Orazia isn't here. This time Orazia's mother raised her without help from Milo, so this Fairuza doesn't even know her half-sister exists. Don't be disappointed; Orazia will get her own legacy blog, because I am weak and I can't let my spares go.

For careers I have sports agent and politics. So this fresh copy of Fairuza (with all her skills reset to 0, so sad!) needs to raise her jock level before she can actually begin working. Level 1 of the sports agent career is "PR Assistant". For story purposes, she has already secured the job (thanks to daddy's influence!), she just hasn't started working (or getting paid).

I also rolled "Live Your Trait", and with Fairuza that will be the Athletic trait.

Other rolls are up on their own page, but they may be "spoilery" if you prefer being surprised.

I have to say, Aurora Skies isn't as bad as I thought it was when I first got it. I loaded it up once, decided I hated it, and didn't touch it again until... now. Maybe my computer can handle it better these days, I don't know. I did spruce it up a bit. The hot air balloon festival is an altered version (read: butchered version) of Owly's replacement town squares. I ended up using all five of her Aurora Skies lots. <3

The salon across the street is an edited version of this one. It showed up in my game as a windowless monolith and I'm only realizing this just now. Oops. Oh well.