The Long Way Home. Complete.

[Swirl-Girl]

Sure looks like it!Hah! Mother doesn't approve of street art!

[Shewolf13]

This is such a wonderful story!  Absolutely awesome!

[yruvian]

"Gabriel? Now what are you doing?" "Don't worry, Mother. I just felt like collecting some rocks this morning. I have plenty of time before I have to be at the comic store for class. It'll be nice to have some new seeds when I get back to Redemption. Even though our garden is frozen at the moment."


Today is a much busier day for the Technology students it seems. Last week I was here all alone.


"What? Gabriel! That's public property you're painting on!" "Yes, Mother. But it will look a lot better if you let me finish." "With your actions of late, I'm only too happy I created all of you as young adults, not children!"


"There, all suited up to go to class. Forgive me?" The wind seems to sigh Her answer. "You know I do, Gabriel. And this IS a lot safer than your regular attire on that bike." I guess I have to agree with that. I know riding this baby wearing everyday cloths isn't a good idea. Grim may not take me with him for real, but falling like that will definitely hurt a lot. I've seen the damage it can do when I was still Redemption's main doctor.

Wade was actually happy with me in the first class! I guess I'm having a good day.


I found something else to rant about... and I doubt this will have Mother in an uproar. At least I'm shouting out my dislike about evil in my own study, so I'm not really embarrassing myself.


No wonder it wasn't a problem that I was way too late for this lecture last week. Booooring! I'm really having a hard time staying awake here, even while taking notes and asking questions.*yawns*


Right. Wade couldn't get off the stage fast enough. He actually took off at a run. Time for some payback for these lost two hours of my life. Maybe with the necessary art around, it'll be much easier to stay awake in the future!

"Gabriel!" "I'm helping them out, Mother. No one could stay awake during that lecture. The entire second row was sound asleep before the second hour started! I'm just going to add some things for us students to look at. Nothing more." "Fine. Just don't forget you have finals tomorrow!"

Woops. Nearly got locked into the building that time... Jimmy may actually believe I'm a party animal, because I usually come home deep into the night this week.

[yruvian]

Sorry for the long absence, everyone. Flu hit me rather badly, leaving me utterly exhausted after it finally healed. Been spending more time in bed than out of it for weeks.

But this morning my body seems to have recuperated. More awake than I have been in months!

[Shewolf13]

Sorry to hear that.  Glad you're feeling better though.  Take all the time you need.  Nice to see Gabriel back though ^^

[RainBeau]

Sorry to hear you've been ill. I hope you're all better. Goody-good Gabriel painting on public property is too funny, although his reasoning fits his character. What will he do if the police come for him?

[Magz from Oz]

So happy to hear that you are felling much better.  We've missed you.

Gabe defacing public property!  Noooo... Gabe is merely beautifying a boring decor.   Tip:  Eat the Bumbleleaf Herb and he won't get caught or arrested for tagging!

[PrincessMimi]

Gabe defacing public property!  Noooo... Gabe is merely beautifying a boring decor.

Agreed. Gabe is like the geeky science guy with a good heart. He would NEVER do anything illegal. 

[yruvian]

First order of the day: Risk and Puddles 201. I pass with flying colours again! Why does it always rain when we're having exams? It was like this last week too! The rebel crowd gave me a chance to chance my sixth trait, but I decided to stick with Bookworm.

Corporate Snacking 202 was a breeze! Another success on my record! Just a little longer... and History completed the streak of perfect scores! I succeeded in gaining my degree! Time to go home... because I kind of miss the family.

I didn't make it to the graduation though... so I'll just have to return soon and actually go...

(A very short chapter, but going to upload the screens for the next one now.)

[yruvian]

Just so you all know, if I fall away at times, it'll always be my health. Between no immune system to speak of (thanks to way too many antibiotics while I was a child) and fibromyalgy, my health tends to be bumpy at best.

Sorry to hear that.  Glad you're feeling better though.  Take all the time you need.  Nice to see Gabriel back though ^^

He's happy to be back . And so am I.

Sorry to hear you've been ill. I hope you're all better. Goody-good Gabriel painting on public property is too funny, although his reasoning fits his character. What will he do if the police come for him?

Thank you . I think he'd try to explain the matter to the nice police officers... and pay the fine. But he seems rather lucky on that score: he hasn't been caught at it yet (except for Mother, of course )

So happy to hear that you are felling much better.  We've missed you.

Gabe defacing public property!  Noooo... Gabe is merely beautifying a boring decor.   Tip:  Eat the Bumbleleaf Herb and he won't get caught or arrested for tagging!

Thank you . I've missed all of you too!

He can hardly put up paintings everywhere, can he? He's only trying to help, really. Though... his addiction to learning new things may be part of it too.

Thanks for the tip.

Agreed. Gabe is like the geeky science guy with a good heart. He would NEVER do anything illegal. 

I don't think he considers it to be illegal, just not exactly completely approved by Mother.

[yruvian]

And this is what I come home to. Do I have to start worrying about going for another term? The manor may not be here any more when I get back! It's not as if I hadn't stocked the fridge before leaving... and a few of them actually know enough cooking they shouldn't put the place on fire!

I guess my rebel days are now officially over... for a while, at least. I can hardly go around spray-painting the mansion. Mariska would certainly have a fit. Of course, neither Redemption Island nor the manor really needs the beautification of wall and street art. Considering I'm the architect for the entire island, I could just add more plants or sculptures whenever I want to.


At least Mariska is very happy to see me again, after the fire is taken care off.


After a good night's sleep, Sunday morning dawns... with the six of us painting together again. But we're only waiting really. Because there will be a party today! The very first party at our own private party place.


Next time maybe I shouldn't invite the entire island over though... Most of them just stayed outside... and it took me four hours to even get the first cake ready! Even Majora came over for the event! Still, both of our birthday boys managed to get caked.



First young Benjamin...



Then Fluffs... I think that must be a doll-thing, though... I've never seen Lucky pull the through the counter thing. Oh well. We now have no more teens in the house. It will take some getting used to, not having to take care every time I sit down somewhere.

Now that both of her boys are grown up, Mariska really wants them to get married. I'm sure they'll be happy to comply.

It's odd... I just realized I'll see these two boys that I have helped raise grow up into life stages that are beyond my own. Still, I'm not sorry I'm back to my eternal youthful self again.


And it seems Grim has forgiven me for my previous faux pas. According to him, he never even thought about breaking our friendship over it. I'm sure glad to hear it.

[Swirl-Girl]

Grim! Is he wear a flower pot? That's what that hat looks like to me.
Great updates!

[RainBeau]

Yes, please don't spray paint your lovely mansion, Gabriel. Hahaha You just can't leave those Sims alone for a minute, they start burning the house down!

[yruvian]

Several months ago, my hard drive went down and didn't want to start up again. Gabriel's story was on a different disk than my Windows (as well as the rest of my data), so I didn't think it would be much of a problem. I just had to install windows to a different partition of that (larger) drive. There were two partitions which were just about empty and both were big enough for windows... but the install didn't recognize either partition as a possible boot-partition. In the end, the only way to get the thing working again... was by formatting the entire drive.

Once my computer finally started up,  with no more old partitions, but a working windows, I understood the sheer amount of data that I had lost. It wasn't just my Sims-data, of course, but I lost everything: the family, the screenshots, the CC/mods I was using, as well as the story I had been readying for posting.

I know I shouldn't just have left without posting, but, as always, my feelings in the matter influenced my health... making me even more reluctant to do anything at all (starting with getting up in the morning). Sims 3 was extremely low on my list of things that needed to be done, especially after losing Gabriel's Journey. (I had been starting to put down ideas for the follow-up as well at the time, and that too, had been lost.)

A short summary of what should have happened at the end of Journey:
After a little time back at the mansion, Gabriel went back to university to get a second degree. Fluffs went along to leave the couples at the mansion to their romances. (I think in between another one of the boys' got married, but I'm not really sure any more. It was either that or Ben's girl just moved in with them) Both of them got their degrees (in art I think) and came back. Fluffs died because he was overly confident of Gabe's friendship with Grim... which left Gabriel feeling guilty. Still, the doll's death finished the challenge, as Gabriel could now build a cemetery.

Gabriel was welcomed back into Mother's heaven and left the island in the capable hands of Mariska and her family of Peels... Grim forgave Fluffs and returned him after the archangel was back home (yes, I got him back from the death). Mariska and family never became aware of the true story of Gabriel's background, though he had been meaning to explain everything to her. I was going to use a youth potion on my favourite witch, but my hardware decided otherwise.

[Pam]

I'm moving this to the Completed Stories board.