Worse than the rocking of the ship is the back and forth between two personalities. Early on Hank sometimes had fled below decks to seek cover from the sea gulls. Other times he had fed them with crumbs, allowing them to sit on his arm.
“A bit bipolar, that man”, the sea gulls would screech at each other. “Well, what do you expect from bipeds?”
By now they were too far away from any coast for sea gulls. Hank doesn’t have to live with that danger anymore - but he isn’t he only sailor with a phobia.
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Rika: “So much for my watch – your turn now, Connor!”
Hank: “You know, you don’t have to do that! I can see you’re dominantly Connor right now, not Ishmael. And Connor doesn’t particularly like heights…”
Connor: “Nah, it’s alright. Yes, I am scared of heights, but everyone here is afraid. If not of tangible things, then of concepts like sinking or being stuck here and never seeing their families again. Or of raising a clan of Reed children in an Omiscan ruin city.”
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Rika: “That’s a pretty specific fear.”
Connor: “I needed to focus on something really revulsive to override my vertigo.”
Hank: “Did it work?”
Connor: “Nope. Gavin and me have long become friends. By now I’d gladly lend a hand in the child raising, should it come to this.”
Starting a legacy in Selvadorada, hidden from the world… making children that would have to live with their parents’ wistful looks, whenever they were missing those children they had left behind in Detroit two hundred years in the future… It was a likely outcome of this trip. What if it has happened already? What if in November 2050 a bunch of descendants would contact the DPD, telling them: “Hey, we’re the kids of a bunch of sailors that should have drowned, but then they didn’t, and also they were kinda possessed by your co-workers when they founded our line.”?
Connor: “Yes… and no. The stupid coin escaped me again!”
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Connor: “I’m the second most advanced A.I. on the planet, but I always preferred doing things with my hands over cerebral exercise. Only now I cannot even perform my long practiced coin tricks anymore…”
Hank: “Do you want to know what I’m thinking of? That this advanced A.I. never had a childhood! Even if we played together in the sandcastle, it wouldn’t be the same as having lived through that lifestage. But that borrowed body of yours is human. It should have muscle memory for…”
Connor: “Huh? What are you talking about?”
Hank: “Let me show you!“
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*clap, clap*
“A sailor went to sea, sea, sea / To see what they could see, see, see But all that they could see, see, see / Was the bottom of the deep blue sea”
“Haha!”
It really is different. Had Hank played that game with Connor in Detroit, they’d both gotten embarrassed. But in Ishmael’s body the clapping game feels like something the young man has really played at some time in his life. Connor doesn’t just go through the motions, he gets in inkling of how it is to reminiscence about childhood days. Circumstances aside, this is a precious gift.
He asks for a hammer, then he climbs up the mast and drives a nail right through the metal. Having nailed the coin to the mast in this way, the man returns to the deck.
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“This coin“, Hank announces, “shall be the prize for the one who first spots us the whales we are after!”
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“Haha, you’re sure, Hank? That’s just a quarter dollar!”
“Oh, is it? I have no idea what that coin looks like. It’s symbolic anyway.”
“For my part”, Daniel chimes in, “it looks flattened. Like when you insert a cent into one of those machines in a tourist trap, that roll it flat and print a local landmark on it.”
Both men’s assertions make sense to their Captain. Gavin’s years long rivalry with Connor nudges him to see that one’s signature quarter dollar in the coin that is now fastened to the mast. Daniel remembers cherished family vacations, where money gets translated into meaningful memories.
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Sigstein raises his head. “This is weird! I see a gift card from my local music shop pinned to the mast…” When the crew shoots him questioning looks, the spellcaster follows up: “What are you gaping at me like this? I’m a sadistic psychopath, not greedy!”
“Well, I see my credit card, only in a premium color”, Chris admits, and Rika agrees that she sees a prepaid debit card. It’s only natural for people abducted from their home time to see digital money. Only Connor’s voice is sour, when it is his turn to tell what he sees so prominently displayed above all their heads: “I see whatever was mentioned by the rest of you last. Sometimes being a people person can be a curse!”
“In this case”, Tina says, “let me raise you one solid doubloon! Pirate gold!”
“Is that what you see? Ey, I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s what we all should agree on seeing!”
There is always water to pump out of even a good ship’s belly and something to repair, be it sails, ropes or clothes. Those long hours spent with monotonous tasks bring with them the risk of losing oneself in the borrowed identities, therefore the officers try not to draw on those people’s experience too much. Instead they hone their real life skills. Connor can coach the others in anything related to woodworking, while Gavin can pass down expertise in needlework of all kinds.
“When we’re back home, you can add Home Ec to your teaching portofolio”, he tells his husband.
“I could have done so before already, the cooking and gardening part, at least. But now I have a cool story to add to the needlework tasks. When I tell them that even the pirates of old used to sew the buttons back to their shirts, my students won’t cringe at the very idea anymore.”
“Your students – or you?”
“If I remember correctly, I have the right to remain silent to not incriminate myself, haha!”
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Rika approaches the others. After a shift in the crow’s nest she is ready to flex her dancing moves. Finding all her friends appear occupied dampens her mood considerably. And so her response to Daniel’s “Maybe later, Rika. We’re still busy making sure this rat trap won’t fall apart.” is “A rat trap was the Adeline! Hank will see us home safely with the Diamond!“
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“What did you just call the Adeline?!”
Rika instantly realizes that she has crossed a line. The old steamboat enjoys some fame as cruise ship and swimming wedding chapel. An important investigation had taken place on it, Daniel and Gavin had their first relationship crisis there (during said investigation) and later got married on the Adeline.
I love the Sims 4 steamboat a lot and was very happy when I found several recreations of it in the gallery. The current owner is distantly related to the Reeds.
But instead of apologizing now, Rika pushes further: “I call her a rat trap and a floating coffin, and I’ll do it to your face, too! The old girl was ancient when she smuggled fugitive androids to Canada and didn’t get any younger since then!”
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“Is that all you guys ever talk about? The android revolution and the Adeline?” Sigstein moans. “’cause if that persists, next we can talk about mutiny!”
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“Shut your trap, Discount-Saruman!” Chris shouts. “Rika and the Reeds trash talk from passion - YOU talk and act from fear!”
“Big deal. You all are no less afraid than I am!”
“Then do something about it! If our conversation topics annoy you so much, then distract us for a bit. And that’s an order, auxiliary officer!”
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It’s been a while since Siggy has picked up his guitar. He dimly remembers a brief time when he has played for tips, but nowadays he pulls the instrument out in private only. What had started as a lark, has turned into a deeply private pastime. Of course there is always an exception to make for mocking his victims…
“Well, let’s see…”
“Oh, no! No way! If I hear “Ten little fishies”, you’re going home in a trash bag!”
Sigstein opens his mouth to intone exactly that song. However, the words come out as:
♪♫The ribs and terrors in the whale, Arched over me a dismal gloom, ♪♫ ♪♫While all God’s sun-lit waves rolled by, And left me deepening down to doom. ♪♫
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“That’s not what I had in mind!”
The Reeds explode into laughter. “Your mind’s full of garbage, Sigstein, that’s the problem!”
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“Oh, no, Gavin, look what you’ve done! You made the evil spellcaster sad…”
My sailors sewing is another motive I won't tire of taking screenies of when I actually play this ship in a different save.
After all, what does it matter that a bunch of lowly municipal cops is making fun of him or that the lyrics come out wrong? Playing the instrument makes Sigstein happy and he gets the definite feeling that someone has listened with interest. His host, probably.
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At one point in his life Sigstein has craved praise. But when he had again and again failed to win some, he had stopped and instead focused on rising over everyone else. For a moment, however, the old desire is back. And what better way to rile up the cops than making their hosts cheer Sigstein? Maybe he can even force the bodies to clap, with Gavin’s, Tina’s and Chris’ minds being fully awake, yet unable to do something about it? Yay, that would be neat!
And so Sigstein plays on, for himself and for their hosts:
♪♫I saw the opening maw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there; ♪♫ ♪♫Which none but they that feel can tell — Oh, I was plunging to despair. ♪♫
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“Hey, did you guys here that just now? Sounds as if this song is about your Captain!”
Daniel and Chris jump up from their seats! Gavin and Tina quickly follow.
“Did you just insult Hank?!”
“Nope. I insulted Hank six years ago. Today I think I ridiculed him.”
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About five seconds later Sigstein is perfectly integrated into the team. At least if “integrated” works as a synonym for “buried beneath”.
Rika tries to pull Daniel away from the spellcaster whom he is kicking repeatedly. Chris pulls at Daniel with the intent to free him from Rika’s grasp – while also kicking Sigstein. It is unclear what Gavin and Tina are arguing about – probably who gets to eat Sigstein (although a vampire and werewolf are perfectly able to share a meal, with one wanting the blood and the other the meat).
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In the crow’s nest Connor turns his head towards the commotion. For a while he watches emotionless. It’s just his co-workers acting immature, nothing to worry about. In fact, the police captain feels reminded at his early days at the DPD.
What eventually convinces Connor to inform Hank about the brawl is the fact that his friends do not beat up Sigstein, with his track record of having utterly humiliated them, but the body of an innocent seaman who has lived two hundred years ago.
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“Okay, that’s enough! It’s detention for everyone! What did you even think, Sigstein, provoking the other kids… your shipmates, I mean, like that? Five against one, really? You used to be more clever!”
“Yeah, my apologies, that’s entirely on me. I forgot to check my spell repertoire. The idea was to defend myself with basic Deliriate and Despairio and incantations. But turned out my host is restricted to fire spells. Can’t cast those on a ship!”
The hair on Hank’s neck rises. Has Sigstein just casually solved the mystery how the “Diamond” had found her end? Maybe this brawl has happened in the past, only for different reasons, and Sigstein’s host had resorted to fire magic, spelling doom for them all.
And also… has Sigstein just admitted that he had known his host to be a spellcaster, too, but not disclosed that detail to the team?!
In the crow’s nest Connor is whistling. He hardly processes what melody exactly, whether it’s something he remembers from Detroit or that he is reading from his host’s brain. Maybe a mix of both. The lookout keeps a close watch on the ocean. Connor isn’t expecting anything, when suddenly his vigilance pays off:
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„Maaaaaan overboaaaaaaard!“
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Only it isn’t a man. It’s a kid no older than Daniel’s students back home, as the sailors realize after having fished her out. Her rescuers’ “Who are you?” prompts heard rendering disappointment.
“Pip”, the girl whispers. “I half and half expected not to get missed, but do you really don’t even remember my name?”
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From the adults there is only silence. Hank gets the strong impression that he should recognize the name. Daniel feels deep down that he should remember. In both cases the shivers running down their spines suggest that this is something pertaining specifically Daniel and Hank, not their unnamed hosts. But the harder they try to pull away the curtain from this particular memory, the more the fragment retreats, until it is too far out of reach to even be real.
What remains is the awareness that the doomed whaling crew, that’s fate they’re replaying here, included at least one child. A child that is – or was – going to drown. The stakes have just gotten raised, no longer are the Detroit cops responsible for their own survival alone anymore, now there is Pip to protect. If she has went overboard in the original timeline, but got rescued by the “visitors” from the 21st century in the modified chain of events, that’s a good sign, right?
Not just Pip needed to get out of the rain, the adults, too, were in dire need of some warmth and comfort. And so everyone retreated to the galley, where Daniel cooked up a thick, filling fishhead stew. It sounded worse than it tasted.
https://abload.de/img/23.10.22_00-33-37rxepw.png However, nerves were still raw, especially for the little castaway.
“When are going to spear that mean ol’ whale!” she yelled at the Captain.
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Hank then (autonomously) went to bed and while the emptied bowls were spoiling, Gavin helped Pip with homework…
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…only to get corrected by his husband immediately. Looks like Gavin knows everything a third grader knows, but has no idea how to communicate that to said third grader, let alone how to keep her interested. Teaching seems to be a real job, after all, who’d have thought!
