The life and love of Ghada Winchester

BlueDiamondAvatar · 2019-01-29 00:08:31

My mother was not really suited to raising a child alone in the wilderness. I watched as she attempted to use a sharp rock on a flat rock, and collected pine needles from the closest tree. She tried to name me "GG" but to my childish mind that sounded like Ghada. She had not named herself, so I had no family name to fall back on.

The place she had found seemed pretty nice. Three ponds, small desert, lots of green zone. That gave me enough hope to carry on with what would obviously be a difficult life. But once I turned three and started wandering further, I realized the fatal flaw in the place - no reeds for baskets. I decided to swing back by home, to see if she had made any progress in my absence. Instead I found her bones resting next to the kiln she had built.

The bell called me, though more than 3.5 km to the southwest seemed a long way to go. I was good at foraging, I could make it. Maybe i'd have one last child in the bell city, if I walked fast enough.

I made good time through my teens. I would make sharp rocks, build baskets, fill them with food, loose them in the jungle, then keep going, leaving my treasures behind to keep pushing towards the bell that called to me.

I would dodge around jungles, and avoid long shots through tundra. If i hit a desert, i'd go more east-west than north-south. Sensible precautions, which most seasoned travelers would make. Which is probably why I ran into him.

I heard him before I saw him. I could swear I heard someone else munching berries. But it didn't make sense, in the middle of plains. I stopped to collect bananas on the edge between this plain and the jungle, and suddenly there he was. Another person!

He was naked (like me) and carrying a basket with a sharp stone and two bananas. I knew the minute i saw him that I had found a kindred spirit. We exclaimed over finding another person, and I asked, "Are you following the bell, too?" of course he was.

Mark Winchester had an endearing enthusiasm about him, as if he was ending every sentence with an exclamation mark. While still bearing the awkward stilted look of a teenager, I found him charming and handsome. Although it's not like I had many options....

In the spirit of YOLO, I almost immediately asked him to be my Adam. He laughed off the question at the time, but from then on he told people I was his wife.

I soon gave birth to a daughter. The first thing I told her was, "This is your daddy, and we are going to the bell."With Mark at my side, it was much easier to care for my babies and keep moving. Occasionally he would feed me, with burdock or a banana, allowing me to keep moving while I held my baby to my breast.

I tried to name our girl Markette, but the weird transforming power of a child's ears made her name Markese.

Like any long distance traveler, I eventually ran into a mosquito. Forced to drop my child, I ducked into an adjacent patch of tundra. That was the moment we really became a family. My instant fear of dropping my child eased because I knew her father was there with a banana for her. As Markese begged her daddy to feed mommy, as I calmly told them I was fine. He fed us both.

As our family grew, the difficulty of staying together as we walked increased. I lost and then found Mark and Markese a few times. At some point I must have doubled back to find them for too long. From then on I found their banana peel remnants in the plains. My daughter Winnie knew her father for too short a time, but my son Winchester never got to meet him. But the story kept us going. We are going to the bell, and there we will find the rest of our family. We will all make it there, safe and sound.

The last child I told this story to was Gigi. I gave her the name my mother had wanted for me. I was sure she would have a good life. Winchester and I had already passed a horsecart, and signs of a large civilization. The arrow would move from pointing straight south to southwest at the slightest change in our direction. Why is the last kilometer always so long?

But I was struggling to keep us fed, now that there were fewer banana trees and burdocks to harvest. As we reached the town, my hair turned gray. I frantically searched for food to give Gigi, but must have been gray longer than I realized. I lost my last baby at the foot of the bell. Barely ten tiles away from the largest --- well, only! -- berry patch my poor eyes had ever seen.

But soon after, I spotted a welcome sight. Markese! She was my spitting image, though she was already decked out with a backpack, more luxury than i'd ever seen.

in this moment of reunion Winchester decided to give me the bad news. He was pretty sure he'd spotted his dad's body in one of the jungles we'd passed through on our way here. I mourned my lost Mark, my lost Winnie, my dead Gigi. But took comfort in knowing I had brought two of my children to a better life than I would ever have had.

I started looking around, seeing what jobs needed to be down. I looked about for ingredients for pie, but then decided I should go check the bell one more time, to see if Winnie had made it after all.

And there he was! The same naked dope, carrying his basket of bananas. I was so happy and joyous to see my dear Mark. His hair wasn't even gray - I hadn't realized what a cougar I had been chasing after him.

We happily milled around town. Taking in the sights and eating radical new foods like stew and pork tacos. Mark assured me he still preferred bananas. I wasn't surprised.

Then another delight - Markese had a baby girl, who had been named by another family. Makaio took it in stride that her grandparents were a pair of low-tech bumpkins from the sticks. She made sure we knew - there were no sheep left in that big spacious pen. Mark and I split up to search for the necessary tools.

When we met again in the bakery, we were both decked out in the leftover clothes of our neighbors. Mark had a wolf hat, and a rabbit fur shawl and I had an apron and chef's bonnet. We both laughed at our fancy duds, and remembered that the only thing our old Eve camps had... was rope! The irony was not lost, just the rope. I made sure Makaio had the best loot from my search - a fine backpack of her own. And then ran off to eat at the berry patch one last time.

I didn't quite make it.

That's the end of Ghada's story, but not the end of the family. Winchester - who was so sure Mark had died of yellow fever, died to a boar attack years before Mark returned. Winnie - who had gotten lost along the way, found her own "Adam" and led her children to his hometown. Markese and her kids did fine in our bell city - until the servers switched again, and the babies stopped being born.
http://lineage.onehouronelife.com/serve … id=3140467

And Mark.. he got to play with a radio! Pretty good for a son-of-an-Eve.
http://lineage.onehouronelife.com/serve … id=3140535

MultiLife · 2019-01-29 20:40:05

Aw. You should've let your husband name your kids so they'd have gotten his surname to carry on!

It wasn't Sand Town you ended up in right? They don't have a radio there afaik, but I was ringing Sand Town bell like crazy around the time you were alive. Rung the bell thrice but I think I was on server 2 when everyone was dropped on server 1.

You naming your girl Markette reminds me of myself in one life; I asked my 'husband' to name my daughter Bernadette as his name was Bernard. Hehe!

I wish I get to be an Adam again, I wasn't yours, but I have a story of an Adam life; https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=4931
It makes a big difference in the game and how an early game family functions. I enjoyed having both 'parents' around to raise kids while sharing the knowledge of nearby biomes and locations. Both parents were useful and involved and the family grew in a good pace (unlike with twin Eves who are the closest to a 'parenting game' we can get).

Would be cool if people made trails when they run so it'd be easier to find each other. Or then the whole whistle/shout/blow into a hollow horn noisemaker so you can regroup. Or the best of all... a caravan for multiple people!

BlueDiamondAvatar · 2019-01-29 23:44:28

This was on server 15, around the time that Jason had everyone automatically logging in to that server. The town had two bells, on either side of a sheep pen, and some radios set up between the bells.

Yes, I hope Jason manages to add something that makes it easier for people to travel together, one way or another.

I've had some other marriages in game, and they've always been fun and a good thing for the kids. But the incest aspect just makes it weird... I guess this is just one more reason to love bell towns.

antking:]# · 2019-01-30 02:55:25

as life goes on, so does happiness!
As shown here.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-01-29 00:08:31

The life and love of Ghada Winchester

#2 2019-01-29 20:40:05

Re: The life and love of Ghada Winchester

#3 2019-01-29 23:44:28

Re: The life and love of Ghada Winchester

#4 2019-01-30 02:55:25

Re: The life and love of Ghada Winchester

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