a short break from reality, #2: get lost

March 2088. Liza Hathe is 19, Robbie McCullough is 18.

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It was easy for Robbie and Liza to get used to the exciting new sights and tastes of the jungle.

But it took a little more effort for them to get used to their new crew. This is a group with strong and awkward personalities.  

Marcelo is 28. He’s worked with Gael before on these kinds of expeditions and is unofficially second in command here. He lives in Sierra Nova with his girlfriend, Inara. He has a very well-rounded skill set that benefits the team, including knowledge of international law and helps get their antiquities through customs without trouble.

Kofi is 23. He is a master’s student of fine arts at Sierra Nova University with an interest in antiquities. He is super smart and creative, with a talent for reading ancient hieroglyphics.

Isadora is 26. You can call her Izzy, but if you call her Dora the Explorer, she will kick your ass. She was born in Selvadorada, but her parents moved to Del Sol Valley when she was ten. She is smart, brave, and her knowledge of local culture comes in handy for the team.

As Gael told them before, Liza and Robbie are on the bottom rung of this ladder. Everyone is their superior.




With few other skills on his resume besides his professed strength and bravery, Robbie gets a shot at being the group’s first machete man.

So he begins hacking at the thick web of vines. It all seems suddenly very serious, and his bravery and strength are flimsy. But Robbie does as he’s told, which his boss considered one of his few redeeming qualities. Robbie hacks all the way through the first gate, although he’s not handy or strong enough, and he loses the machete. He also falls face-first into a pit of mud. But, at least he didn’t die. So far.


Meanwhile, the others are instructed to set up an easy dig to occupy themselves. Kofi and Liza strike up a fascinating conversation about native insect life, which their digging partners don’t really appreciate.


Another gate, another lost machete. “Machetes are not cheap,” Gael says.

Robbie is demoted from being the group’s machete man.



Meanwhile, Liza is demoted from her digging responsibilities and instead takes orders like, “Hey, new girl, hold this umbrella. Hey, new girl, take a picture of this. Hey, new girl, hold up the flashlight. What? You don’t have the flashlight? Seriously?”

Liza has never loved taking orders, but she’s still high on adventure, so, for once in her life, she does as she’s told.

But it’s too dark to see anymore. They’re all tired, soggy, muddy, cranky, and hungry, so they call it a night and head back to camp.


Gael doesn’t hang out with most of the crew in their downtime, and they all prefer it that way. He finds their youth and gossip irritating, and they find him boring and abrasive. They work together, then go their separate ways. And that’s fine.

Robbie and Liza are both beat. It has rained constantly since they arrived, and they can’t remember the last time they weren’t muddy or perpetually damp. They only have the energy for one small thing before they crash into bed, exhausted, and they figure it should probably be food rather than a shower. Being filthy won’t kill them, probably.

They were told this wasn’t a vacation, and that was the truth!

“You guys need to toughen up,” Izzy says. “But hey, you didn’t do too bad, for your first time and all.”

—

Cleaned up, fed, and rested, they’re back at it again, making their way deeper and deeper into the jungle each time they venture out.

This time, Marcelo has taken Robbie’s position as machete man, which he is not super excited about. It’s one of the riskier jobs on the team, but it’s better to have someone capable on the job than some skinny kid who keeps throwing machetes into the jungle like they’re toy swords.


Back at camp, everyone helps equally with the cooking and cleaning. This is one area Robbie feels at least on par with everyone else. He’s no top chef, by far, but he can make as decent a tuna sandwich as any of them can. And in fact, he’s not bad at cleaning.

There is no television or internet here, although they can use the library’s computers in town. There’s spotty cell coverage at best, but somehow Robbie’s parents always manage to get their calls through to check in. Very often. They’re worried. Robbie is barely an adult. Two weeks ago, he still slept on superhero sheets and drank chocolate milk for breakfast every morning.

“But it’s fine,” he tells them. “There’s been slips, scrapes, tumbles, burns, and bites, but nobody’s dead yet.”

Robbie and Liza haven’t proven themselves as useful as they hoped, but there’s always something to carry, a flashlight to hold, sandwiches to make, a Gatorade to fetch. As long as they do what they’re told and don’t goof off too much, they stay in everyone’s good graces. But they are also aware that they might not be chosen for another expedition if another stronger, smarter, more capable candidate applies next time. If this is a one-time gig, a first taste of adventure, if nothing ever comes of it after that, at least it’ll be an experience to remember. They’ll be a little bit richer and live to tell about it. Hopefully.

—

After weeks spent hacking through the jungle, they finally found the ancient temple that Mr. Espinoza had brought them all here for.

“Whew, boy!” Liza shouts. “Last one in’s a rotten egg!”


She darts to the front of the group and starts up the stairs.

“Liza, no!”


Mr. Espinoza has a certain glare that brings them all to quiet attention like kindergartners who just heard, “One, two, three, eyes on me.”

Even Liza.

“Sorry, listening,” she said.

He gives them all a grave lecture about safety and listening and following orders before they go in. 


Inside the temple, Gael has determined that Kofi would be their best bet at reading the glyphs accurately. He wants to maximize their treasure loot while minimizing injuries. Cold as he may be, Gael has spent much money and effort training these kids. He doesn’t want any of them to die.

A little pep talk and they’re ready to get started.


But Liza and Robbie don’t seem to recognize the gravity of this situation, which is irritating, since they’re not the ones about to stick their bare hands into ancient booby-trapped spider-infested crevices.

Kofi is like, “Can you guys not right now?”





For the record, Kofi needs a raise.


There’s still plenty more to do, but tired and hungry adventurers can make terrible mistakes, so it’s time to call it a night. 

“Hey, Liza.”

“Hey, Kofi. Good job not dying today. That looked really stressful.”

“Yeah, it was,” he says. “I thought I was gonna be a goner when that skeleton hand came out. Somebody must have already triggered the poison dart the last time they were here. Anyway, so, Mr. Espinoza says it’s quitting time for today. We set up camp downstairs. There’s canned soup for dinner if you want.”

“Cool, thanks.”

Robbie and Marcelo are thinking, Hello? What about us?

There is plenty of soup for everyone. After his crew eats and crawls into their tents to pass out from exhaustion, Gael stays up a little later, counting his new fortune.

Perhaps it was a slightly creepy idea to set up camp actually inside the temple, and he wonders if he’s hallucinating when a skeleton approaches.

“Are you here to curse us?”

“Oh, no,” the jovial skeleton says. “As long as you’ve paid your export tax, check made payable to the government of Selvadorada.”

“Of course!” Gael says. “I totally always pay all of my taxes.”

“Good,” the skeleton says. “Then can I tell you a joke?”

Okay.

Fortune acquired.



And good thing, too, because these guys are so done.


Everybody has eaten and washed up. Next, they’ll carefully pack their treasure, fill out their customs paperwork, and head back home. The remaining work will be done from Gael’s archaeology lab in California. But first, they’ll enjoy a well-earned night off.

Liza conveniently forgets to mention that she was raised by a card shark.

“Okay, here’s what we’ll do,” Izzy suggests. “How about girls against boys?”


These are her people, Liza realizes. It’s not just the adventure she enjoyed so much, but these fun, smart, adventurous people who are nerdy and determined and awkward in their own ways. It surprises her. She doesn’t think she’d ever made a friend in her life who wasn’t Robbie, and she certainly never felt even a glimmer of friendship with any of the kids she met in her one semester at Dresden. But she could see herself making actual friends with this crew. 

It’s a shame that she and Robbie made a habit on this adventure of finding all the ways they weren’t the strongest or smartest or fastest or even bravest. Liza aspires to be all of those things, and she can’t imagine what she will do with herself back home, if not this. She thought she would be content to have this small taste of adventure, but now she knows she needs more. Somehow she has to figure out a way to make this happen for them again.


Later that evening, everyone is dressed up to head into town for drinks and dancing at the cantina. But Robbie and Liza are dressed down to stay in. The house will be empty. They can’t wait.

“Hey, Liza,” Kofi says, seeking her out like a little lost puppy. Not that he particularly dislikes Robbie, he just doesn’t really think much about Robbie at all.

But it looks like Liza does.

Kofi feels a little silly. It was clear they knew each other when they first arrived on the team, but now it also seems clear that they are a couple. Fair enough, maybe. Gael did mention needing to separate the two of them as much as possible, knowing how much their silly antics rile each other up.

“Oh, I guess you guys probably want to hang out here.”

“Yeah,” Liza says. “These pajamas are so cozy. I can’t wait to just hang out and lay around and do nothing.”

“Well, maybe not nothing,” Robbie adds.

Giggles.

—

I don’t have an airport set built, or the appropriate poses. But if I did, I might shoot a scene of Robbie and Liza having to pull heavy crates of antiquities through customs, sweating buckets because they’re sure somebody botched the paperwork and they’re about to be arrested, lol!

But you know, TS4 sims teleport and I just can’t even right now.

If you want to imagine that happened in the story, please do!

—

Gael’s archaeology lab in Del Sol Valley.

Marcelo and Izzy will have further work to do here. They are both skilled in authenticating artifacts.


Although the remaining three won’t be called in to work in the lab, they gather here to collect their paychecks for their six weeks of grueling work in the jungle.

Robbie and Liza are free to do as they please now, but Kofi has a semester of grad school to attend at Sierra Nova.

“You know, you really didn’t need to drop out,” Kofi says to Liza. “SNU allows work experience leave and Gael will sign your documents.”

“Oh,” Liza says. Yes. SNU was the school her mother wished she’d gone to in the first place. That’s very poetic.

Oh, well.

Liza and Robbie are now both certified drop-outs, but they’re also both $500 richer!



They return to their decrepit but cozy little apartment, awaiting Gael’s next call. Hopefully. Maybe. Until then, they’ll pick up some random work somewhere, sometime. But first, they’re just going to lay in this bed and sleep for two weeks straight.

It’s going to be glorious.

—

outtakes: Isadora gets ghosted

gameplay tidbit: I make my sims pay an export tax (to that skeleton, lol!) for a permit to raid these temples and take home treasures. Since the big loot treasure is worth about $10k, and the smaller dig artifacts add up quickly on top of that. Also, it just seems wrong to fly to another country, pillage their ancient temples, and take the treasure back home, you know?