LilyShadowWriter
"My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations."
A Differences in the Family Tree Challenge Story
Generation One: Aubrey Winters
Generation Two: Reed Winters
Generation Three: Tamara Winters
Generation Four: James Winters
Generation Five: Joanne Winters
Specials (Generation 5 Side Story)
Augustus & Gemma I
Augustus & Gemma II
Augustus & Gemma III
So, What Are We Now? (Pt. 1) / Alt: Tumblr Chrono
So, What Are We Now? (Pt. 2) / Alt: Tumblr Chrono
Augustus & Gemma IV (Pt. 1) / Alt: Tumblr Chrono
Augustus & Gemma IV (Pt. 2) / Alt: Tumblr Chrono
Latest Update: Chapter 5.21: In My Arms (Pt. 2 of 2) - Posted 4/9/21
Working On: Augustus & Gemma V - (Writing Stage)
Contestant #5: Enrique Román Díaz
By @lilyshadowwriter
LOOK AT THEM!!!!!! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!!!!!! THEY’RE SO CUTE- I LOVE THIS! NOW I JUST HAVE TO ROOT HIM ON! GO ENRIQUE, GO! Hehe. Can you tell I don’t often enter BCs, so I’m pretty dang excited? Because I don’t often enter BCs and I’m pretty dang excited! ♥
Enrique Román Díaz for @legendofsim’s Paradise BC
IT WAS MUCH MORE CHALLENGING THAN I ANTICIPATED TO MAKE A SIM WITHOUT USING ANY CC SLIDERS, BUT HERE WE ARE! I LOVE HIM. Now, without further ado because I’m already one of the last to submit their sim (eep!), here’s more about Enrique:
Age: 25
Traits: Loves To Swim, Heavy Sleeper, Nurturing, Loves the Heat, SailorFavorites: Green, Ceviche, and Island Music
Personality: Responsible, a bit serious at first glance, but quick to warm and friendly. Loves to laugh and lives in the moment. Optimistic, but somewhat wary. You never know what life may next have in store for you.
Bio: Enrique was born to parents who loved one another with a love that most only hear about in fairy tales. No matter what the family endured—including a hurricane that wiped out their home and had them moving from the Dominican Republic to Paradise Isles when he was only 7 years old—his parents’ love and optimistic outlook on life carried them forward to brighter days.
It seemed that nothing could shake them, until one stifling summer afternoon when Enrique was 15 years old and his father collapsed, never waking again. A fatal heart attack that no one saw coming, especially not his mother, whose plans for the future were inextricably woven with the man she loved more than life itself. Shattered, his mother withdrew deeply into a darkness she could not rouse herself from, and it fell to Enrique, the eldest sibling to two younger siblings, to look after them all.
Enrique had quite a reputation in high school for being utterly lazy, constantly sleeping through classes and scraping C’s by the skin of his teeth, but in truth he was always tired because he picked up a cleaning job at the local luxury resort, wiping sticky cocktail spills off tables until well into the night to make enough for the family to get by.
After graduating, he put all his focus into supporting them, even picking up a second job lifeguarding to make ends meet. Slowly though, in little steps and with lots of encouragement, Enrique’s mother gradually improved, to the point where she was able to work again, and Enrique was able to take more time to focus on himself and what he wants out of life.
Perhaps needless to say, he isn’t sure. Learning to be a bit selfish has been harder than he anticipated, and though he’s spent many hours on the beach or sailing on his own at sea, all this time for introspection hasn’t brought him any closer to an answer. He likes lifeguarding well enough, but despite knowing he doesn’t want to do this for the rest of his life, he’s unsure what he’d rather pursue.
As for romance, Enrique has dated some, but no one has ever stuck. Part of him feels like maybe he’s spoiled and he’s looking for a love like the love his parents had for each other. Another part of him feels, however, that maybe he’s afraid….
He’s seen firsthand what love can do to a person when it’s lost, but maybe…with the right person…he could take the risk.
I really hope you like him and thank you so much for letting me participate and for being so patient!!!! I’m excited to see where Kennedy’s story will go and how all these awesome contestants will cross her future path :)
By titling this post as such, I am WILLING IT INTO EXISTENCE.
No, really though, lol, bit of a hiatus here because I’ll be out of town for the first two weeks of June, so I won’t be posting or chatting much during that time. I may scroll through Tumblr on my phone here and there to try and stay updated, but will probably fall behind due to limited time. No worries! I’ll catch up, and hopefully start posting again, when I return ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
♥ LilyShadowWriter
🌹🌹🌹
Generation 5 Special: Augustus & Gemma V*
Gemma peered into the aisle again, only to see that Ashton had vanished. She blinked, nonplussed, but then found him by the cash register, paying for his books.
“Thank you! Have a nice day!” the cashier stated cheerfully.
“Oh. Thank you—to you as well,” Ashton replied. He took his bag, and then walked out the door, leaving as swiftly as he’d arrived.
Well….
So much for that.
You know, these WIP roses are pretty interesting actually. I go through a stupid high number of drafts before I get to the finished product, and I recently more or less finalized the above scene.
Now, the original draft, of course, is what you see above. But the final?
Gemma peered into the aisle again, only to find that Ashton had vanished. She blinked, nonplussed, but then found him by the cash register, paying for his books. Even if the shop had been crowded, she’d have spotted him, his impeccable posture setting him apart. Broad shoulders back, spine straight and tall, his head level—always looking ahead. She remembered coaxing those rigid lines to soften, remembered his tentative touch and inquiring eyes: Is this okay? He’d treated her like someone he cared about, and that had scared her more than she’d ever wanted to admit.
Of all the trysts she’d ever had, she didn’t think she’d ever slept with anyone who had any real crush on her—only an attraction and a mutual interest in hooking up. She wondered, sometimes, if Ashton had been an exception. If maybe he’d liked her, or at least thought that he did. He’d eyed her for weeks before she spoke to him. Picked him up and after, she never spoke to him again. Too much, she’d thought then. Not enough, she’d realized later. And now? Was there still a whisper of a chance? A shred of possibility worth the omnipresent risk, if only she’d—
“Thank you! Have a nice day!” the cashier cheerfully chirped.
“Oh. Thank you. You as well,” Ashton replied. He picked up his bag and walked out the door, leaving as swiftly as he’d arrived.
Well.
So much for that.
INTERESTING, RIGHT? ….okay, maybe only to me, lol. I always start out with the dialogue, I think. The rest gets filled in later. Anyway, this is why my chapters go from an estimated 8-10k to a whopping 15-20k! FUNNNNNNNNN. *perishes*
🌺
Generation 5 Special: Augustus and Gemma V*
“IF you’re right—and I’m not saying you are—but IF you’re right and I never…never completely got over him, then…wouldn’t that be a reason to talk to him? To, I don’t know, finally work that out and…move on?”
🌹🥰
Generation 5 Special: Augustus and Gemma V*
“Relájate,” he murmured. Relax. Augustus opened his eyes, and Isaac tilted his head, an amused smile curving his lips. “It’s only me.”
🌹🌹🌹 I hope this helps with the writers block.
Generation 5 Special: Augustus and Gemma V*
“I have three other roommates, but I haven’t met them yet.”
“Really?” Augustus asked in surprise. “They didn’t greet you when you moved in?”
Isaac shook his head. “I think I might have heard one of them come home in the middle of the night, but I never saw them and by the morning, they were gone.”
“Ghost roommates,” Augustus solemnly proclaimed.
The brunet looked at him as if bemused, and then a playful smirk began to curve the corner of his lips. “There’s dirty dishes in the sink, but you didn’t leave them there.”
Augustus bit his lower lip, barely managing to suppress a smile of his own. “The food’s gone, but you didn’t eat it.”
“An alarm clock sounds, but no one wakes. No one ever wakes.”
A laugh bubbled up in the raven-haired young man’s throat, but he kept it at bay as he added, “You think you see someone sitting on the couch. You say ‘good morning’ to a stack of dirty laundry. There’s a single sneaker sitting in the hall.”
Isaac pressed his knuckles against his mouth. “Where’s the other?”
“In your room. Sitting on your laptop. A hamster pops out of it.”
“A hamster?”
Augustus met his eyes. “It isn’t yours.”
Isaac dissolved, doubling over in a fit of riotous laughter that had several curious students glancing their way in alarm. Augustus barely noticed, caught up only in his own laughter, and the ache in his cheeks.
🌹🌹🌹
Generation 5 Special: Augustus and Gemma V*
Augustus smiled, and Patrick rushed up to hug him, throwing his arms around him and burying his face in his shoulder. “I m-missed you so much.”
“Yes, anyway, don’t mind me! I will simply be upstairs in my room, making no noise and pretending I do not exist!” Gemma cheerily called out.
🌹🌹🌹
Generation 5 Special: Augustus & Gemma V*
Gemma peered into the aisle again, only to see that Ashton had vanished. She blinked, nonplussed, but then found him by the cash register, paying for his books.
“Thank you! Have a nice day!” the cashier stated cheerfully.
“Oh. Thank you—to you as well,” Ashton replied. He took his bag, and then walked out the door, leaving as swiftly as he’d arrived.
Well….
So much for that.
🌹👀
Generation 5 Special: Augustus and Gemma V*
“It’s more that…I feel…a lot…toward you, but I don’t know if what I’m feeling is love.”
🌹🌹🌹
Generation 5 Special: Augustus & Gemma V*
“You’re crying,” Isaac noted softly.
“Oh.”
“Don’t,” he continued, offering a small, wane smile. “I’m really not worth the tears.”
The benefit of a repost from another platform is that it’s only been a couple days and everything is complete, so that means Pt. 2 is already all queued up to post! As always though, you can also find this chapter HERE in full on WordPress, though I haven’t yet updated those posts with the newer, touched-up photos I’ve been using here…not sure if I can/will. We’ll see! Anyway….
If you’d prefer not to see these posts, they will be tagged as So What Are We Now? (Pt.2), so you can add that tag to your block list. They will begin posting tomorrow!
Trigger/Content Warnings for this part only include some strong language I believe…didn’t catch anything else, but let me know if you feel otherwise and I’ll change this accordingly.
Once again whether you’re reading this for the first time or revisiting, I hope you’ll enjoy the culmination to this flashback story.
Thank you for being here and for supporting Different Winters! ♥
Phew, okay! Now that was the end of the “So, What Are We Now?” flashback story. I have also finally updated the pictures on WordPress to include the touched-up ones here, so both places are the same!
If you’re new though, you may be really confused about the fact that the story ended here and on such a heartbreaking note! No worries, the story isn’t actually over. It was merely a flashback in an already ongoing side-story that follows both Augustus and Gemma years later in college.
These are the parts so far, in the order that they’ve been posted:
- Augustus & Gemma I - (Gus meets Patrick here…whoops)
- Augustus & Gemma II - (Gus and Isaac bump into each other here)
- Augustus & Gemma III - (Gus finds out what happened with Isaac all those years ago)
- So, What Are We Now? (Pt.1) and (Pt.2) - (The flashback you just read)
- Augustus & Gemma IV (Pt.1) and (Pt.2)
I am currently writing Augustus & Gemma V, where we will see much more of their story in the present. In the meantime, if you’d like to be caught up you can read the chapters on my WordPress blog (although A&G IV is here on Tumblr too). Otherwise, I may try to post a recap here so you’ll all be caught up regardless ❤️
Thank you for your interest in Different Winters! It truly means a lot!
Hello! I've been your follower for a long time, but I usually just watch screenshots. I do not know English and it is difficult to read for me... But last night I read a few episodes with the help of a translator. Then I followed the links - and read for several hours in a row! I couldn't tear myself away! Your stories are so touching! Sometimes I laughed, sometimes even cried...You are an amazing storyteller! I wish you that inspiration and imagination are always with you! Thank you for sharing your novels on Tumblr :)
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! It means a lot to me that even though English is difficult for you, you still took the time to use a translator to help you read my stories. Wow! I have a lot to learn, but I’m really happy that you love them and that you think I’m an amazing storyteller! You’re really kind! 💕
Thank YOU for reading my stories! I’ll definitely continue sharing them!
So, what are now?
What were we, ever?