House by the River, King's Harbour, Cocovia

[Elostirion]

Clarissa Fontonajo: "You really like him, don't you?"
Román Fontonajo: "Who?"
"Cooke."
"He is... honest, straightforward. And knows his business."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know."
"Then why are you afraid to admit?"
"Because... I don't know... old habits maybe? Affection makes us vulnerable, after all."
"And also human."
"I know..."
"Then stay in touch with him. Become friends."
"I might..."

Román and Clarissa sat in their house by the river in King's Harbour, enjoying a sip of wine, the night after the Great Ball. What an event it had been!

"You think the kids are doing alright?"
"Clarissa... they are hardly kids anymore. Even Isabella has turned 18 a few months ago."
"I know... but still... she..."
"You keep underestimating her. Marja once told me that Isabella is the most dangerous of all our kids."
"Juan is your heir, both in age and skill, and you know it."
"I do... yet they are all our heirs, in one way or another. Joaquin will be a father, soon."
"Half Fontonajo, half Tenotaxclan. I'm curious what the little one will look like."
"We will be grandparents, Clarissa."
"Yes, we will. Soon enough. Like an old couple."
"You know what I like most about not being Admius Legistrad anymore?"
"That you finally have some time for yourself?"
"No, my dear. That you and I have more time."

She took a pause and looked at him.

"Never before have I asked you this, Román. But do you love me? I mean, not in the way that our parents decided to marry us, and we do have our children together and share our lives. No, I mean in the way that you really love me for who I am..."

He took a moment to think. He had never told her before.

"I have loved you since the night we got married. I am glad my father chose you. I could not have been more lucky. I have always loved you, and always will. And we both know that I would be nothing without you. Nothing but a lost soul, sitting lonely in his tower, waiting for the world to keep turning. But you and I, we have already changed the world, and will continue. I love you, Clarissa. More than you could ever imagine or believe."

Silently he took her hand, and so they just sat there and enjoyed the water stream towards the ocean.

"You see those ducks down there?"
"Those are ducks? I mean... they have silver wings? Isn't that rather odd? Not that I knew too much of it?"
"Montoya once wrote me about them. The Royal Society found them to be a special species of ducks. That was not too long ago. Actually it might even have been the last letter I got from him. I don't know if he has ever named the ducks..."
"You miss him..."
"I do..."
"What a curious friendship. The philanthropic scientist and the ruthless tradelord."
"Politicians, both... If only our shipyards were doing their duty..."
"It does take its time. You will find him. Just wait some more."
"I cannot. It has been too long."
"Then Román, we will leave tomorrow."
"But you still wanted to go to -"
"It doesn't matter, Román. We will leave tomorrow morning, we will make sure those ships are built, and then you can go ahead and search for Montoya."

And he looked her in the eyes, and he felt his undying love for her. And so they sat, by the river in King's Harbour.

 

 

(the mentioned people from the Fontonajo family can be found here: Fontonajo family)

(Colourscheme inspired by Bregir's Colonial House)

Edited March 30, 2018 by Elostirion

[Bart]

Nice house, interesting brickwork technique, a mix of 1x2 plates and 1x2 flats I assume?
I like the brown shutters on the inside of the window's gives them a much more open look compared to shutters on the outside, while still showing nothing of an interior.

Looks like ducks to me too :p  

[Capt Wolf]

Great use of grooved tiles to create the brick texture on the wall of the house! (I'll be stealing borrowing that technique at some point.) And those interior shutters also caught my eye. The olive bricks on the wall near the water are also an especially nice touch (I didn't know they came in that color). A masterful little build -- although I guess it really isn't that little, but it feels that way, which is part of its charm -- and the story to go along with it is excellent. I enjoy seeing this side of the characters that populate BoBS.

[Kai NRG]

Great house Elostirion, the texture is wonderful!  I really like your use of light grey pillars as well, and the plants on the little balcony look so nice!

[Professor Thaum]

Nice house rendering with the grooved parts !

 

I like the ducks in the river !

[SilentWolf]

Superb build and exceptional story. I do like the style of the house, though I am not quite sure how you got the green wall to look like that. Look forward to the progression of the story line. 

[Elostirion]

15 hours ago, Bart said:

Nice house, interesting brickwork technique, a mix of 1x2 plates and 1x2 flats I assume?
I like the brown shutters on the inside of the window's gives them a much more open look compared to shutters on the outside, while still showing nothing of an interior.

Looks like ducks to me too :p  

Thank you, and you are right about the wall technique. :-) 

 

15 hours ago, Capt Wolf said:

Great use of grooved tiles to create the brick texture on the wall of the house! (I'll be stealing borrowing that technique at some point.) And those interior shutters also caught my eye. The olive bricks on the wall near the water are also an especially nice touch (I didn't know they came in that color). A masterful little build -- although I guess it really isn't that little, but it feels that way, which is part of its charm -- and the story to go along with it is excellent. I enjoy seeing this side of the characters that populate BoBS.

I saw a similar technique from someone on flickr some months ago, though I couldn't find the MOC anymore. So the general idea is not my invention anway - looking forward to seeing you use it! And I only found out about the existence of the olive green masonry bricks from Gideon's entry to cat C of the "recent" orchid challenge. So I ordered some, and have already used them here.

Thank you for all the nice words. :-))

 

13 hours ago, Kai NRG said:

Great house Elostirion, the texture is wonderful!  I really like your use of light grey pillars as well, and the plants on the little balcony look so nice!

Thank you - glad you like the pillars, I wasn't 100% sure about them but decided to like them in the end.

 

12 hours ago, Professor Thaum said:

Nice house rendering with the grooved parts !

I like the ducks in the river !

Thank you. Building that kind of wall is quite... intense. :-) 

 

5 hours ago, SilentWolf said:

Superb build and exceptional story. I do like the style of the house, though I am not quite sure how you got the green wall to look like that. Look forward to the progression of the story line. 

Thank you, glad you like both build and story.

The basic idea for the wall technique is quite simple: mix 1x2 plates and 1x2 tiles. I can upload some kind of "instruction" if you want to?

[Roadmonkeytj]

I would love to see the instruction ... Always like seeing the way other builders approach things ... The whole scene is great good story to go with it .... 

[Captain Braunsfeld]

I think this build makes you more of "texture king" than "textile king".

I still have not quite figured out how you did these masonry walls - are those loose tiles?

Anyway: fine build and fine love story. 

 

[Captain Genaro]

You did a very nice job here. The story hints at some interesting character development, such as the relationship with Cooke and Roman, that I am eager to see expanded on. The build is very nice, any your use of the plates and tiles, though time consuming, was certainly worth the effort. Details such as the lamp and terrace garden are nice, too. 

[Ayrlego]

As others have mentioned, the texture here is beautiful (and I spy some olive masonary bricks - very nice!) - but the feature that stands out for me is the use of the brick with two studs and cheese sloops attached to the top of the pole pieces. It's simple but very clever - I will no doubt borrow it at some stage. The interior shutters are also a nice touch. Keep up the great work!

[Elostirion]

On 31.3.2018 at 11:30 AM, Roadmonkeytj said:

I would love to see the instruction ... Always like seeing the way other builders approach things ... The whole scene is great good story to go with it .... 

Will try to do a quick how-to next weekend. If you haven't heard back on this from me within the next two weeks, please give me a reminder. :-) 

 

On 31.3.2018 at 3:48 PM, Captain Braunsfeld said:

I think this build makes you more of "texture king" than "textile king".

I still have not quite figured out how you did these masonry walls - are those loose tiles?

Anyway: fine build and fine love story. 

Thank you, "texture king" sounds great. Always looking to improve, and I feel especially wall-texturing can always be done even a slight bit better.

How-to of the wall will follow next weekend.

 

On 2.4.2018 at 4:49 AM, Captain Genaro said:

You did a very nice job here. The story hints at some interesting character development, such as the relationship with Cooke and Roman, that I am eager to see expanded on. The build is very nice, any your use of the plates and tiles, though time consuming, was certainly worth the effort. Details such as the lamp and terrace garden are nice, too. 

Thank you, and happy to see you like them all: story, MOC in general and all the minor details. :-) 

 

On 2.4.2018 at 5:34 AM, Ayrlego said:

As others have mentioned, the texture here is beautiful (and I spy some olive masonary bricks - very nice!) - but the feature that stands out for me is the use of the brick with two studs and cheese sloops attached to the top of the pole pieces. It's simple but very clever - I will no doubt borrow it at some stage. The interior shutters are also a nice touch. Keep up the great work!

The cheese-slope technique is 100% stolen from @Bregir's Ball of King's Harbour; they might look slightly different there, as they are below arches in Bregir's MOC, and carry weight in mine, yet still his idea.

Thanks for all the kind words, will look to not disappoint. Thanks. :-) 

[Spud The Viking]

Superb build, there is so much attention to detail here 

I really like the steps up to the front door. My only issue is the lack of doorknobs