Chapter 63: They Noticed

Hawk lures Alice into the hot tub.

Much later, Leona also enjoys the hot tub.

That's Jazz's grave in the back... not Leona's. Perhaps someday someone will find Leona's urn left sitting around for junk in the basement, and give it a proper grave. Someday.

Meanwhile, Nol discovers she's not the first Archer to have an obsession with books. This makes her feel a little better.

Zephram still has these episodes of terror. Poor guy. He is not safe in his own home.

Hawk gets homework help from Nol. In return, he listens to her latest stories, and tells her when her word choice is off.

Z gets old. But does he even notice?

Paz left some pregnancy books out for Nol to read. Education is the best way to prevent early pregnancy.

Nom nom nom.

The current Archers are treated to all variety of foods, since Zephram has exhausted his mind with inventions like The Contained Tornado and now spends much of his time cooking. And cooking. And cooking.

"Nol," Kimberly says over their goopy carbonara and crepes, "doesn't it bother you that we're basically guinea pigs?"

"Are you still on about that?" Nol sighs.

Sunflower.

Paz will be old in a few days. So, she's relieved to see Zephram's aging has not changed his mental state.

As much as it pains her to leave her work for future generations to complete, perhaps Paz will get her things in order at the science center and retire soon. She knows what comes next.

Hawk becomes a man.

Kimberly becomes a woman.

Nol does too... but her life doesn't change much. She's already making steady money through a series of romance novels, and now that she's graduated from high school, every day will simply be Saturday - stuck on the computer, obsessing, revising, scrapping, recycling.

Kimberly corners her boyfriend, Taylor, about their plans for the future. Her wedding ring had better be very sparkly.

In the background, Dalma returns from the bookstore with Nol's latest book.

Taylor promises to spare no expense. And so, Kimberly marries and moves in with him.

Hawk gets a job at the science center. Paz is thrilled.

She's also thrilled to hear Kimberly has chosen the exact same field, though is sad to have to hear it from Hawk.

Not long after getting his job, Hawk moves in with his girlfriend, Alice.

Nol wakes up one morning and realizes she is alone in her bedroom. Her brother and sister have left the nest, while she has remained here.

Noticing his niece's sudden depression, Zephram tries to cheer her up by praising her books.

"It's all luck, Uncle Z. Sometimes you get a best seller and sometimes it's just a hit."

Nol meets Pablo for a date in the park.

Nol is taking things slower than her siblings, but wedding bells still sound like a beautiful future.

"I've joined the crime syndicate," Pablo confesses. "But before you say anything, just let me explain. I'm doing this for all the right reasons. I want to make sure no one gets hurt when they do their nightly raids. They've just been getting too out of hand, with all the Sunder people running things. Rashaan is constantly escaping jail. My family has a long history of influencing people, Nol, but they're never on the street where it actually matters. If that makes sense. I want to make a difference while I'm here, and I won't get that if I'm balancing accounts in the business office or taking orders at a restaurant."

Pablo has a long history of failing at everything he does. Everything that wasn't courting his girlfriend.

She shakes her head. "Sometimes I think you should be the writer, you goof."

Nol returns home for another week of writing and reading. But she can't help worrying about Pablo.

Nol interviews her own mother for non-fiction purposes.

She recently wrote a biography of her cousin, Holly, which sold very well.

Holly is the first man in Riverview to have a child with another man.

He'd rather you not call his son Andre a test tube baby, but if you must, you must.

Did we mention Holly also went into the science career?

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Etc.: Though I ordered the pictures to make it look like Pablo doesn't live with the Archers yet, he actually does. I got Nol to ask him to move in as soon as they turned adult, so I could set him into his career and start making him work out. Interestingly - and I didn't even think about this until now - he is unaffected by the vampire rapid skill glitch, which remained on Martin even after I cured him. I cured Pablo when he was a baby, so I can only assume the glitch doesn't take affect until a later life stage. I didn't notice it affecting Sacha and her sons as toddlers, but it did start up in the child stage.

Pablo's traits are family oriented, loser... and some other things I feel guilty about forgetting. The loser trait is hilarious; he's constantly getting messages of epic fail from work, which thankfully does not seem to affect his performance. Or if it has, I haven't noticed. His adult trait was slob, which I absolutely hate. It's more disgusting than I can handle. So I'll be switching it to workaholic as soon as he gets enough points, in hopes it will speed up his rise to level 10, master thief.

So far everyone in my legacy has achieved level 10 in their career except for Melody (band) and Randi (which I sort of regret; the evil outfits at the top are cool). But they have not all had perfect careers, as some didn't master the skills of their job, merely raised them to acceptable levels. So even though I tell myself I have plenty of time to get Nol and Pablo to the top, I still feel a bit nervous and rushed about it.

Andre is the result of MasterController's "instant baby" command. I later gave him a little sister, which the game named Jasmine. 

I don't know what's up with Kim's facial structure, but it makes her look like she has bags under her eyes, which is cool. Unfortunately she and Hawk had to leave the house within 24 hours of their age-up. Kimberly and Taylor married immediately, while Hawk and Alice were content to pop out a few kids out of wedlock before they married.