Chapter 67: Plotting

No one knows how to undo whatever Paz did to these flamingos in the garden.

I leave Ashby alone for five minutes and she's contemplating suicide.

So I steer her home, where her cousin Lorenzo (Hawk's son) is waiting for her. Children don't have to have the evil trait to look like they're plotting something.

Iago tells Rio about his latest evil scheme, which causes their relationship meter to go down into the red.

Nol spends more and more time reading to her toddlers.

Can you read and write at the same time?

 Now a Blockbuster Writer, poor Nol has writer's block.

She visits the elderly, dying Yuri Ivanov for some non-fiction ideas. The first thing she notices is the gnome in his yard, so she makes a mental note to keep an eye on it.

The old man greets her with a firm handshake.

"I'm-"

"I know who you are," Yuri cuts her off. "I make a habit of tracking my bloodlines."

"Ah," the writer responds. "I thought you were about to claim you were psychic."

They have a nice chat about various things.

"Don't you even go outside when it's cloudy?" Nol asks.

"I spent too much time in the sun in my silly youth," he replies. "So now, no. I enjoy the darkness of my home."

Ashby is inspired for some vampire interviews of her own.

"What are you doing out here, small child?"

"You're Arthur, right? Your name is on so many paintings in our house." Ashby has to choke her hatred of art down to say this. She wonders if anyone else ever took such close notice of the bottom corners. So many different names.

"And you're in some of the paintings," Ashby explains. "They're really scary. But you don't look so scary in person. How old are you? How long have you been a vampire?"

Ashby recognizes Sacha from the ancient portrait in the nursery. Randy's painting depicts a child with blue hair like Iago's, and this person is a white-haired elder, but Sacha's solemn glowing eyes are enough to convince.

Sacha is willing to get to know the great-great-great granddaughter who sought her out. She doesn't know how long she has left, and it pleases her to know Martin's descendants are doing well and her paintings were never thrown away.

She even takes the time to cook something for the kid when Ashby asks her for food.

"Most of the other Archers are into the sciences," Sacha comments, once Ashby has gone home.

"I guess we'd all get along well," the forensics analyst cop admits.

Back to our current heroes, Rio has aged to child.

Now that he's older, Ashby and Rio have a lot of fun bouncing on the trampoline together.

It's a nice place to grow up.

Little Iago does not approve of his father's new bank robbing costume.

"Why do you hate art?" Rio wants to know.

"Because art sucks," Ashby responds. "You get lost in it."

Ashby's teen birthday party has a lot of guests. Her only living grandfather, Dante Cantina, arrives still mourning the loss of his wife and Ashby's grandmother, Shayna Wicks-Cantina.

Sacha squints at the old portrait of herself.

Pablo is surprised and somewhat worried to see his father taking an interest in his mortal granddaughter's birthday.

"I've been horrible to you," Dante moans.

"You were never close to me," Pablo admits, "but I understood why."

Donovan (Kimberly's son) thinks this is about the saddest thing he's ever seen.

Rio spends most of the party playing video games with this brat, Rex Wainwright.

Sacha randomly decides Lorenzo could use some training.

Yay! Cheer!

Puberty leads to some abdominal pain.

Oh well. Cake!

Teen Ashby expresses her athletic trait a little bit each day.

Hyah!

Iago becomes a child.

Pablo is certain his children will all be winners.

Iago is terrified of his sister's new boyfriend - who is none other than Rex, Rio's friend.

Rex is Aquarius, and Ashby is totally down with that.

Rex also wants to be a detective when he's older. Ashby is also totally down with that.

Pablo's attempts to be Picasso end in failure.

He should stick to what he does surprisingly well: cat burgling.

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Etc.: Iago's child trait is coward. Lol.

Ashby's teen trait is natural cook, which is useless and annoying since it gives her wishes about learning that skill.

Someone on the forum commented that they'd never seen a vampire who was born a vampire become an elder. So I promised pics of elder Sacha, and there they are. Sacha was always one of my favorites. My boyfriend thinks her long face is scary, but I think it's fitting? She was definitely more interesting-looking than poor Leona.

Yuri has died. I'm not sure how old he was when he was turned into a vampire. But he was definitely the oldest person in town, since I killed off Roxie Lin. I'm not sure which of my vampire pack is oldest now.