Chapter 69: Obscure Clue Summoner

Rio has had enough of Iago's stupid schemes.

Nol visits Kimberly. Kim's youngest son, Kerry, watches in fascination.

"Do you think I've been reclusive, as an author?" Nol asks.

Kim laughs. "Well you've been glued on that computer since you were a kid. So all I ever had to do to get your opinion on something was send an instant message! ...Anyway no. It's not like I've made time to visit you much either. Are you here to apologize for not coming to my birthday party? Forget it."

Iago was here.

Pablo loves this game.

But he always loses.

Iago goes to school like this.

What's Rio so concerned about?

Well that's been there a while.

Pablo's underlings tend to piss him off. He should really retire before he snaps and hurts them.

Down to The Grind to work off some stress.

Nol and Pablo are the only ones here. =(

Oh well. The night gets old and so do they.

Ashby reads up on how to repair time machines, and leaky faucets.

Do not mess with her. She will destroy you.

Maybe kittens are the key to world domination.

At least they can paint together without arguing.

Rex is quite the character, having no problem denouncing school in front of his girlfriend's father.

Iago was hoping to make his best friend Shelby Newbie his girlfriend, but she's dating someone else. Iago brushes this off and tries to court her anyway... and that just makes Shelby angry.

Rex is an athletic grumpy genius. Ashby admires all of these qualities. Nol, however, could do without grumpy late night rantings.

"Rex, you need to go home and take a nap. Now."

Pablo casts serenity.

 Go home, Rex.

Go home, Shelby!

"So you once had red hair like me?"

This isn't an evil scheme. It's Iago's crippling fear of radiation.

Paz shows up to help celebrate Ashby's birthday.

Yaaay.

Paz vanishes just as quickly, leaving the living to their early morning cake.

 Ashby gets a job with the local fire department. She isn't supposed to be on duty for two days yet, but can't resist running to the fire station early to check out the specs on the truck. It's an incredibly slow piece of junk.

You have your ways of having fun, Pablo and Nol have theirs.

Ashby's coworker, Tristan, is the son of Winston Small (the hero) and has had a crush on her for years.  Since Rex is still in high school, he figures now is his chance to get with Ashby.

He's a virgo, which is super compatible with Ashby's cancer, while Rex's aquarius is only somewhat compatible.

Still, Ashby would rather have the genius kid, and turns Tristan down gently.

Death comes for Case Burr, an older fireman. He was Nol's cousin, the son of Lance, Chad's brother who died in a fire.

Death is classy. He will find you.

Ashby didn't know her second cousin Case very well, so quickly gets over his death and makes use of the fire station's exercise machines.

"Dressing like me, eh?" Pablo chuckles. "Yeah, that will get your promoted."

Pablo has never spoken harshly to his daughter before, so his sarcasm goes unnoticed.

Ashby's first day on the job is exciting.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Nooo.

Impending death is a good motivator. Nol's writer's block is gone, replaced by the need to say what she needs to say before she dies. She finds herself writing children's books and historical pieces.

Nol's gray hair terrifies Iago.

Rex calls Ashby at work to let her know today is his birthday.

After calling his girlfriend, Rex was busy getting a job at the police station. Hawt, Ashby thinks.

Ashby would like Rex to stay with her. Conditions at his house aren't ideal. His parents, Susan and Boyd, have always had a rocky relationship. Now they're dying, and it's even worse.

Why Rex and Ashby choose to celebrate in Zephram's bed is... uh... I don't even know.

Nol joins her husband to relax on the lawn chairs.

"See those rocks in the zen garden?" Nol asks. "And the one outside. My uncle, Z, once told me I was the outside rock, and I needed to break in."

Rex's job as a detective is not as glamorous as expected. Everyone the police sends him to talk to must be crazy, because their biggest concerns in life are stubbed toes (which they blame on the vampires next door, when the actual culprit is sleepwalking).

And the tattoo artist is giving people temporary tattoos. Wow. Rex uses this information to blackmail the woman, who is apparently too stupid to realize her customers will figure it out without Rex telling them.

They call Rex "The Obscure Clue Summoner," like he's a wizard or somesuch. Riverview is so full of brainless idiots. And vampires.

BOOM. Ashby has meteor flashbacks.

Not much will be left of this room, I'm afraid.

Or the room below it. "Small house fire" indeed!

Ironically, this was Lance Burr's old house, now belonging to his granddaughter Maranda. I suppose the place is cursed!

Meanwhile, Iago's face is torn off. It's no wonder his adult trait will be "couch potato."

Rex adds more art to the house. It was bad enough when he redesigned Ashby's room to have paintings everywhere, but sculptures are going a bit far.

She told hm he could do what he wanted to, since he's a genius and needs brain stimulation. And now she's regretting it...

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Etc.: As my forum posts indicated, I experienced some trouble with fire fighter. My SP mod made all of Ashby's coworkers maintain the alarm and fire engine, which somehow glitched it every time and send it to zero. Ashby's coworkers are really annoying. Even since I updated the mod, they swarm the fire station 24/7. It doesn't matter what their work schedule is. They literally do not go home. I used resetsim on Tristan, had Ashby visit him at his house, and he ran right back to the fire station. Luckily updating the mod fixed the maintaining issues.

Playing a firefighter the second time around has been underwhelming. My first firefighter was epic. I'll never forget his first fire, when he sprang into action and the fire truck zoomed across town at the speed of a turtle, sirens blaring. I guess sims is kind of like a one trick pony. If you've seen it, you've seen it.

Susan and Boyd Wainwright fight all the time in my town. I don't know if SP randomly decided they should hate each other, or if they have conflicting personalities, or what.