Chapter 75: Chaos

Fischer becomes a teen.

Tristan is not the sharpest cheese curl in the bag, but he can handle fifth grade math... maybe.

Leona admires her grave while Sacha meditates. Fiona wishes the nectar bottle on her grave wasn't empty.

There's a lot of stuff to be scared of in the Archer house. Luke is justified in his fits.

Fischer is just as neurotic as his brother, but tends to express his nervousness with checking sinks and cleaning, rather than with total meltdowns.

 On a weekend Tristan is busy, the Archer kids pile into the Tofunda Wagon to visit their cousins and test Fischer's new driving ability. Being family-oriented, Rio loves it when his sister's kids visit.

Felicia has Rio's hair and Pablo's blue eyes, but strongly resembles her mother.

Felicia loves to paint, and is lucky to belong to a family that supports the arts.

Kipp and Felicia compare styles.

Is it better to show off those ear piercings, or to have fluffy hair covering one's ears?

Kipp and Javier enjoy the pool.

Luke and Fischer take a lazier approach to pool enjoyment.

Rio teaches Fischer some moves.

Fischer is sure to impress the ladies now.

When the kids get home, Pablo kicks the bucket.

Nol misses Pablo terribly, and sits up every night, hoping to catch his ghost.

Ghosts appear as always, but no Pablo.

Ashby turns to Rex for comfort. She's impressed with the muscles he has cultivated.

Rex keeps a close eye on the children while the family is in mourning. He makes sure Fischer's paintings are depression-free.

Rex can do anything Tristan can do.

"Why are we bothering with this?" Fischer complains. "When I'm you're age, I won't remember geometry."

Kipp holds a bake sale. During the day.

It's much more successful than Fischer's nighttime bake sale.

After cake, Javier and Luke discuss high drama.

And mourn their grandfather.

Everything Javier knows about sneaking, he learned from Pablo.

Pauline stays the night to make use of the sim-fu training dummy.

Kipp dreads the day when she will have to give up childhood.

INCOMING.

Meanwhile, Rex becomes angry when a client blames missing apples on a half human, half fish monster.

Nol reads to forget about her life.

Fischer heads to The Saloon after school to play darts and impress girls.

He's very good at darts. Unfortunately, not a single teen enters the place to watch him.

The gnome Rex brought back from France does a lot of cowering.

Luke checks the fireplace while Rex discusses proper dating etiquette with Fischer.

Ashby knows Luke has been talking to girls on the Internet in hopes of meeting them at conventions. She goes to question him on the wisdom of such things, only to be shouted at.

"I'm not listening to dating advice from YOU of all people!" Luke yells.

Ashby recoils. It actually takes her a moment to understand what he means. Luke has kept any anger or confusion over the issue bottled up inside for years, and he's not going to open up now, either. He storms up to his bedroom and locks the door before his mother can say another word.

Kipp gets a cake and a party for her birthday.

There are a lot of guests.

Janet feels a little crowded in.

And... Donovan?

Rex tries to keep smiling and behave himself, rather than lash out at Donovan for daring to show up.

Kipp just wishes her dad could be here. But since Ashby is here, Tristan is off putting out fires across town!

Kipp is a teen.

Having missed half of the party due to the unfair hours of his part time job, Fischer decides to make a scene about it and pretend to faint.

Luke's hours aren't fantastic either. While he fights to remain awake for real, Pauline cries over the loss of a boyfriend and Janet just hopes no one here takes her picture.

Luke and Fischer go on about conspiracies. Strangely enough, their cousins respond positively.

Sifton takes any opportunity to remind everyone that she is now a Department Head. Since Luke is the oldest, she approaches him to let him know she can get him a job in the business center. Largely thanks to Nol, Luke's family is sitting on the most massive fortune in Riverview, and it would be a shame if that fortune were underutilized.

Luke shows no interest in the responsibilities of being one of the heirs to a fortune. He's only interested in his head hitting a pillow.

Governor Iago reminds his sister that he loves her.

Rex can't hold in the comments anymore, and picks a fight with Donovan while his wife is distracted.

"You've been caught stealing from family before!" Rex reminds the man.

Janet takes this opportunity to talk to her favorite author.

And follows up with some dancing with Fischer. He's eccentric, neurotic, and a fantastic dancer, and on a rich boy those qualities are nothing but sexy. Too bad he already shares her last name.

Fischer finds it hard to keep his eyes off of his intelligent and mildly charming cousins. He's lonely, he thinks. Most of Fischer's female schoolmates would love to be his girlfriend, but he's oblivious to it, since they all already have boyfriends, having assumed the rich boy to be too far out of their league.

Janet is the last guest to leave the party. Ghosts are too much for her to handle.
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Etc.: Pablo lived longer than most elders I guess, but only marginally. He didn't live as long as some. I'm not sure how the fitness life-extension reward works or if it works at all.

I wanted Lorenzo and Tristan at the party, but Lorenzo didn't show up and of course Tristan couldn't because of the firehouse glitch. I would have had to force him to quit his job, and I just forgot to do that.

For some reason I keep mixing up Luke and Fischer's names, so forgive any typos. Fischer is the heir and is blond. Luke is the older boy.