Chapter 88: For Your Defiance, My Hand

Kirk Khan settles into the Archer household. Though most of his time is spent on nonsense chemistry experiments, or with his nose in a notebook, he makes time to bring in some almost negligible income through Freelance Astronomers Anonymous. Star gazing gets bonus points for being a nighttime activity.

Yasu tends to her grandfather's unidentified plants. He was so anxious over them, she wonders what they are.

She finds herself in a different neighborhood, with no memory of why.

But the mailbox says KHAN, so she ventures further.

"Lovely place," Yasu says. She sits next to Chauncy Khan, the man she recognizes as Kirk's father.

I must have come to talk to them, she thinks.

"My wife has been meaning to call you here for some time," Chauncy tells her. "My advice is to not anger her. She is... like a bottled genie."

Yasu raises an eyebrow. "You gotta rub her the right way?"

"She'll destroy you, if you allow her anger to come to the surface," he says distantly.

"That kind of genie. I see! Maybe I should just leave now... sorry... I don't know if I've been intruding..."

Chauncy shoos her to the den.

Trying to understand what's going on has exhausted Yasu mentally. She drops onto the couch next to Antwan Sapp, an older man who was graduating high school just as she started it.

"Your sister has good taste in literature," Antwan says softly. "I think your clan would make worthy allies. If you would consider such a thing. If you will excuse me, though.."

He switches seats. How bizarre.

This dramatic photo of Kirk Khan's mother bursting onto the scene is ruined by Antwan's head.

"I know what you have been trying to do for my son," she begins.

Yasu shakes her head. "I've been trying to give him peace... Mrs. Khan."

"Please. Call me Kellie."

Yasu's cell phone begins to ring. She reaches for it, but feels sluggish.

"Don't answer that," Kellie commands coldly.

She turns to face the younger woman. "I don't think you fully realize what you have been offered. Nor do you realize the danger you face, should you continue trying to take my son from me."

Yasu looks away. The phone continues to ring.

"You could have ten times the lifespan you have now. Being turned by me, a true vampire, you could possess powerful magic." Kellie's accent proves she's not the typical inbred descendant of the Lins, the Cantinas and the Ivanovs. Riverview has become a haven for vampires from all across Sim Nation. "Your genius mind could be perfected, used to its full potential. You would never be tricked by petty mortals. And your strength... incredible things would be effortless. You would live a dream, Yasu. What you give up is your fledgling childhood, nothing more."

"I don't want to be a vampire," Yasu says finally. "I saw the transformation harm my sister. It dulled her personality."

"Shu Fang has been cleansed of her former self so she can begin anew! What was really important shall remain."

"Well it hasn't."

"Perhaps you don't know her as well as-"

"Shut up!" Yasu hisses. "I don't want to be a vampire. I want to go home."

Kellie raises her hands to her head, doubtlessly an aid to her psychic powers. "Then you will forget my son. Reject him. He will return home and I will set him straight."

"I.. I..." Yasu grasps at the empty air. Something of a visual representation of her mind trying to hold onto things. "I don't know why I'm here..."

"Or why you were dating my son. You barely know him."

"I barely... I... I don't know him at all! I'm such an idiot!" Yasu bites her nails nervously. "Maybe I'm trying to keep up with Xue."

"Kirk is overstaying his welcome at your house."

"Yes. He's only there because of his-!" Yasu's eyes widen. "Mother."

"Kick him out."

"No... he's my best friend. Since forever. YOU... are a problem..."

"Stop tricking me!" She yells. "Get out of my head!"

"What foolish talk is this?" Kellie snarls.

"I know you're a powerful psychic!"

"He's been using his own persuasive powers against you," Kellie tries to argue.

Before Kellie can place Yasu under her spell again, the young inventor whips an explosive out of hammerspace and detonates Kellie's living room.

Yasu looks back only once as she flees, stumbling, into the night. She sees Kellie standing unharmed amongst the wreckage. Vampires have super speed, Yasu recalls.

 "You fought against my mother?" Khan twitches, visibly overcome with concern. "Are you alright? Did she hurt you? Are you angry with me for not dealing with her?"

"It was more like, she tried her mind tricks against me, but I was too sharp for her, and, uh, threw an explosive at her. She's fine though. And of course I'm not angry with you!" Yasu pauses. "I don't think she'll bother us again."

Khan embraces Yasu. "You are more perfect every day."

"Yeah, I know... but it's still good to hear you say it..."

So Kirk Khan proposes to Yasu, right then and there.

The ring was Chauncy's mother's, and Kirk managed to steal it away before Kellie sent it to the pawn shop.

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Etc.: When my boyfriend and I visited my great-grandparents in Texas, he was amazed and confused to see a pawn shop on every corner.

"How does that even work?" he asked incredulously. "I've never even seen a pawn shop, except in big cities."

"I never thought about it," I said truthfully. I just took them for granted. But I never liked pawn shops. When I was small, a relative took my entire collection of toys (primarily stuffed animals) to a pawn shop, and presumably spent the resulting few dollars on narcotics. I never saw those toys again.

What I'm trying to say is, I'm pretending Riverview has a pawn shop, and Kellie didn't have to go all the way to Strange Town to find it.

Inventing takes a lot of time, and Yasu has been inventing almost non-stop. I resisted the urge to have Yasu and Kirk reproduce right away, because that places a time constraint on my legacy. I plan for the story to end when the next generation is teen, or just barely YA. So I waited for more things to happen before they had kids.

At some point I got rid of Kirk's retarded technophobia, replacing it with Computer Whiz. I also replaced Heavy Sleeper with Nurturing (or whatever that new trait is). So I'll see if he handles the kids much differently, or if it's a trait that only helps the new babysitting job. I changed his LTW from Rock Star to Renaissance Sim (master 3 skills). He's already maxed out in logic, and close to maxing out in an instrument I let him use because of his virtuoso trait. I'm not sure what the last skill is going to be.