Chapter 11 - All Doors Opened
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With the questions churning in his mind, Daniel didn’t get much sleep that night. After a while, he gave up and positioned himself at the kitchen table, in a sour mood. How could Aria be the only one who could sell Memory Lane? Did she own everything? Why did she want to sell, and leave Sunset Valley? How would that impact him, and the rest of the family? Could he stop it? When he heard steps upstairs that could only be his grandmother’s, he ambushed her when she got out of the toilet, and almost dragged her downstairs to the alchemy room.
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Alecia: My dear, this better be important. I played dominoes with Zsazsa last night, there was good nectar, it got very late, and…
Daniel: Aria says she’s selling Memory Lane.
Alecia: What? She said that? I’m sure she meant we are selling Memory Lane…
Daniel: You knew about this?! She said she was the only one could see Memory Lane.
Alecia: Did she now. Did she… There was a decision taken last night, and I… Well, this is ungodly early and I am quite tired… And my knees hurt. I really should go back up and get some more…
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Daniel: Cut it out! She’s really old isn’t she? I’ve seen the picture in the bathroom, where she meditates. It was taken before Brook made the unicorn statues. I want some answers, and I want them now!
Alecia: How did you get into that bathroom?
Daniel: Mom gave me the key, to clean them.
Alecia: How careless of her… You’ve become observant, young man. Oh well, I guess the cat is well and truly out of the bag now…
Danielle: Daaaaaaniel! You’ll be late for school!
Alecia: He’s not going to school today!
Alecia: I think it’s time you took a stroll down Memory Lane itself. Here, take this key. Meet me in the nectary when you’re done.
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Vance had told the truth. Apart from a fountain, there were only photographs and plaques with inscriptions in the corridor. There she was, first on the left hand side. Green fairy wings, different hairdo and more makeup, looking somewhat older, but there was no doubt: That was Aria. Was she the great secret, why the corridor had been locked down? He read the inscription:
Alexandria Lane. Founder. Photographer, Scientist, Horsewoman, Adventurer and Nectar Maker. Mother of triplets: Johnny, Jackie and Katusha.
He started haphazardly browsing the pictures and the inscriptions. To her right was Trent Lane, her husband, whom she had asked the ghosts about. Then there was Johnny, their son, and Brook, his wife. He saw the redhead from the antechamber, Esther, now without her vampiric eyes, he saw the redcoat, Alyssina Lane, he saw their husbands, he saw Alecia and Jack, without inscriptions. It seemed that only the dead had inscriptions, but in that case, why did Aria/Alexandria have one? As he started on the children and the siblings, he was getting overwhelmed, and he soon decided to use his mobile phone to take pictures of both the photos and the inscriptions, to save them for later.
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As he photographed worked his way through the corridor, he was slightly shocked to discover the name mentioned on the Villa Carsonia landmark, Chloe Carson, as well as two Moores, and even Plantsims. Edora and Apollonia, referred to as Resident 1 and Resident 2. Quickly scanning the insciptions, it was easy to see that nobody else had as many careers listed as Alexandria Lane. She was either a very long-lived or very busy woman, perhaps both…
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Daniel: Why is she the only one who can sell Memory Lane?
Alecia: She financed it with her inheritance, built it, and all rights to the house, and all of its contents, are hers in perpetuity. A wise precaution to prevent the sale of an ancestral home, and one the Carsons and Moores neglected to take…
Daniel: How come she has a plaque if she isn’t dead?
Alecia: My dear, she was dead, for a very long time. Then she was resurrected.
Daniel: Why? By whom?
Alecia: By Alyssina. We lacked a rider for Minotaur, and maybe she hoped to make a friend. She didn’t have many. Or perhaps I should say any. But I think there may have been other reasons too. Alexandria’s tombstone had a strange inscription that nobody could read. Some speculated that it was in the alien language, telling the aliens to keep Memory Lane free of stray meteors. Somehow, Alyssina managed to decode it. She was a voracious reader, and quite knowledgeable.
Daniel: Was the code similar to the Rosetta stone in the antechamber?
Alecia: No, it was different. Much shorter and more cryptic. Alyssina herself put up the Rosetta stone, before that.
Daniel: We were short a rider because my grandfather had been kicked out, right?
Alecia: No, Alexandria was resurrected before that. When he quit his horseman career and became a musician. Working nights meant he couldn’t do the races.
Daniel: How did Alyssina resurrect her?
Alecia: I don’t know the details, but I know Alyssina could cook Ambrosia, for her racing. One morning, I just woke up and Alexandria Lane was alive, sitting in the kitchen and chatting with Alyssina.
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Daniel: You didn’t… object, or something?
Alecia: I was in no position to object, young man. Alyssina was Master of the House, calling the shots, and she was a very headstrong woman.
Daniel: Hm. That must have been strange.
Alecia: It was quite uncomfortable for me. I felt… degraded. I had married into the family, and suddenly I had two formidable Lane women to relate to.
Daniel: She seems to have had a lot of careers. Aria, I mean.
Alecia: That plaque is not up to date. If you count her adventuring, which was very extensive, and the careers she’s had since coming back, she has topped out 7 careers. Despite that, I think her careers are no more than a hobby to her…
Daniel: Seven?! Holy crap…
Alecia: She’s a very busy bee, and skilled to the hilt. From observing her, I think she mastered everything that isn’t related to music or art, even before she was brought back.
Daniel: What?!
Alecia: She doesn’t slack off, my dear. Even when adventuring, stories say she was going 24/7, with her Motive Mobile and various potions. She has Sim Fu-kicked her way through every mummy-infested tomb that exists, often more than once. All relics in the house, and almost all of the photos, are hers. All the stuff she gave away to charity had been gathered by her and her husband.
Daniel: Geeez…
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Alecia: Your great-great-great-great grandmother is a woman of countless accomplishments, but she has never celebrated any of them. She’s not looking for fame or attention, quite the opposite, she just wants to get on with it.
Daniel: And what is the “it” that she does? What is she doing at the graveyard, or when she goes out of town?
Alecia: I have no idea, and I really don’t want to know…
Daniel: Bah, what’s with all the secrecy? The locked corridor, the locked bathroom, what she’s doing, calling herself Aria…
Alecia: Alexandria doesn’t like a fuss, and there would be quite a fuss if people knew who she really is. That’s why.
Daniel: Don’t people recognize her? She doesn’t look that different from her picture.
Alecia: What people? The only ones who are still alive from when she last walked the earth are the aliens. Outside this house, there are no pictures or portraits of her. She was always a private person, and in her days, Memory Lane was like a fortress, accepting no visitors.
Daniel: Hm. Well, we need to talk to her, and change her mind about selling Memory Lane.
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Alecia: Change her mind?! Are you insane?
Daniel: No, I’m not! We can’t just let her do it?! Where will we live?
Alecia: Listen, young man…
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Daniel: What? Are you ok with this? She says we’re leaving Sunset Valley!
Alecia: Listen! You obviously have no idea who she is. I will…
Daniel: She's Alexandria Lane, my great-great…
Alecia: Stop interrupting me, my dear. I will explain, but to do that, we must start at the beginning. With Kate Carson. Everything begins with her. The wonderful and horrible Kate Carson. She had already lived a lifetime when she arrived in Sunset Valley with her motley crew, changing this place forever. They came from Starlight Shores, where Kate had been a rock star, and she was already a 4-star celebrity. With her were her two husbands, her son and his fiancée…
Daniel: Two husbands?
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Alecia: Yes. Kate was an irresistible charmer, with fantastic music skills and artistic talent. She was also evil, and incredibly ambitious. Her ex-husband, Jack Carson, was so old that he was verging on death, but still completely under her spell. He died while fishing, on the same day that the family arrived here, without any claim to fame. Through potions, Kate herself was the picture of youth, as was her new husband, Mike Acker, or “Fairy Mike”, as he was commonly known. Fairies were rare those days, and he was the first one in town.
Daniel: I’ve never heard of any of her husbands.
Alecia: Very few has. If you got romantically involved with Kate Carson, you were doomed. After a pleasant start to the relationship, you would slowly be turned into nothing more than a slave. When she was done with you, you would be tossed aside like thrash, and nobody would remember your name, while Kate herself climbed to ever new heights.
Daniel: Wow, that’s… rather sordid.
Alecia: Yes, my dear, it certainly is. Now, where were we? Yes, the others. Along with Kate and her husbands came Clint, her adult son, and his fiancée, Mika Moore, whom he had met at university. Mika was a vampire, possibly the first of all. Not content with being older than his own slow-aging mother, who had now become a fairy, he had Mika turn him into a vampire.
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Alecia: Here is the only existing picture of Mike Acker, with Mika Moore, taken at Starlight Shores. He’s running Aura of Soothing just to stand being around her, as he was good, while she was evil, due to Kate’s shenanigans... Anyhow, soon after arriving here, tensions were also rising between mother and son, as Clint took Mika’s name when he married her, to distance himself from how Kate had treated his father. Eventually, the money was raised for them to buy 325 Oak Grove Road. Clint was a grim man, a copper who eventually became an International Super Spy, while Mika, quite comically, was a prominent criminal. They were the founders of the Moores, and they aimed to form their own vampire dynasty.
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Daniel: I saw their pictures. But what does this have to do with our family, the Lanes?
Alecia: Hold your horses, young man. I’ll get there, eventually. First, we must get back to Kate. She worked as a self-employed painter, doing very well, while using her charms to create an ever-expanding network of friends. If Kate was your friend, you felt as if the sun itself shone upon you, as she was also very generous. Everybody got invited to her house, and nobody left Villa Carsonia without having been treated to a great meal, and a valuable present, usually a significant gemstone collected and cut by Mike, or a signed painting by Kate.
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Alecia: During this period, Kate and Mike were also blessed with the birth of two daughters, born within days of each other. I think you will recognize the youngest one in this family tree…
Daniel: She’s Kate Carson’s daughter? Why isn’t she mentioned on the landmark at Villa Carsonia?
Alecia: She wouldn’t want to be mentioned there. Or anywhere else, for that matter…
Daniel: What? I don’t get it… And where does the name Lane enter the picture?
Alecia: Patience, young man, patience. Now then… As her daughters entered their teen years, Kate begun tiring both of painting and of Fairy Mike. She relaunched herself as singing sensation Kata Strophy, wielding the same guitar that had taken her to rock stardom. She installed the two searchlights at Villa Carsonia, and they lit up every time there was a party at Villa Carsonia, which was every night she didn’t perform. Reaching 5-star celebrity status, she was everywhere, shaking hands, signing autographs, on the radio, doing concerts, handing out gifts all the while.
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Alecia: This is the only picture I have of Kate, painting in the art room at Villa Carsonia, with its breathtaking view. The Carsons didn’t believe in taking pictures, they were all about portraits. Her subject is a butler called Miles. The butler thing didn’t turn out so well, but let’s get back to the story. As Kata Strophy, Kate cast all caution to the wind, and the scandals started pouring in. Suing for slander became a daily routine, but she was soon best friends with everybody at Town Hall, owning the courts too. She was a suspect, on trial, in cases regarding paparazzi and zombies that had mysteriously disappeared, but the trials were a farce, with the judges all licking her boots. She publically took the woman who delivered her mail as a lover, and kicked “Fairy Mike” out of Villa Carsonia, without giving him a dime. He tried to sue, which turned into another farce, with Kate firmly at the wheel. Shortly afterwards, he died in a tragic accident.
Daniel: Poor man…
Alecia: Yes, he deserved better, but that is how Kate was: Very cruel to her romantic interests, and loved by just about everybody else. She was a heroine to the townsfolk, not just for her art, music or generosity, but also because she did not look down on anyone. Even if you were a lowly Playground Monitor, you were welcome at Villa Carsonia. Yes, she probably played some role in the disappearance of the zombies and the paparazzi, and she cured some werewolves, but people didn’t mind that, in fact, they applauded it. Now then, let us get back to the sisters.
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Alecia: In the midst of the hurricane that was Kate’s, or Kata Strophy’s, turbulent life, Chloe, whom you have a picture of there, and her younger sister, were growing up, and both were marked by the experience in different ways. Chloe was an artist of infinite promise, but unhealthily obsessed by her painting and sculpting. Alexandria, meanwhile, lost all the things she poured her love into at an early age, including her father. She also took a lot of stick from her elder sister, and at some point, I don’t know which, I think large parts of her soul turned into carbon steel.
Daniel: So that’s why she’s so abrupt...
Alecia: Abrupt? My dear, Alexandria is quite certainly not just the most capable woman you will ever meet, but also the most dangerous.
Daniel: Dangerous?! Why is she dangerous?
Alecia: I know, it’s hard to believe. She looks so young and innocent, doesn’t she? Sometimes, I look at her and think I’m looking at some girl-next-door who ought to be manning the counter at the pet adoption center. But… No, I need some nectar to strengthen myself for this…
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Alecia: What I am about to tell you must never be told to anyone else, including your parents. Do you understand?
Daniel: That serious, hm? Ok...
Alecia: Good. Remember I told you that Chloe used to give her a lot of stick?
Daniel: Yeah…
Alecia: After Alexandria took her revenge, Chloe spent the majority of her adult life in a mental institution.
Daniel: Ouch. What did she do to her?
Alecia: I don’t want to talk about that. I am a descendant of both sisters, and closest to Chloe, so my heart bleeds when I think about it...
Daniel: Are you related to Aria too? I thought you were a Carson?
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Alecia: Yes, and yes. Look here, I’m down to the right, and Alexandria is my great-great grandmother. Down to the left is the current crop of Landgraabs, including Nandini. My genie powers, and Nandini’s, have been handed down from Alexandria’s husband, Trent Lane, who enters the story at this point. Have you seen the photograph of the blue man in the upstairs bathroom?
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Daniel: Yes. I know blue men are genies, grandma.
Alecia: Do you now? Very well. That’s him, being sculpted in ice by Chloe, at Villa Carsonia. Trent was straight-outta-the-lamp blue for most of his life, he only looked like he does in the corridor picture after plastic surgery. Anyhow, he was freed by Kate while the sisters were teenagers, and while she did allow him to join the military, he was kept going around the clock as her super-butler. She used him for summoning food, cleaning the house, doing alchemy and, once Fairy Mike was kicked out, gathering.
Daniel: Another one of her slaves?
Alecia: More or less. Once she had freed him, she showed off her new acquisition at one of her parties, where juice was flowing freely. Present were several faeries and vampires, who sniggered at his blue color and made jokes about his short lifespan. One of them sighed loudly, lamenting his immense lifespan as being tiresome, and declared that the lifespan of a genie was a happy medium. In jest, he proposed a toast that those present should all restrict themselves to the lifespan of a genie. Quite a few joined in the toast, among them Clint and Mika Moore. Alexandria was present, but instead of joining the merriment, she observed, and took note. Some years later, she moved out with Trent Lane, married him and took his name, distancing herself from the Carsons. When Trent died, having lived a long and full life, Alexandra arranged a funeral for him. She had kept a list of everyone who was still alive from that party at Villa Carsonia, almost a lifetime earlier, and invited them to the funeral. At the funeral, she reminded everybody who had joined in that toast of their callous promise, and declared that they now had to honor it. Then, using Age on Instant potions, she sent them all to the beyond, including her half-brother Clint and his wife, Mika, both immortal vampires.
Daniel: Holy llamacrap…
Alecia: That story illustrates quite nicely some aspects of Alexandria’s character: Her patience, and determination, when she believes something is worth doing, and her ruthlessness. To her, it does not matter who you are if you offend her, or how long it takes her to destroy you. There are more stories, but for now, let us talk about her daughters, Jackie and Katusha.
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Daniel: I got them.
Aleica: Good. As you can probably imagine, Alexandria was not easy-going as a mother. She expected her children to always obey her, and constantly work on their skills or their homework. My great-grandmother, Jackie, to the right, got so stressed out by it that she became a neurotic loner who only wanted to write. Still, because she was an obedient child, Alexandria always looked out for her. She bought her a nice house, gave her financial support when she went through a rough patch, and always kept in touch. When Jackie’s husband, Kelsey Andrews, left her for another woman, someone turned him into a Simbot. You can probably guess who. Katusha was a different story. She was a bit of a rebel, and refused to follow her mother’s instruction to attend university. In response, Alexandria stripped her of her fairy powers, kicked her penniless out of Memory Lane, and never spoke to her again. If she was your mother, and you told her that you didn’t want to try riding, you’d be on the first bus to the orphanage!
Daniel: Thank god she’s not.
Alecia: Combine Alexandria’s mentality with her otherworldly set of skills, and I think you’ll agree that trying to change her mind is not very advisable.
Daniel: Hm. Is it because she’s so… unapproachable that you don’t get along with her?
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Alecia: Not really. I used to be her friend, and we even had sparring sessions. I could not match her, of course…
Daniel: Wow, I didn’t know you were into martial arts.
Alecia: I just dabbled with it. For a famous actress like me, it is convenient to be able to ward off over-eager autograph hunters… Anyways, our relationship changed when Alyssina moved out, and I became Master of the House. When that happened, Alexandria declared that we could no longer be friends, our affiliation would now be purely professional. I would run the family, while she would tend to her projects, each operating in our own spheres, with as little interference as possible.
Daniel: But now she interferes, and we are supposed to follow her lead...?
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Alecia: Yes, my dear. Anything else would be…
Daniel: How I am supposed to be able to accept that?! I am the sole heir! In a few years, I will to take my place in the Sunrise Room, start making changes, expanding the business, erecting buildings…
Alecia: And you still can, somewhere else.
Daniel: If she owns the house, she probably owns everything!
Alecia: No, she doesn’t. The money belongs to the family. The house may be worth quite a lot, but you’ll still have around 11 million to play with. Will that be sufficient?
Daniel: 11 million? Really…?
Alecia: Yes. Besides, we choose where we want to go, not Aria. Alexandria, I mean. We’ll build a new house, I see no reason why it should not rival Memory Lane, and we will own it, not her. What is keeping you here? Do you have a lot of friends, or a girlfriend? Do you want to grow old together with the effects of The Great Gap? I’m sure the retirement home will have plenty of room when you are ready for it…
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Daniel: Hm!
Aleica: When you consider the alternative, I think relocating the family is quite sensible. I think you should be the one who decides where we go. I am old, I am not important, while you are the future, not your parents. You have some thinking to do, young man!
She walked off and left him there, quite stunned. He would decide where they were going? As Nelle Bryant would have said it: Oh my. That was something. Something very interesting indeed...
