Chapter 2.2 Evelyn - The Future is bright

"Then he punched Jon in the face! I don't know what is up with dad lately but he sure does seem angrier than usual," Evelyn finished. It was true, her dad was getting into a fight seemingly every day now. Everyone started to ignore both Silas and the rest of the family. Only a brave few people still dared to step foot in Silas's bar.
"Maybe this is his version of a midlife crises?" Anthony suggested.
Evelyn scoffed, "My dad? Midlife crises? You mean a Full-life crises. He needs a hobby...or to get laid."
"I'm not really sure there is anyone still uh, willing."
"Susannah maybe. She sure does get around. How many guys has she gone through by now? She's dad's age and I'm pretty sure she's dated every eligible man here, and then some. She was even with Derrick for awhile! He's like 100 years old! And now Uncle Jon? Pfft."
"I heard she's pregnant again." There was a hint of something in Anthony's voice that Evelyn couldn't quite place.
"She sure was quick to get pregnant after marrying Uncle Jon. But at least my cousin is adorable. Looks just like Susannah."
They were both quiet for a few minutes, when Evelyn decided now was a good time as any.

"So, I'm sure you've noticed I've been busy lately." Evelyn was hoping that her dear husband would understand.
"Of course I've noticed. You vanish for hours every day." Anthony did miss his wife, but he knew when he shouldn't ask questions about her work, and this was one of those times. He wasn't even sure where she went off to in the middle of the night.
"I've been working on something. Something big. I...well, I don't want to say what it is exactly just yet but...I just want you to know that I think it's going to change our lives. For the better."
"Everything you come up with changes our lives for the better. The whole house would stink of booze if it wasn't for your air freshener! And your cousin loves her new toys."
"This time it's different. It's not some widget or gizmo that shoots out puffs of scented air, or metal cows." Evelyn really wanted to tell him what she was working on, but she didn't think he'd believe her just yet. She needed more time.
"I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be amazing." He wasn't sure what Evelyn was trying to get at, but he loved her and, deep down, he hoped she was at least being safe. He witnessed her set yourself on fire one too many times.
"I hope so too."

Later that night, Evelyn decided to head over to her Uncle Jon's house to offer congratulations to him and Susannah. Aunt Susannah now, she guessed.
"Hey Susan, how're you feeling?"
"Like a god damn whale."
"Oh...well, you look great!" Now Evelyn was uncomfortable. She tended to avoid pregnant women, pregnancy weirded her out for some reason.
"Thanks but I feel like horseshit. I can't wait for this little guy to come out."
"You think it'll be a boy?
"Of course. Boys make you grow hair on your stomach 'cause of all the testosterone and right now you could mistake me for a very fat man."
Evelyn didn't have a reply to that. Instead, she picked up her cousin and tickled her.

"Aren't you just the cutest little baby ever! Yes you are!" Devon's high pitched giggle made Evelyn feel some kind of way.
"More! More!" Devon squealed.
"Anything for the cutest little baby in the whole world!"
Evelyn played with little Devon for an hour before she realized how late it was getting.
"I'm gonna head out, but you guys are welcome to come to my party tomorrow night if you can get bribe someone to watch Devon." Evelyn had decided to get as many friends and family members together in one place, before...
"Of course we'll be there. I might not like your dad, but I can't say no to his nectar." Uncle Jon said, with something that was meant to be a smile but looked more like a pained grimace.
With that, Evelyn headed home.

She was in for the shock of her life when she got home and her husband and her father were quietly reading next to each other in the newly remodeled basement.
Not wanting to disturb the once-in-a-lifetime peace, she quickly turned out and headed back upstairs, her experiment would have to wait until later.

The party turned out quite well, in Evelyn's opinion. More people showed up than she had expected, considering most were still actively avoiding Silas. Maybe people really would set aside grudges just for some free nectar. She'll have to store that useful information away for later.

Anthony mostly used this as an opportunity to catch up with his mom and dad. His mom had recently given birth to his new little baby sister, Lynn, which Anthony was still shocked about.
"She's just the best little baby, Anthony....no offense." Eva bragged.
"None taken."
"She's absolutely quiet all the time. She only cries when she's hungry! I don't know how I got so lucky this time around. You were just the worst newborn. No offense."
"None taken?"
He wasn't sure if he should be offended or not. It sounded like he should be but he was happy for his parents. He was lucky they were still so young and full of life. There wasn't a day that went by where he didn't have someone telling him about how they could still be seen walking along the beach, hand in hand, making faces at each other. And now that they had another baby in the house, maybe they'd stop pestering him for grandkids.

Not that Anthony didn't take every opportunity handed to him to keep trying...
Unfortunately, Silas managed to come up with more and more creative ways to interrupt his alone time with his wife.

Including, but not limited to, skinny dipping in the hottub moments after Anthony suggested he and Evelyn be a little adventurous in it.
Uncle Jonathan was a little too drunk to care about his naked brother-in-law right next to him.
Silas seemed a little too proud of his little plan.

That still didn't stop Anthony from attacking his scantily clad wife in another room.
"You are very frisky tonight!" Evelyn said after he let her come up for air. Anthony had been so handsy lately, every single time they had a minute alone together, he was on her. Not that she was complaining.
"How can I not be with you running around basically naked?" The grin plastered on his rather drunk face was enough for her. They slipped away from the party for awhile, just long enough to enjoy each other but not quite long enough to be missed.

The party lasted hours. By the time everyone was either sober enough to walk home or drunk enough to not mind sleeping on the cold, hard ground, it was mere hours from dawn. The villagers hadn't had this much fun together since, well, since Evelyn and Anthony got married. Eventually, even the Rivers family decided to lumber their way home.

In her drunken state, Evelyn decided it would be the perfect time to work on the fireplace in the bedroom.

Where she promptly caught herself on fire. Clearly alcohol fumes + fire did not mix well. Even though she had managed to catch herself on fire many, many...many times before, this fire was the worst of all. She felt herself being slowly engulfed in flames, shear terror gripping her, immediately sobering her up, her idiocy slamming into her by force. Why had she thought it would be a good idea to play with fire while drunk? Would this be it for her, her luck finally used up? As the flames licked at her feet, crawling up her pants and burning right through the fabric, she finally heard her dad and Anthony rush into the room. Just in time. Evelyn could feel the fire touching her skin, burning and blistering her as it traveled up.
Seconds later, the fire was out, but the panic was only just beginning.
"Evelyn!" Silas and Anthony both shouted at the same time. Evelyn couldn't concentrate on what they were saying as they both shouted and yelled at her, saying essentially the same things in different words.
"You nearly killed yourself!"
"You need to be more careful!"
"What were you thinking!"
"What if we hadn't gotten here in time!"
This went on for a few more minutes before Evelyn told them that she was fine, but she really needed to go see her brother. Usually the fire didn't make it to her skin.

Anthony was so hopped up on adrenaline, he felt like he was going to burst out of his own skin. He thought he was about to watch his wife burn to death. It was finally starting to really sink in for him how dangerous her experimenting was, how nonchalant she seemed to be about it all. Once wrong move and she was dead. One fire while no one was home, she was dead. One bad day, dead. Anthony began to hyperventilate when he felt a hand touch his shoulder.
"Anthony, it's okay. It was one drunken mistake, really. I'm much more careful than that, I promise. I haven't had a single accident in the workshop si--"
"Workshop?" Anthony interrupted, "What workshop?"
"Oh...uh..." Evelyn stammered. Shit. She hadn't meant to say that. She didn't want him to know yet...not yet...
"Evelyn. What workshop?"

"Please don't get mad, okay?"
"I can't make any promises, Evelyn."
"I uh...months ago, I built onto the basement. Extended it." This really was not how she wanted to tell him.
"You...what?"
"I made a secret room in the basement to work in. I wanted some privacy." He wasn't angry, that was a good sign.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.
"I didn't want anyone to interrupt me. I wasn't ready to explain what I was doing. It's not ready yet."
"What isn't?" Evelyn wasn't sure she was ready to tell anyone about it but what choice did she have now?"
"A time machine."
Anthony was silent for awhile.

"A what." He finally said.
"A time machine."
"A...time machine."
"Yes."
Anthony didn't really know what to say to that. Had his wife suddenly gone crazy? He heard about a few insane people milling about, mostly harmless, but shunned by everyone else.
"Can...can I see it?"
"It's not really ready yet...not even close. But...it's downstairs. One of the books on the last bookshelf, it's red, 'The Noble History of Socks,' just pull it and the door will slide open. I didn't think anyone would ever want to read the history of socks so..." Evelyn gave a nervous chuckle, hoping to break the tension a little.
"Show me."

Evelyn slowly descended the stairs, trying to build her confidence up. She approached the bookshelf, reached for the hidden lever out of habit, and pulled. The door slide open silently, the hinges well oiled. Anthony stared in awe when the door slide back, revealing the room on the other side. How had he never noticed this before? He never once saw his wife go into the basement long enough to build anything like this.

"Ta-da!" Evelyn nervously exclaimed. Anthony covered his mouth in surprise. He was speechless. He didn't know what he was looking at, the metal spikes were absolutely foreign to him.
"It's not working yet, but I have some the blueprints for it over on the bench. I'm hoping to get it working in the next few months..." she trailed off, looking at her husband's face.
"How...?"
"I...well. I've uh, I've already made a trip. To the future. Well, it wasn't very far into the future, just a  50 years or so. It was a rudimentary machine, not really capable of much. The trip was short, only about 5 minutes. But I met someone there, they were expecting me. He gave me the blueprints for this. He said he didn't know what it meant but he was instructed to give them to me when I arrived at that time, in that location. I try not to think about it too much."
Anthony didn't reply. His mind was overloaded with questions.

"What does this even mean, Evelyn??" Anthony suddenly shouted.
"I don't know yet, but I have a feeling we're going to find out soon."
"I don't understand any of this." What the hell was she even talking about? Time travel? TIME travel? She really had gone insane. Or maybe she had been insane this entire time, but he was only just now seeing it.

Evelyn gave the alien machine a little kick. Anthony crossed his arms, deep in thought. How would he tell her father? Lily? Maybe her brother could help her, he had gotten really good at healing in the past few years. Maybe he had something to heal her, if she could be healed at all. Anthony looked around the small room, taking it all in. One wall was covered in her drawings, mostly of stars and constellations, her diploma, her awards given to her by the community for her inventions. Maybe her insanity was being confused for genius. Anthony was lost in these thoughts when suddenly a bright light flashed before them.

"It's working!" Evelyn couldn't believe it! It had turned on! She had only tweaked a few wires but that had done the trick.
Anthony just stared at the strange blue lights. He decided that he was the crazy one and that all this was a hallucination.

He hoped to wake up soon.

As he was wondering if he should exile himself to the right side of the island where the volcano was, or to the back of the island where no one ever ventured to go, a strange man with blue hair climbed out of the machine.

"Finally!" the strange blue haired man said to no one in particular, "I thought you'd never figure this thing out!"

Anthony watched his wife approach the strange man and they began to talk about how she made the device, how far into the future the man lived, and the state of the world in 1000 years, Anthony promptly fainted.

Evelyn didn't even notice.

Chapter 2.3

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Author's notes: So this is about where I started to fear for Evelyn's safety. She set herself on fire literally every single time she worked. 

At first, Silas would freak out along with Evelyn and Lily if she was around, until I prompted him to put the fire out. Now he just rushes in and puts it out himself. I should check if he suddenly developed the pyromania trait lol. I had even given Evelyn the handy trait when she aged up into YA thinking it would help, but clearly it does not. Poor Anthony. At least he's usually at work when she catches on fire. He's doing alright in his rolled career (education). I haven't really been focusing on him all that much so I think he was around level 2 or 3 at this point. Actually, I pretty much ignore him and Lily. They're both seriously getting on my nerves. I keep catching them beginning to flirt every time their relationship hits best friends, so I keep making them fight until it goes back down. But every time I go to check on them, their relationship is back up and they're back to flirting. Anthony almost flirts with Lily as much as he does with Evelyn! Maybe he just misses her, since she's down in the basement so often. 

I'll go ahead and reveal Evelyn's rolls, since they aren't exactly exciting:

Marital Status: Couple

Number of Children: 2 (again)

First career: Inventor

Second Career: Education 

Generational Goal: Deadbeat parents (I feel super bad about this since Evelyn is a genius and Anthony is Family-Oriented [Family-Oriented yet keeps hitting on his wife's grandmother, might I add])

Misc Fun: Partier (which I don't show very often but they do have a party every week)