3.5 Montage

Vincent's art skills get better. 

But he takes frequent breaks. His attention to detail makes every art piece an agonising, long process. 

Today's his birthday! He's invited a few friends from school to celebrate with him.

After some thought, Vincent wishes for a little brother to play with. 

The party is a moderate success, and the guests feel good about having attended. 

***

And now a quick technology montage!

Vincent and Olivia play catch while Evan flies around like a maniac. He notices the moon peering over the horizon. 

"Are you gonna transform now?" he asks, slightly apprehensive. Olivia gets...testy...in her other form during the full moon. He wants to know if he needs to give her a wide berth so she can sprint to her parents' home.  

Though she feels a surge of energy, her body does not transform. 

"My mom says we can't transform while pregnant. My body's using all of its energy for the baby." It's strange, experiencing a full moon while lucid, not feeling compelled to hunt. If she weren't so damn tired, she'd go for a moonlit stroll. 

The next morning, Evan is at it again. 

"Is he insane?" 

"Definitely," Olivia mutters back, "I think he has a secret death wish." 

"Hey I can hear you guys up here!" Evan protests. 

"Or a midlife crisis?" Olivia speculates, "But he's only 31..." 

"That's pretty old." 

Olivia elbows him, "Hey!" 

"What, it's true..." 

"I should get rid of the two of you," Evan mockingly threatens, gracefully swooping downwards, "And spend all of my money to make the perfect robot family." 

Olivia reads up on how to safely add a baby to their imperfect, organic family. 

"Hey, hold it. Homework?" Olivia says sternly when Vincent gets home from school. 

"When am I ever going to use algebra in real life?" he presents the classic teen argument, "What weirdo looks at a cylinder and goes "oooh let's calculate the volume of that"? 

"Well, if you don't want to use algebra ever again, you need to get through it now. The faster it's done, the faster it's gone," Olivia replies, suppressing an amused smile. 

Olivia gets to doing some chores and Evan finally, painfully gets through his homework. 

His unfinished painting calls to him. 

It takes him a full 30 seconds of scrutinising the partly-completed piece before he carefully dabs into yellow and approaches the canvas. It has to be perfect, after all. 

Evan gets home from work, and then Olivia goes promptly into labor. 

In his panic, he temporarily forgets all the research he's done for this moment and melts down unhelpfully. 

But he snaps out of it and drives his fiancée to the hospital. 

Vincent's birthday wish is fulfilled- Olivia and Evan bring home a baby boy. 

"We named him Lincoln," she tells Vincent, her voice soft, "Evan picked it." 

While Olivia gets showered and changed, Vincent gladly looks after his nephew. 

Olivia gets her chance to care for him, too. 

Her mother drops by to see her first grandchild...

...and to give Olivia this dog. 

"We found him by the public pool. Animal shelter has no idea who his owner could be, he has no microchip or collar. Our house is too crowded to keep him..." 

Olivia couldn't bring herself to say no. 

"Hey there, Kipper," she says playfully, shifting around in an attempt to get him to wrestle. 

Kipper's very old, however, and contents himself with toys. His days of play fighting and wrestling are long behind him. 

"Well, makes sense. Olive already has quite the menagerie," Evan tells Kipper, "I suppose a dog is just the next logical step." 

Kipper goes to investigate this "menagerie." Liza the Lizard has no idea that she's being sized up right now. 

Evan does his best to distract Kipper from Olivia's other pets. 

This place is great! Kipper has never been shown this much attention and given so many nice toys. 

And so many newspapers to destroy! 

Vincent is quick to join in on the playing. He dives right into a leaf pile they have in the front yard. 

Kipper's bed is put in Vincent's room, where he sleeps comfortably. 

----------------------------

AN: As the title suggests, this chapter was mostly just me trying to get through all of my screenshots. 

Vincent is now family oriented in addition to his previous traits. Lincoln is an eccentric genius. 

Olivia rolled a wish to adopt a dog, and well...why not? I made sure to get an elderly dog. Even if he's just a simulation, I hate the idea of old dogs spending their last years in a shelter!