Vega quickly gathered herself; she had a sense of where to go for help.
Finding his name in a book about sculpting was easy: she went to the index and found out about Twinbrook’s small contributions to the sculpting scene. Unfortunately for her, most of Twinbrook’s best sculptors were long dead, but the best among them had a chance of still being around for her. She did the math, and if still alive, he would be 74. And Vega was set on him being her dynasty sculptor. A trip to City Hall revealed that he was indeed still alive.
It was him: Harwood Clay, a man destined to be a great sculptor on his name alone, and he was in his younger days. As Vega walked up the driveway, Harwood instead called a taxi. He probably knew what a strange, chrome-colored woman wanted from him and he thought it would be best to distance himself from her plans.
Vega was determined to grab his talent. She called a taxi and mercilessly followed Harwood to a rather esoteric lot: Aleister’s Elixirs and Sundries.
“Hey, do you have any jars of friendship in stock? I’m new and need some friends.”
“We just opened, just so you know. Everything’s on back-order from Moonlight Falls,” said the cashier.
It looked like she had to befriend him in a more conventional way. Harwood was hoping that he could just slip away and leave Vega to find someone else.
Unfortunately for Harwood, Vega turned out to be far more charming than he expected. Even when she spoke about vast conspiracies to ruin the names of some of the biggest families back where she was from, it sounded so interesting.
“Oh, but those are just some weird thoughts in my head. I hate living alone,” said Vega, “I have a few family heirlooms that will make us rich anyways. Like, way better than living on the lake. What do you say?”
“I guess there’s nothing else for me to do,” said Harwood with a sigh. At least the two ended up having their intelligence and charisma in common, and hopefully that would ease the pain of a lifetime of sculpting.
Even more unfortunate for the both of them, Harwood was not an ice sculptor by trade. He got a little disheartened by the prospect of a creation melting in a few days and tried to ignore the medium as much as possible. But Vega insisted that she be sculpted in ice because of how brilliant it looked under a light. Harwood had to suck it up due to Vega’s stubbornness and insistence that non-melting ice was a new development, but he quickly proved to have a special touch with ice sculpting. He got quite a bit of money for his first one.
Vega didn’t want to be alone, especially with Harwood’s time being so limited, but there were some issues with making friends. Renee left her cold.
Renee’s ex-husband, Lenny, was quite friendly, but his fear of commitment immediately sent Vega across the street.
Amy was very sweet, and a painter by trade, but her enthusiasm and forgetfulness completely appalled Vega more than bad bedsprings and missing portraits.
At the Red Rendevouz, Vega met someone a little different. Eva Drudge was older, married, and usually reclusive except when her husband begged for some social time. However, she loved to paint and would do anything so she could quit her job at the bookstore and find some time to paint and write.
Vega sensed that Eva would make an excellent friend.