Conservationism and a Death Flower for Delmarya

As an immortal, Asher wanted to guarantee that Sulani remained beautiful for the rest of his life, in other words forever, because he liked Sulani and had a career in conservationism. Asher often worked from home. He spent time on the phone enacting various policies to protect the environment, his environment.

At any rate, everyone in Asher’s family loved living in Sulani. Adelise, Asher’s wife, was fond of swimming in the ocean.

Asher’s daughters Dysis (as well as the unpictured Dawn and Dyna) liked exercising outside.

Darius, his son, loved taking selfies on the balcony with the island in the background.

One night, the lights suddenly went out when Adelise was trying to do the laundry.

Did we not pay the bills?
It wasn’t the bills. It was one of Asher’s environmental policies: no electricity for a few hours after 8.

Unbothered, Dysis carried on with her homework as there wasn’t much else to do.

Deli returned home from her job as a lifeguard, sick.

Annoyed and not interested in resting, she took medicine and then began doing her own homework. Deli was an overachiever within her family of overachievers: she had a job, perfect grades, was skilled in many areas, and expected to grow up into a responsible, mannerly, compassionate, emotionally controlled, mediating young adult [all of the Parenthood traits].

Perhaps most importantly, Deli was a bit reckless with her health. She loved Sulani like her family and worked outside as a lifeguard, but unlike her family, Deli was allergic to the sun. Despite that, she spent much of her time outside and a scary amount of that time in the sun.
Her mother was concerned.

Adelise: Are you doing okay? Is there anything I can help you with?
Deli: Why? I’m fine.
Adelise: …

Adelise decided to lighten the mood a bit by joking around. After a comfortable conversation, Adelise brought up what she really wanted to.

Adelise: I have a gift for you.
Deli: A gift?

Adelise gave her daughter a death flower. After decades of gardening, this was something Adelise was capable of growing. She’d heard of too many scary accidents recently and wanted to do everything she could to prevent Deli from experiencing a tragic, early death.

As long as someone near Deli took possession of the flower and gave it to the Reaper, she couldn’t die. The Reaper would accept it and let her go.

Oblivious, Asher had his own plans. There were too many vampires. As a conservationist, he felt he knew the optimum population level and the current one wasn’t it.