2.21 Strawberry Slush

"I don't want you to feel crowded in," Perenna explains. "There are way too many empty bedrooms in this house for that. So you have a choice: you can keep this room, and we'll move the nursery stuff upstairs, or you can pick one of the rooms upstairs to take over. We'll even repaint the walls in any color you like."

Izalee appreciates Perenna's enthusiasm for being a good parent, but insists the baby doesn't bother her. Izalee has the heavy sleeper trait, so the crying in the middle of the night doesn't phase her at all.

"Well, the offer'll still be open when you're a teenager," Perenna shrugs. Surely Izalee will want her own space when she hits the teen stage.

A pic of Reggie on his sick ride, for all the doubters and the haters.

Rainy day egg hunt = no competition.

"Why does it rain so much, Dad?"

Vox is getting old. Like this newspaper.

Polka does not even notice.

Lucida ages up. 

Man, isn't she cute and all that?

She strongly takes after her mother.

Complete with an aggressive hunting instinct. 

Lucida howls to get attention. Not a cry-howl, you know, but a wolf howl.

A long chat about not scratching up Izalee's toys.

Reggie meant to get rid of the hot tub, since it was just something he bought for Venessa... 

But then Perenna came along, and she really likes the darn thing too.

"Splash splash!"

Perenna gets kind of scary when she's feeling frisky.

Lol, you guys.

Perenna recognizes Venessa when the two awkwardly bump into each other at the club Perenna was ordered to promote studio stuff in. "So, um, here's our flyer. I think most of the artistic circle here would be really interested in the event."

However, Venessa has no idea who Perenna is. She takes the flyer. "Thanks. But I'm really busy."

From Perenna's point of view, it seems like Izalee's mother left and just never looked back...

Perenna isn't sure how a mother could do something like that, but she's kind of glad it happened.

"The new guy is being a pain," Perenna listens to her boss complain about an actor they brought in from Barnacle Bay. "Says he can't work without a Strawberry Slush, melted. I mean what? Melted?! Take care of that, would you?"

"Yeah, boss," Perenna yawns. With enthusiasm like this, she'll be production manager in no time.

Melted Strawberry Slush in hand, Perenna goes searching for the diva actor. Space Cactus 5 was supposed to star Trip Bricks, but Bricks quit on them last second, leaving the studio scrambling for a replacement. Perenna hasn't met Percival Archer—that replacement—yet, but from what she hears he is a total chick magnet and spacier than NASA.

Those two things don't normally go together...

This industry does weird things to people's judgment, though.

Perenna's hunt for the difficult actor is stalled when she smells some peculiar psychic energy lingering around...

...Huh.

He doesn't even notice she's there.

"Hey!" Perenna calls out fearlessly, "Who're you? What's wrong?"

The stranger puts on a big fake smile. "Hi! Oh, is that a melted Strawberry Slush? I... I really just asked for one so I could stall for time. I don't actually want it."

Perenna tries not to laugh at the absurdity. "That's a relief. Melted slushies are kind of... uh... gross."

The guy continues to smile awkwardly at her. "...They are, aren't they?"

So this is the actor she's supposed to prod into doing his job. "And why were you stalling for time?"

"Give me a minute," he says. "I will think of a really good lie. Really good one. I promise. Wait for it."

"Your scent is very familiar," she says. "Your spiritual essence, I mean."

"S-sorry I am not religious," he stammers, with just enough nervousness to let Perenna know she's not mistaken in at least some of her assumptions.

"Relax! I am fond of mages!"

And she'd like to befriend some, especially if they could lead her to supernatural-sim communities. It would be good for her family if they could socialize openly with other witches and werewolves and whatnot.

"Not having this conversation," he says sharply. Percival Archer is perfectly human, in every way that counts, and he's sick of hearing otherwise.

"But I have something to ask you!" She leans in, needing to be sure. This random actor looks so familiar! Could he know something about her in-laws' forgotten past? "Did you ever know anyone named-"

Archer frowns skittishly. "You are very pretty, but I'm actually kind of busy ri-"

Footsteps coming towards the door interrupt this terrible miscommunication.

A woman walks in, pushing a child along in front of her. "Found him."

Perenna recognizes her as Desdemona Pesce, one of the assistants imported along with the new actors. She's a makeup artist as well. It's common in this industry to wear many hats.

"Lo!" Archer rushes over to hug the child, overjoyed. "You scared me! You need to stay with Des, alright? Like I told you? I have work to do, I can't watch you this whole time."

"I was looking for something," the little boy mumbles apologetically.

Desdemona rolls her eyes at Perenna. "And who are you? His latest screwtoy?"

"Excuse you? I'm here because the director said there was a problem. What's going on?"

Desdemona jerks her thumb back towards Archer and the child. "Little brat stowed away on the train. Didn't realize it 'till we got here. Percy's kids 're the worst. Especially that one. Always running off and getting lost. And then who has to run around looking for him? Me."

"Des, please," Archer hisses. He looks at Perenna. "We would have called the police of course, it's just he does this so often... he gets lost easily, he really can't help it... and he's bad with strangers... and I thought he was right behind me..."

"Kid needs a good beating!" Desdemona mutters.

Perenna looks between them, incredulous. So this is what the stalling was about? A missing child?

The child looks at her.

It feels like the gravity in the room is warping, heavier and heavier as somewhere outside the agent known as Foxglove pounds against the protection wards keeping them safe in this room. Another two minutes, and she'll be here, and it'll all be over.

"I'm sorry," Perenna growls. "I shoulda seen that was a trap." She fell to her hands and knees to keep balance, and to keep whatever's still in her digestive system from making an emergency evacuation via her mouth.

"Can you translocate yet, little cousin?" the vampire casually inquires. As if it weren't a matter of life and death. She's responsible for the wards, but they're no match for the destructive powers of this fae.

The teenager with them shakes his head. "No. I can't. They messed me up pretty good."

"At least they won't find my daughter," Perenna whines to herself. "This was not for nothing."

Perenna blinks. "What are you doing?"

"Imprinting," he says. His bloodied fingers are just shy of contact with her face. He doesn't need to physically touch her, though it might help if he did. "I'm leaving a memory on your spirit. It'll reform next cycle, and, um, this is one of the only ways I can send messages to later iterations. If another me runs into another you, he'll see. Just a small piece of information."

Perenna smiles faintly. "Another me? Another chance? Right now, it sounds too good to be true."

"I don't require you to believe it."

"Well, I want to. But what about you? Are you sure you want your next selves burdened with—"

"It's too late to choose ignorance," he admits. "The first time I left a memory with someone, it was my twin sister."

"Someone you will always meet, in every life, no matter what else happens," Perenna realizes. 

"By the time we learn to speak, I already know this world's secret."

"What information are you sending?" She's got nothing better to do than humor the kid. They're all going to die, there's nothing to be done about it, they're trapped...

"Where to look for Lethe," he says.

"You're not getting away this time..." the fairy does nothing to mask her glee.

"We only want the male alive," the high-pitched voice of Foxglove's companion reminds her. Because reminding Foxglove is usually necessary. "Get rid of his accomplices."

"She bloody fainted." Desdemona states the obvious, after overcoming her surprise.

Archer releases his son so he can fish out his cell phone and call for help. "D-don't just stand there! Do something! She could have a concussion!"

Desdemona throws her hands up in the air. "What do you want me to do?!"

"Sensory overload," the kid whines. "Processing error."






________________________________________________________
Etc.: With names like Trip Bricks, you know I am taking my blog seriously.

Special note to readers of my old blogs: hey! It's those guys! ...Or is it?

Note for others: Percival is the son of Scarlett's sister and Greta's brother, making him Reggie's cousin twin over. If you look closely, he does have Scarlett's eyes and Greta's nose, just like Gysael. They also have a few other facial similarities.

It isn't mentioned here, but Desdemona is the mother of one of Percival's other children...