2.34 Unleash

Truly alive or not, Layla thinks Mech is super awesome and sciencey.

She has a while to go before she graduates from high school, but she is already plotting to go into a science career, like her father.

Reggie frets about his parenting skills. "Do you think it was wrong of me to place a toadification curse on our daughter?"

Perenna laughs. "Naw. I think it's hilarious."

"When do you think I should un-curse her?"

"Whenever you feel like she understands who the alphas in the house are."

Reggie shakes his head. Werewolf packs operate under very strange mentality. "Most children do not blindly accept that power equals authority."

"Most children don't sprout claws when they let themselves lose their temper, either."

After Reggie deigns to remove the curse, he teaches Lucida some meditative techniques, to focus her inner energies and whatnot.

He did not do this with Izalee because it reminded him too much of trying and failing so hard to help his little brother, Rohane. That feels like a long time ago, now.

Lucida thinks she's done a pretty good job remaining calm and zen, after that scare when she clawed up Edward GilsCarbo-Bianchi at school. She wishes her parents would recognize her efforts, instead of panic at every slip-up.

She finds far more peace in strenuous, distracting exercise than in sitting still and looking for her inner self.

Pump extreme iron!!!

Perenna allows Lucida to transform, under supervision.

Lucida's were form is a little more... monstrous, than her mother's, for whatever reason. She must be careful not to let anyone outside the household see it.

Mother and daughter do werewolf stuff together, such as show off their fangs...

...work out aggression...

...howl at the moon...

...and hunt for interesting objects, using their paranormal senses.

Lucida wonders if they are Earth elementals of some kind, or something like that. Why else would she be able to sniff out diamonds and emeralds?

Lucida has amassed quite a collection of gems.

Her other hobbies include cutting things up with chainsaws.

Lucida has been behaving, so she is granted permission to invite her boyfriend, Ben, to the Goldbeard house for the first time. He is impressed by the massive basement, which triples the size of the home.

"Those two are my cousins from some far off boring town," Lucida has no idea how close to the truth it is, when she introduces Cayenne and Luis as distant family.

Introducing baby Ceth as Cayenne's daughter is a no-no, as that would raise too many questions, so Lucida claims the infant is adopted.

Later that week, Lucida visits the Rossi place for the first time.

"Holy simoly," Lucida whistles. "Why did you think our basement was impressive, again?"

Ben's uncle Rafael and aunt Sera are swimming in the Rossi pool.

"Just ignore them," Ben advises.

The real attraction for Lucida is the basketball setup the Rossis have.

So opulent! Best date ever, 10 out of 10.

Opulent lunch.

Later, Fun with dad.

Cousin Rain's synchronized yawning with dad.

After everyone is asleep, Luis picks up Scarlett's old guitar. There are so many memories left imprinted on it. So much travel, so many things learned only to be lost...

Oh, and how to play. How to play a guitar is one of the more pleasant pieces of information Luis has unintentionally absorbed in his chaotic life.









________________________________________________________
Etc.: I did roll AWESOME! for gen 3, so that may involve a gemstone collection. I was skilling Lucida up in sculpting so she could get the special sculptor's egg cuts.

Aside from the unholy Lovecraftian monster that was the gigantic spire cut rainbow gem obtained in my Riverview legacy, the egg shape cuts are my favorites.

Look at that. I used to play with the walls down! Whoa.

2.33 Breaking Curfew

Cayenne eventually has her baby. It's a horrifying ordeal, though not as horrible as it once was according to ancient, forbidden texts she's uncovered in her travels. At one point, cake didn't trigger an age-up, the dead left the bodies behind, and childbirth could be fatal.

Luis says the world they live in is a simplification. A mimicry of a higher reality thousands of times more complex than the one they interact with. Luis says this world is sinister, that there is a purpose behind their existence that he doesn't think is fair to ask of them... but Cayenne cannot help feeling like she'd rather be normal, and enjoy her life, instead of be cursed with this forbidden knowledge.

As she settles the infant girl into Lucida's old crib, she feels a crack in her resolve to find her big sister. Cayenne misses Parsley, but she and Luis still don't know how to find her. It doesn't seem fair to drag this child onto the uncertain road ahead.

Cayenne begins to sob as she recalls her own childhood, filled with all the luxuries a film star's daughter could expect. The baby's father features prominently in those memories.

He doesn't even know about the child.

Luis tries to comfort his sister.

She straightens up and stares at him, but does not seem to see him. She has lost her parents and her home, seen her sister kidnapped, and has been forced to have no contact with her child's father... she watched her twin suffer as his psychic abilities turned their world upside down and inside out... yet now she is more sad than she has ever been. She cannot hold the feelings of hopelessness at bay anymore. "I don't know if I can do this, Loki."

Names have power. Her brother frowns at the sound of his real name, the one their well-intentioned but parents gave him. She understands why he feels negative about being named after a mythological Norse trickster involved with the end times.

"She's going to be okay," he promises.

He is genuinely pleased to meet his niece. "Hello, Ceth."

"Seth is a boy's name," Cayenne protests meekly.

"No, it starts with a C, like your name." Luis is emphatic about this point. "I like it. I like the letters."

Ceth's father also had a C-name. Cayenne tries not to tear up all over again. She hadn't given much thought to naming their child. "Okay," she sighs. "Ceth it is, then."

"Ceth is what it has always been," he corrects.

Lucida is unaware of Ceth's distant blood relation to her. The protective instinct she feels towards this helpless, noisy baby has come from accepting Cayenne and Luis as part of her pack regardless of their origins.

"It took her seriously forever to have this baby," Lucida remarks. "What gives, Dad?"

"Cayenne's healing abilities were interfering with the whole... process," Reggie tells her.

A new baby in the nursery means Lucida finally gets to move out of it and into her own bedroom. Maybe she'll take that creepy owl painting she likes so much with her.

Izalee is stumped on how to contribute to society. When she goes to the local farmer's market to sell her surplus tomatoes, however, she realizes there is something she's been overlooking.

She registers at city hall as a self-employed agriculturalist.

These aquatic creatures are alive, yet Mech is not. He ponders his existence as he cares for them. 

In total, there are six seahorses in the tank. They're shy.

Lucida and Benino's second date is at Danza, same as the first.

The feel of the second date is much different from the first, however, since Danza has attracted a crowd tonight.

Taking advantage of the classy music, Ben tries to teach Lucida to waltz. This is far more high-brow than she is used to, but she goes along with it.

And hey look, Venessa is here.

Venessa's attempts to woo Fred Taylor go completely ignored.

Fred is the newlywed husband of one of the Giordano clan (namely, her cousin Maria's daughter Emily). For shame, Venessa.

After leaving Reggie, Venessa was in a relationship with the far younger Gilberto GilsCarbo, but now that Gilberto has spawned children with Ambra Ferrari, Venessa has stepped out of the way.

Lucida could do a lot worse than Benino Rossi for a first boyfriend, she decides, so she asks him to go steady before some other girl inevitably can.

Benino responds positively.

Lucida shows her happiness with action.

She must be like ten times stronger than him. Luckily Ben thinks this is hot.

Poor Fred is very popular tonight. Maybe he should not have left his new wife at home with the baby. She could have helped him fend off this cougar pack.

The teens round out their night with a couple of glasses of Starry Seas.

Lucida gets... slightly buzzed? Was she given the real nectar version, by mistake?

She saunters over to Marta and orders shrimp cocktails....

...only to quickly realize it was a bad idea.

Ewwwww. They don't even have deep fried breading around them.

How can Benino eat this???

 They go upstairs for a while to chill. Lucida has never played pool before, but wants to try a trick shot she saw on TV once. It involves a gnome.

"Gnomes are jerks, you know," she says.

After then it's time to go home, because curfew.

Ben makes it home on time, but Lucida does not. Her father threatens to turn her into a toad if she breaks curfew again.

"Yeah right, Dad. You can't turn people into toads."

____________________________________________
Etc.: Reggie rolled a wish to turn someone into a toad.