1.12 The Art Of Aging

"Can't sleep? Perhaps you and Marcus have something to talk to us about?", asked Venice. Casey glared at her cake that she didn't really want. "Serena told me about the ring." Venice pushed gently. Casey remained silent. "I'm not about to be a grandmother am I?", Venice asked, trying to get Casey to open up.

"Oh no!" Casey gasped "I'm still a virgin, we don't even sleep in the same bunk when I stay over!", Casey rushed, relieved to finally be free of her secret. "In fact, we didn't even have our first kiss, until Marcus proposed after the school dance!"

"Oh!" stuttered Venice, who had secretly suspected her son and soon to be daughter in law had been shagging like bunny rabbits, considering how often Casey stayed over. Venice had given Marcus the birds and bees lecture, as well as the safe sex lecture, and all the other related lectures at an early age.
After all, she was already pregnant at Marcus age.

"So why the big secret, keeping it from your mother and I?" asked Venice, to keep the conversation moving. "Well..", hesitated Casey, "When Marcus asked me, I wanted to elope, and start a life where nobody knew us, and he talked me into staying and finishing school.".

"But why would you want to disappear?", Venice pushed, knowing there was something more. "Because I hate my life, I hate everything about it, everything about it, except Marcus!", Casey cried.
"I love my mum, but she is always too busy dealing with my crazy sisters, and her loser husband to have time for me, school is a nightmare, and then there is the werewolf thing!"

 

"When I am with Marcus, he makes all my pain and anger go away!" Casey said, pushing the uneaten cake slice away. "He makes me even feel good about my self sometimes."

Venice hugged the quietly sobbing teenager, "But why the secrecy? It's not like Marcus to hide something like this from Lilli or I?", she probed gently.

"It's my fault!",  sobbed Casey, "After Marcus convinced me to stay, I felt so ashamed I didn't want anyone to know what I'd been thinking, and to keep everything a secret until we both finished school."

Casey's sisters continued to be insufferable at school, and at home, the only time she could bare to be around them was in wolf form when hunting, despite her sisters starting several fights over who was pack leader. These arguments continued until Alycia and Bernadette announced they where joining the Wulf family pack for hunting. 

  Casey decided she would rather hunt solo. Her sisters where not impressed.

  

Venice, Lilli, and Serena spoke several times about Casey's unhappiness at home, and in the end agreed to Casey moving into the Jettstar household, after all, Casey was highly likely to move out of home immediately after finishing school, and with her impending marriage, would be living there or in a new house shortly anyway. While Serena wasn't excited about her first cub leaving the nest, she admitted at least Casey was going to a good home, where she would be happy.

Venice had Bob the builder, add another room to the upstairs area. Casey bounced on her new bed. The excitement of finishing school, leaving home, getting married, was overwhelming. She didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry!

"Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been. David Bowie.” argued Venice. "Well, the person I should be can wait a few days, I'm not having a party on my birthday." countered Marcus the day before aging up. "Casey has to share her birthday with her mental sisters the day after, so we are going to wait until the day after that and have a joint birthday party, and announce our wedding!", Marcus added.

Venice could see the point in sharing something special with the one you love, and so conceded defeat to her sons logic, despite having already planned a party for Marcus.

 Marcus interrupted his workout, he had barely noticed 'that aging' feeling over the burn of the muscle fatigue. He stretched his arms, and kneaded his tired calf muscles, waiting to become a Young Adult.
Then suddenly, it happened. Marcus briefly checked his reflection in the window, he was quite solid and athletic looking, despite the fact that his only sports like activities other than jogging revolved around the treadmill and weights.

 

 Marcus went from room to room looking for Casey to show her what her new man looked like, He thought he heard the sink running in the bathroom that separated their two rooms, he pushed the door open, expected her to be at the sink. "Oh maker, I'm so sorry Case!", he blurted, realizing she was in the shower. "Get OUT of here, you OLD pervert!", Casey cried, not sure if she was embarrassed or excited, that Marcus had seen her naked, well, the back half of  her anyway. 

Marcus quickly shut the door, "Hurry up, you'll be late for your last day of school, and I'm driving you!", he added "Kiddo!", and was rewarded by the sound of a wet cloth bouncing off the door.
Marcus drove Casey to school in his 69 Dodge Charger, and pulled up behind a police car. Casey pecked him on the cheek, grabbed her school books and jumped out of her fiances car, just as two police officers were escorting Casey sisters to the waiting patrol car. 'Maybe I won't have to share a party with them' Casey hoped.

 

Casey went to the Errant household after school, her mother gave her a book on fishing, which pleased her, and the she waited another hour for her sisters to be released, so the triplets could have their party. Her sisters were on the best behavior, as Serena was definitely not in a good mood with either of them for wolfing out and fighting in school. Casey kissed her mother and grudgingly her sisters as soon as the party was over, and went to her new home.

Venice bought her first ice cream since becoming a rock star, she had always been watching her figure, and working out like crazy to stay in shape while climbing her way to the top, and now that she was an international phenomenon, she was entitled to a treat!  

 'This was the flavor of success!' she told herself a she began to plan a joint 'Marcus Birthday, Casey Birthday, Wedding announcement' party.

 Meanwhile, Gypsy began to discover that her pups didn't make her feel young anymore, in fact being so old, made her just feel really old.

 

 She grabbed the chew toy that was on top of the pile, she didn't have the energy to dig through for her favorite.

 

Chapter Notes:
I was going to use the David Bowie quote for the chapter title. but decided it was too long.
I went with 'Aging', but the one word title irked me throughout writing the entire chapter, and I change it to 'The Art Of Aging' as I've had to spend so much time 'age fiddling' with the Jettstars and Errants to keep every ones ages at a story correct level. Despite having a mod that countered the games age gapping when you create twins and triplets etc in CAS. I'm still having issues, quite possibly SP or something else is causing it. Whatever it is, its not coming up as a conflict with any of the tools I have, so I'm not going to look into any further.

So.... Venice was 1 day of elder, and I didn't want her to age before Marcus and Casey, so I used a Alchemy young again potion, thinking it was the same as ambrosia...wrong, it made her a YA, so then I had to age her back up to Adult, then of course hunt through my massive hair collection, etc.

Casey was 7 days younger than Alycia, and 8 days younger than Bernadette.. So pokery jiggery there too. After spending 20K points stopping Gypsy from hitting Elder a few days ago, it was time to age her up, to keep up with Marcus. I had intended to write bulk about Marcus and Gypsy, but it all got cut to keep each chapter from becoming an encyclopedia sized read.

So technically, Marcus is now heir, and the game should be played by his rolls, but I'm going to drag out the takeover for a chapter, maybe two, until I feel I have finished this part of the story. Hopefully the reasoning is clear to both my regular readers :P

I've tried to play by the challenge rules so far, but I must confess to bending few especially with pets and supernatural life states. (Pets and SN are the only 2 EPs I have...)
I totally confess to absolutely smashing rules 7 & 8 to oblivion, purely for story telling purposes and cohesion, not for game advantage. I put all blame for my time travel anomalies squarely onto the 'Into The Future' expansion that I don't own yet, but is already reaching back in time to wreak havoc with my game.      

1.11 Faster Pussycat

Lilli sat in the kitchen, eating a late night salad, she had been missing her Venice terribly in the last few days, and had constantly been dreaming of her and Venice having their own child. She loved Marcus like her own son, but Lilli's body kept suggesting how lovely it would be to have her own.

She decided to keep these thoughts to herself, it would need an extra person in the relationship, a male. Lilli had no aversions to males in the past, but the thought of an extra person in their relationship made her skin crawl. If they adopted, or sought out a male to impregnate one them, it would not be a child that both Lilli and Venice had created. No, it was just not to be. Lilli needed a distraction. Like her insane mother threatening to send an assassin after her wasn't distracting enough.       

Casey had been spending her every available moment at the Jettstar property. Venice, Lilli, and especially Marcus had a way of making her feel... less hateful of herself. Venice hated her skin, so pale, like a vampire, plastered with freckles. She had unmanageable hair, too dark a shade of red, she was flat chested compared to either of her sisters, her ears stuck out and where too pointy.

Casey hated her thin stick legs, she was taller than normal, she... she had to stop hating herself, Morgana the mage-witch had told her that 'Marcus loved her unconditionally, and accepted who and what she was, and that Casey would feel unworthy of that love, until she could love and accept herself.'

Casey wanted to be worthy, more than anything. She focused on what she hated most about herself.
She ran through the list of what she felt were her shortcomings, being a werewolf, she realized. Being a werewolf and at the mercy of the moon. She could change at will, she had been hunting a few times with her mother and her sisters, the change felt like a slow, painful process, as her body wrenched and remolded her body.

'If I had more control over it, and could do it faster, and when I wanted, maybe I could eventually halt the process all together!, Casey deduced. Casey, morphed from human to wolf and back, then again, and again. It hurt the same each time, but she was human when she chose to be, and wolf when she chose to be, she was in control. A slight feeling of euphoria flowed through her, she was in control of this, it wasn't just something that happened to her, she made it happen!

Casey took a deep breath, she was going to practice this like a gym workout, 10 repetitions, several times a day, she looked down at the pile of fur she had shed. 

Casey crept across the road to the park, she squinted in the darkness to make sure she was alone. She hated it when the moon forced her to wolf out in front of people, despite the fact that her clothes stretched when she changed, she always felt like she was naked. The very first time the moon had forced her to shift, she had been wearing a tight fitting denim skirt and jacket, both with press studs. Her increase in size had left her running among the trees in her underwear. She chose her clothes for stretchiness now and refused to wear skirts or dresses ever again.

She took a deep breath, and triggered the transformation.

Casey's senses sharpened, she could see more clearly in the low light, her hearing improved easily tenfold, and her sense of smell.. "I'm sorry little rabbit, but I'm suddenly hungreee!" She growled.




Lilli was upstairs exercising when her phone rang, she flitted off the running machine, pushing the off button with one hand, and her mobile phone with the other. Venice was coming home later today, and Lilli was excited. "Venice!, sweetheart!, when will you be home?", Lilli asked impatiently. "In about three minutes, Ive missed you Lil!", Venice responded. Lil was on the stairs in a flash, and bolted for the front door.

Lilly and Venice greeted each other like they had been apart for an eternity, which is exactly what it had felt like for each of them. Gypsy, Bull and Dozer waited patiently to greet Venice.

The couple spent the next two days locked in their room, only coming out occasionally for food, and once for an extra can of whipped cream.





Serena called Venice a few days after that, saying that she needed to talk. Venice invited her over, Serena had been her first good friend when she moved to Elba, it would be great to catch up.

"Here is the the thing.", Serena said, after they had been talking and drinking for a while, "Since my daughter Casey started dating your son Marcus, she has gone from a C- average to A+, and has even been on the honor roll, and you know as werewolves, we have a riff-raff reputation to uphold.", Serena joked..


"But seriously, she has more self-confidence, and I've never seen her happier, the few times she us at home for anything other than sleep. Marcus is really good for her. She is finally coming out of her shell!"

"The thing is, last night when I went to check on the girls, Casey was still awake, sitting up in her bed, twisting an engagement ring on her finger!", Serena burst out. "Casey said that Marcus had proposed to her two days ago, and she never told me, or even her sisters, and wouldn't say anything else about it, I'm worried this is going to fast!"

Venice didn't know how to respond so she went for, "This is news to me too!". Serena added "Casey has always been the most anxious, hesitant and insecure of my girls, and I don't want to see either of the kids get hurt."

Venice promised to talk to Casey and Marcus, and fill her in on the details.

Chapter Notes.

Both Lilly and Venice have been rolling continuous 'have a child / have a child with' rolls for days.
As you can see, Casey got her pale freckly skin from her mother, but hates it because both her sisters have a tanned freckleless skin. Serena was, in a pre LRC life, a vampy vampire, I werewolfed her, and gave her 3 daughters to raise, so Marcus would have someone in the game to talk too as a child.
I didn't actually plan on Marcus hooking up with any of them, but the game kept putting Casey and Marcus together, through school.

The title Faster Pussycat is a reference to the band formed in the mid 80's, who named themselves after a movie from '65. I had intended for the story to involve Bull and Dozer and some kittens, as both pups kept rolling 'play with another pet'. I had the scene all written in my head, but not on paper.
The idea got lost somewhere, only the title remains :(

1.10 Paranoia

Lilli desperately missed Venice while she was tour, but Venice called her every day, and they talked for as long as the world tour schedule would permit. It was a very busy time in Elba as well, Lilly Wong-Lum had passed away suddenly, this had left Lawrence and his twin Ernest, in the care of step-father they hardly knew.

Ernest had begun dating Casey's sister Alycia, and the other sister, Bernadette was seeing some kid named Martin who lived outside the town limits. While Casey spent almost all her spare time at the Jettstar household, Lilli had hardly seen the other two.

And Lilli had the itchy feeling that she was being watched, on more than one occasion. Lilli hadn't mentioned that to Venice over the phone, it was probably because there was no moon, which always darkened her mood.

Gladys had called, she couldn't convince any of her children to return to Elba to take over the junkyard, and asked Lilli if she wanted to lockup the junkyard until she returned in a month. Lilli told Gladys that she enjoyed talking to the townsfolk, and the trading and repairs every Friday, so the agreement for Lilli to look after the junkyard stayed in place.


Bernadette dropped in a few days later to ask Casey for some advice about the end of term school dance, Marcus was invited to the conversation, and Bernadette was on her best behavior, a pleasant night was had by the small group

Marcus asked Casey if she wanted to go to the school dance. Casey's response was "How about we stay here and eat slugs instead?". Marcus replied "Really?, that bad?". Casey explained to Marcus, that she would want to punch half the kids at the dance in the face for being mean to her in the past, and that she hadn't worn a dress or skirt since she was child, and wasn't going to get back into the habit.


Lilli was getting ready to close the junkyard for the day, when she got that someone is watching you feeling. She had a few large boxes of books that she had taken home last Friday to sort in the car. The boxes had been sorted into some sort of order now. Mechanical manuals in the first box, Historical books in the second, everything else in the third. Lilly carried the boxes into the office, pulled the door closed and locked it.

She sat on the chair beside the office to catch her breath, she never used Horace rocking chair, she felt it was disrespectful.

A tall handsome fairy appeared from behind the office, his hair was the same color as Lil's, his eyes the same, yet it still took her a few moments to recognize him.
 "Jasper, I hardly recognize you, you have grown so tall, are you well? why are you here, have you been disowned as well?", Lilly poured out. "Greetings to you big sister, yes it has been some time, yes I am well, no I haven't been disowned yet, If mother knew I was here to warn you, I would be charged with treason, did I answer them all?" responded Jasper.

 Jasper explained that since she had left, he had gone from fourteenth in line, to ninth. Amaranth, had been bitten in her bedchamber by a poisonous snake, and Evanthe had drown in her bath, he suspected Valerian had a hand in both. Mother who had become increasingly paranoid, had disowned Alder, Aster and Heather in the space of a week. Mother had been ill for a few days, and suspected one of her disowned children, had summoned a Black Valkyrie.

"You were the only person to ever show me kindness Lilliana, without expecting anything in return. You also saved me when Sorrel pushed me off the bridge to drown me. Should the Valkyries end the other three, I would feel no regret, but if they took you before I could repay my debt to you Lilliana, I would be most annoyed."

Lilliana remembered that little Jasper had always insisted on settling debts, and eye for an eye. Jasper explained that he had easily found Lilliana, from the location information that was part of her wedding record in the great tomes of lineage. He had somehow convinced the keeper of that particular tome to 'lose' the page until a new King or Queen sat apon the throne.  

It would make it so very much harder for anyone else to find her without that information, and that it would be wisest to  move, and keep moving. He also told her that his debt was more than fairly settled, and that their paths would most likely not cross again.

As soon as Jasper left, Lil pulled out her mobile phone and dialed Gladys. Gladys was on friendly terms with almost every resident of Elba and Lilli asked  who the most powerful witch in town was, as she was in need of strong protection magic. Lilli had to reveal her ties to the royal fae lineage, and what sort of trouble she was in to need such help.

Gladys asked her to hold for a few minutes, she might have something better. Gladys told Lilli to expect a visit tomorrow days from a very colorful lass by the name of Morgana.

The next day when Lilliana answered the ringing of the doorbell, she knew immediately that it was Morganna. Other than spectacularly cheerful clothing, and the gigantic shock of blue an purple hair, Lilliana could actually taste the power surrounding this girl, It tasted of both witch and fairy magic, it carried the flavor of earth, fire, water and air, all at once.

"I came as soon as could, your highness..", Morgana bowed as she spoke. Lilli interupted "Don't, just.. please don't, Lilli is fine.". Morgana straightened, "Yes M'lady...Yes Lilli."   

 

Lilli invited Morgana inside, and asked why Gladys had sent her, instead of a local witch.
Morgana explained that her mother was both a fairy and a witch, and that her father was a pure blood mage. Mages were very similar in appearance and physiology to humans. Morgana the explained that half breed offspring of mages, if they inherit any power, it was usually less than twenty five percent of the parent's maximum potential had. She was an extremely unusual child, as she had not only received mage powers twice the strength of her fathers, but her mothers witch skills as well.

Lilli gave Morgana the complete details of what she needed and why. Morgana quickly wrote a list of components she would need to place both wards and traps on the lot and began to inspect the house and lot. Lilli ventured into the garden to retrieve the life fruit, and the death flower, marking those off the list, she created the fairy dust herself, and returned to Morgana after gathering the remaining items on the list. Morgana was examining the paintings on the deck. "This one, I think is highly appropriate.", she told Lilli.

Lilli gave the ingredients to Morgana, save the dust. She knelt on the decking beside Morgana as instructed, and created a soothing aura. Morgana swelled with power, absorbing Lilli's aura into herself as she cast. Lilli struggled to stay upright, and then when she thought she could take no more, the spell was complete.

Morgana gave Lilli back the now enchanted necklace. The mage explained "The wards are cast, surrounding the entire lot, should any fairy, maligned intent or not, enter the lot, you will feel a slight tingle from the pendant. Should that fairy bear any ill-will toward any member of the family, the tingle will be intense, and the trap triggered."

 Morgana went on to explain the effects of the trap, and how to deal with any fairy caught in it. "I suggest if you have a large safe or somewhere else to store the painting, do do, the spell will crumble if the painting is damaged, or removed from the lot. Only the necklace alarm will work however, anywhere within the town limits, the other functions I explained to you are also limited to the lot."


Morgana stayed for dinner, the only payment that she would accept. When Lilli and Marcus took the dishes upstairs, Morgana leaned forward across the desk and asked, "I can taste your self-loathing from here, why do you hate yourself so, little one?", shocked by the question, Casey growled "What? What are you talking about!", not sure if she was irritated because it was such a rude and unexpected question, or because it was true.

"Is it the darker side of your nature, your wolf blood that you fear?", Morgana continued, as if the first question hadn't affected Casey. Casey snapped "I hate it, I hate it, I never asked to be.. a cursed werewolf!", surprised that she had finally shared her feelings about it. "You have no idea how it feels to be a freak."

"I burned our family home to the ground at age four, at five I put my mentor into hospital for a month, because I did't want to do my lessons. At six my family happily handed me to over the mage council, because the were terrified of my power that I had no control over." Morgana told Casey "I know well enough what it is to be a freak."

"Why are you telling me this?, demanded Casey growing angry at the mage. "The human boy, he loves you unconditionally, and accepts who and what you are.", Morgana explained.

"I know!", Casey said quietly. Morgana added, "And you will always feel like a worthless, unimportant freak, until you can do the same.",  "I know!" Casey repeated. "It took me many years to realize this and be at peace with myself, I'm hoping to save you some time.", Morgana explained as she rose from the table.

After the dishes had been taken care of Marcus took Casey across the road to teach her how to fish, Marcus was surprised to find Casey was a natural, and even though he had been fishing on several occasions, she was already catching more fish than he. Casey blushed when Marcus told her that she was really good at fishing. "Are you sure you haven't done this before You're really good at it!", he said. Casey responded, "No this is my first time fishing, except when I went hunting with Berny and Alycia, we tried to catch them with our teeth.. ", instantly regretting mentioned the pack hunting trip.

"It's like most things, you will get better at with practice, and its nice to see you can spend time with those two without you all trying to kill each other!". Casey smiled, it was one of the few good memories of her sisters since aging up.

 When they crossed the road back to the house, Casey was carry three times as many fish as Marcus, "See!" said Marcus, "I knew you would be good at this!", Casey's face lit up with a smile, that remained until she fell asleep.

 "Marcus?, sweetheart, darling, my paramour, my knight in shining armor..", Casey continued until she was out of suitable phrases. "Marcus, can you help with my homework, so we can talk about the end of term dance?"

 "So you are serious?, you want me to take you to the dance?" Marcus asked again. "Yes!", replied slightly annoyed at him asking the question. "But don't think you'll see me in some girly designer dress!", Casey retorted. "But its a formal event!, Marcus stated. "It will be a non event, if I can't get my head around these questions!" Casey said grumpily.

 

The school dance finally arrived, Marcus and Casey arrived half way through, to find almost all their school companions there, except Lawrence. Lawrence was in his second dance with the third single girl, when he tripped and sprained his ankle so badly, that he was taken to hospital. Oy was only a four hour event, as the Llamas were playing against the home town Eels at Elba stadium late afternoon.

Casey wanted to leave after the first dance because she felt everyone was watching them, but Marcus convinced her to stay. "Of course they are all looking! The most handsome boy in the whole school is here dancing, with the most beautiful woman in the whole world, and not only the most beautiful, but the only one clever and creative enough to design and make her own outfit for the dance!". Casey positively glowed in the deluge of compliments.

At last, there where no interruptions, and they enjoyed their first passionate kiss

The kiss didn't make it into the top five, most pure, most passionate kisses ever, but they were both quite pleased with it, and besides, they had plenty of time to practice and perfect it.

Chapter Notes:

Old Boney was teaching Bull to play dead...when suddenly....

 

I didn't know this could happen, because i usually have life span maxed.

Every one at the house came to mourn Boney, except Bull, who waited for an appropriate moment to Hi-five the reaper.

Needless to say, I ended up not being able to dismiss or re summon bones, nor could I delete her cabinet while it was still in use. So I saved the game, the next day I was able to delete the cabinet.