Saturday morning, Lyle calls Violet and asks her to meet him at the park. He has something important to tell her.
"Tell me my father isn't doing something insane behind me," Lyle sighs, noticing Violet's distracted glances in Loren's direction.
"I don't want to lie to you, Lyle," Violet answers.
Lyle sighs, "You see what I have to deal with? Try to ignore him."
"I knew it!" Violet xclaims, "I asked my father if she was my real mother once, but he denied it. How could he lie to me?"
Lyle shakes his head, "She isn't your mother, either. She's your half-sister."
"How is that even possible? She's the same age as my parents."
"Have you ever heard of a vampire named Beau Merrick?" Lylke asks. Violet shakes her head. "It's not surprising. He keeps a low profile, and people are pretty careful about not mentioning him in front of your family. He moved to Twinbrook around the time your grandfather was starting his political career, and he married one of the three women he moved here with, Bianca Rubble. They had two daughters, Bree and Yesenia. As you know, Bree was born around the same time as your mother. Immediately after they graduated high school, Beau divorced his wife and moved in with your mother. It was the talk of the town at the time, but it was a very brief affair. Shortly afterwards, she kicked him out and married your father. She was pregnant with you when they married. The town has kept up the pretense that you are Jeromy's child, but it is certain your real father is Beau Merrick, the only male vampire in Twinbrook."
Violet is stunned by the news. She had been ready to accept that Oregon wasn't her real mother, but she was not prepared to be told that Jeromy was not her real father. But she knows Lyle is thorough in his research and would never tell her this if he hadn't checked all his facts, so she believes him.
"Where does Beau Merrick live now?" she asks.
Lyle gives her a worried look. "You want to meet him? Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Violet nods, "I have to meet him. If I'm going to live as a vampire, I have to know what that means."
"What if you didn't have to live as a vampire?" Lyle asks.
"I wish," Violet sighs, "But sooner or later, I'm going to have to accept it."
"Actually, you may not have to," Lyle answers, and smiles to see the brightening of her expression, "I have some connections at the science facility, and they've been researching a cure for vampirism. It's still experimental, but Yesenia Merrick has been successfully cured."
"Can they cure me, too?" Violet asks.
"You can't give legal consent until you are an adult," Lyle answers, and Violet's smile turns to a frown, "But they'll give you the treatment if I tell them to."
Violet laughs, "If you tell them to? What, are you their boss?"
"I funded their research," Lyle answers. Violet raises her eyebrow. "The advantage to having an insane father is I can forge his signature on his checks and he can never remember for sure that he didn't write the check himself."
"You are amazing, you know that?" Violet sighs.
"I'd do anything for you."
"Can you make me an appointment for tomorrow?"
That evening, Violet confronts Jeromy, "I know you aren't my real father."
"I'm not your biological father," Jeromy answers, "But I am your father in every way that's important."
"How could you keep from this from me? Did you think I'd never find out?"
"I always intended to tell you someday. I guess I waited too long. I wanted your mother to be the one to tell you, to be honest, but she's never gotten over what the vampire did to her," Jeromy sighs, "Try to understand, Merrick used mind control powers to seduce your mother away from me. Bree and I were able to overcome the hold he had on her, but she was already pregnant. I raised you as my own child, and I love you like my own child..."
"But my mother doesn't. She never wanted me and she still tries to avoid me because I remind her of him." Violet says, suddenly understanding.
"Your mother loves you," Jeromy answers, but he doesn't sound very convinced. He's often wondered if Oregon actually loved her daughter at all.
"How could she love me? I'm a freak, a monster, a vampire, just like the one that mind-controlled her and used her!"
"You aren't a monster, sweetheart," Jeromy protests, but Violet stomps off to her room, ending the discussion. She is a monster, a blood-sucking, mind-controlling freak, or at least she would be. But Lyle offered her a cure, and tomorrow she's going in for the treatment.
Before her appointment at the science facility, Violet visits Beau Merrick in the swamp lair he's been holing up in since Oregon kicked him out of her house.
"You!" she screams at him, "You monster! You made my life a nightmare!"
"I knew you would seek me out eventually," Beau answers calmly, "You've been raised by humans, and that's confused you. You are vampire, my daughter. To them, you are a monster, but you are superior to them in every way. You are the predator, and they are the the prey. Put aside your human feelings and become what you truly are."
"I don't want to a vampire," Violet answers, "I just want a normal, human life."
Beau snorts derisively, "A short, fearful life. We live longer, we're stronger, faster, smarter and have the power to read and control their minds. How can you want to be one of them?"
It's a difficult question to answer. She was raised by humans and has always viewed her vampirism through human eyes, seeing herself as abnormal, a monster. It never occurred to her to look at humans through the eyes of a vampire.
"Did you love my mother?" Violet asks.
"Love?" Beau laughs, "Don't make that mistake, child. Your human lovers are for feeding, for sexual gratification and for breeding more of your kind. You'll have them for awhile, like pets, but they'll wither and die in just a fraction of your lifespan. Getting attached to them only brings pain."
Talking to the vampire confirmed Violet's decision to take the experimental cure. Living longer would be a curse, not a blessing, if it means losing love in the process. She's not going to spend a life feeding on Lyle then watching him grow old and die while she moves on to new prey. She walks in to the science facility with no doubts or fears left. She wants to be human.
They administered the treatment and told her it should work overnight. Violet goes to bed a vampire, and transforms in her sleep. For the first time in her life, she dreams. It's a simple dream about hanging around with Lyle after school, nothing anyone would make note of if they were used to having nightly dreams, but for Violet, it's a miracle.
When she wakes, she sees the change to her skintone, confirming that the treatment worked.
She's made pancakes before, as she hadn't yet reached the age where vampires must drink plasma to live, but now the process of food preparation brings her a new joy. She's not going to have to give up the pleasure of food, or ever have to drink the blood of a lover.
Jeromy wasn't pleased that Violet took part in an experimental procedure without talking to him about it.
"I talked to Beau Merrick, I learned from him what it is to be a vampire, and I knew I couldn't become the same kind of creature that preys on human minds like he did to my mother. I had to do this, Dad, and I'm happy I did it."
Violet meets up with Lyle at the Red Rendezvous after school. "I'm cured," she says "How do I look?" He hadn't been in class all day to see the results of her treatment because he'd been caught stealing equipment from the chemistry lab again and had spent day in a counseling session.
"Your eyes...they're beautiful," Lyle answers, "I mean, you were always beautiful, but now..."
Lyle stops talking and kisses her. He'd spent a worried night wondering if he'd done the right thing in telling her about the cure while it was still so experimental, and arranging for her to take it. It was a huge risk, and while he takes lots of risks for himself, putting Violet at risk made him understand for the first time why his mother worries about him so much.
Lyle comes home with Violet after school the next day. "That's a fully grown spire cut tiberium," he exclaims when he notices the glowing gem on the shelf, "They are incredibly rare. Where did you get it?"
"That? It's always been there," Violet answers.
"Your house is filled with remarkable treasures," Lyle notes. Every visit is a struggle with his kleptomania. He could probably swipe a few gems and relics without the family ever noticing, as they don't seem to be aware of what they have, but while Lyle's conscience doesn't prevent him from stealing from his parents, other people and public places, he's not going to steal from Violet's family, no matter how much his fingers twitch at the sight of such exposed and easily accessible treasures.
Violet gets up to sit next to him, "My parents aren't home, you know," she says.
"But they will be, soon," he answers. Repeated counseling sessions have taught Lyle to balance risk with consequences. Above all, don't get caught. "Violet, let's run away together," he says, speaking an idea that's been percolating in his mind for some time, "I've got my father's credit cards, we could just blow off finishing high school and run off to France, and be together. No more waiting to grow up."
"Lyle, that's just crazy," Violet answers, "You are already way beyond us in school, but I kind of need to finish my education. It won't be much longer to wait. Can you hang in there with me?"
"We'll do it your way," Lyle answers. He hadn't really expected her to go along with his plan, but it as worth a shot. "Promise me you'll marry me as soon as we graduate. No waiting."
"No waiting, I promise," Violet seals the deal with a kiss.
Jeromy comes home from work at that moment. "Okay, Lyle, time to go home."
Hunter becomes a teen. Lilly-Bo has contributed scrawny arms to the McDermott gene pool as her permanent legacy.
Violet and Lyle go one a double date with Hunter and his girlfriend Megan Wolf-Bayless.
Having seen how serious Violet's relationship with Lyle has become, Jeromy decides it's time to get to know the boy better. The Carlton family has a long history of criminal activity; Lyle is descended from both Bill Racket and Sinbad Rotter, some of the most notorious criminals in Twinbrook, and everyone knows his father Loren is a burglar, though his wife Chanel tries to maintain the family's cover with her career as a power broker.
Lyle realizes immediately he's been invited over with an ulterior motive. But he doesn't blame Violet, he knew sooner or later he'd be having a talk with his future father-in-law.
Lyle is smart enough to put his best face forward and keep his petty crimes to himself. Luckily his family has enough influence that all records of his misdeeds have been expunged. For a Carlton, there are no permanent records.
Jeromy finds himself impressed with Lyle's intelligence and decides not to judge him based on his family history.
Shepard McDermott passed away, and Oregon has to go to the mausoleum to retrieve his remains for the family graveyard. The only time she's ever been to the cemetery was when Beau summoned her there, so long ago now. And here he is again, lurking around when she goes tp pick up her father's urn.
"You! Why can't you leave me alone?" she demands.
"I have left you alone," Beau points out, "I made the mistake of allowing you and your human husband to raise my daughter. You ruined her, made her doubt herself and hate her vampire nature. If I had been there to raise her, she would never have sought to make herself human."
"Then what are you dong here?" Oregon asks, avoiding any discussion of Violet with the vampire who fathered her.
"I work here," Beau answers simply, "I'm surprised you didn't know that. You are here for your father's remains. I'm here to help you with that. You couldn't possibly think I'd still be after you now, could you? I had considered turning you, keeping you as a partner instead of watching you die, but you have aged too much for such considerations now."
Oregon grieves the loss of her father, wishing she hadn't driven him out of the family home by inviting the vampire to live with them.
His death and her graveyard encounter with Beau has made her consider her own mortality. How much longer does she have before she joins her grandmother and great-grandmother in a grave behind the house? The long life of a vampire seems to tempting now, and Oregon feels some regret. Would Beau have really turned her? There is no way to ever know.
Shepard is laid to rest beside his parents. As it has become a family tradition to lay a memento of the deceased's life on the grave, Shepard's grave is decorated with party balloons to commemorated his love of parties.
Graduation day has come, and Lyle comes to Violet's house that night, eager to get away from his family and join hers. With the Carlton house's barn visible from the McDermott's front yard, he'll always be reminded of where he came from.
Everyone has gone to bed except Violet, who waited up, expecting him.
"You made me a promise," Lyle says, serious in his greeting, "No more waiting."
"I want a wedding party," Violet says, "We can wait that much longer, can't we?" Lyle looks hurt, so Violet takes his hand, "We don't have to wait for everything...you can spend the night."
"The night isn't enough, Violet, I want forever."
Violet can't resist his urgency. "Move in for now, then, and we'll have a proper wedding as quick as I can arrange it."
That satisfies Lyle, and the couple kiss to seal the deal.
The waiting is at long last over. Both Violet and Lyle are relieved that their lovemaking won't involve a vampiric feeding.
Challenge Notes:
Generation 7 is on. I mentioned in the forum that since my misc. fun for No Strangers isn't much of a challenge for me since I rarely use NPC services to begin with that I would take on an extra misc. fun and test the new 'Live your Trait' rule. So, I've chosen Violet's Neurotic trait as the trait to live. She will have to fulfill neurotic wants to wash her hands and brush her teeth multiple times, and I will make sure she freaks out or checks the sinks/stove everyday to fulfill it.
Lyle has moved into the house and I'm planning on a wedding party for the weekend.
His traits are Genius, Snob, Childish, Kleptomaniac and Daredevil (and the hidden Burglar trait). Because his rolled career of Freelance Scientist has an activity only allowed to the computer whiz trait (hacking), when he earns enough points I'm going to swap Snob for Computer Whiz. I'll keep the rest of his traits as is.
Violet got the Lucky trait for her adult trait. I rolled that one randomly. So, she's Neurotic, Artistic, Natural Cook, Perfectionist and Lucky. I'll get her into the culinary career when I next play.
Since my goal is perfect careers and Lyle's career doesn't have any measure of perfection, I'm going to have him max Logic at the very least.
Oregon has achieved her LTW, and Jeromy is not too far behind. He maxed athletic and is at level 9 Logic.
Hunter will be a teen for 6 more days or so.
I followed the R&R legacy example of curing my vampire as a teen using master controller. Because I also didn't trust the EA cure for YA's to get it right, lol. and also because I couldn't stand the skilling bonus any longer. Though she still seems to skill rapidly. She's maxed painting already with just a few paintings done. She's got cooking at level 6 before starting her career. Her LTW is Culinary Librarian.
I also cured Beau other daughter, Yesenia, because I want to keep control of the vampire population. Bree Merrick married and has turned her husband, They alreay have two baby vampires. I cured Yesenia before she got pregnant. She never turned her husband, so they are both mortal now. Interestingly, Yesenia named her daughter Bree.
After Oregon kicked him out, Beau hooked up with widow Zo Wheloff-Rotter (I love the Wheloff-Rotter name combination, btw) so since she was elder he was safe from breeding for awhile. But now she's dead and Beau will likely be on the prowl.
