Krow - Week 11 - The Supernaturals
Prologue >
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When Lupine said, 'I have an idea!' Isaiah should have said, 'No,' right from the start.
When Lupine said 'Let's buy a fixer-upper,' he should have said, 'But Lupine, we don't know anything about how to renovate a house.'
And when Lupine had shown him a picture of the one he wanted, Isaiah really should have said, 'Great, but I want to see it first.'
But Lupine had a way of getting what he wanted. Not only was he incredibly creative, but he had a hell of a silver tongue and Isaiah had never learnt to evade it. When you added in those eyes, that charming smile, and mixed in the mysticism of practising witchcraft, it was no small wonder that Lupine had half the people in town lusting after him, men and women alike. Isaiah was unfortunately among them, which was exactly how he'd come to be in this stupid situation in the first place.
Isaiah groaned and moved to get up. He needed to do something other than lie there and sulk.
"Hey!" Lupine said, "Do you know what box the mugs are in?"
Isaiah shook his head. "No idea."
After making nice with Lupine's guest and grabbing a mug of coffee for himself, Isaiah made a point of retreating to his room for the next hour or so. It smelt a little of urine and a lot of mould, but it was preferable to the awkwardness of watching Lupine make another notch in his bedpost.
It was only when he heard the front door open and close that he dared to resurface. By this time Lupine had taken up residence on one of their three crappy sofas, the very picture of a man who was quite satisfied with his life at that moment.
Isaiah envied him.
"I've been thinking," Lupine said as Isaiah approached.
"You should probably stop doing that," Isaiah said, settling on the cleaner of the two remaining sofas.
Lupine ignored the jibe, sitting up. "We need money, right?"
"Unless you like living in a shitbox."
"We should start up a band."
A hundred different protests clouded Isaiah's thoughts, until all he could do was echo Lupine in disbelief. "A band?"
"There's a place in town opening up soon, and if we could get the occasional gig there... it should pay enough for what we want to do."
"You and your harebrained schemes, Lupine."
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"So why do you think you're the ideal person for our band?"
"I play the flute at school. I'm really good!"
"The chicks. Can't resist, ya' know?"
"I wish to examine the discourse of this lifestyle, and the ramifications of that behaviour on the social hierarchy found in a small town like this one."
"Sorry... I think I'm in the wrong place."
"C'mon," Lupine said, sliding back his chair. The old iron feet scraped against the floor with a horrible noise that made Isaiah's skin crawl. "I'm hungry."
Isaiah didn't move. "The stove doesn't work," he said, voice muffled by the tabletop, "Neither does the fridge. We had this conversation yesterday."
Like usual, Lupine didn't seem to share those concerns.
"I thought we could try the restaurant."
"Don't have money for the restaurant," Isaiah replied, "Spent it on flyers."
Privately, he was wondering how he'd gotten here. Half his brothers had kids, decent homes and income. The other half, despite being younger than him, were a lot closer than he was. Where'd he go wrong?
"I'll busk a bit," Lupine said, "It'll get our name into circulation, too."
"Our name?" Isaiah echoed, sitting up.
Lupine grinned. "The Supernaturals."
Ah, yes. That was where.
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Her name was Luna, and she was gorgeous. Isaiah had never seen someone like her before, and he had the strangest impulse to know everything about her. But he was conscious of being creepy, and kept himself a prescribed distance from the female Lycan.
Lupine, his typically suave self, had no problems talking to her.
"So how long have you been playing?"
"Since I was little. I roam; it is a way to earn food and a place to stay."
"Would you be interested in staying in town for a while?"
"To join this band of yours?"
"That's the idea, yeah."
"Do you have somewhere to stay?" Isaiah interrupted, blurting out the thought as soon as it occured to him.
"I will find a place," she replied.
"So that's a yes to the band?"
"It would seem so."
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"I like her. I know you do."
"What?"
"She's like you, right?"
Isaiah hadn't realised how much he dreaded that question until it was spoken. "Yeah, but it's not - I'm only a wolf at night. It's not the same."
"But you're similar," Lupine reasoned, "Ask her out."
"I didn't tell her what I am, you know."
"Why not?"
"Did you see it come up in conversation?" Isaiah snapped, irritability getting the better of him. It was so easy for Lupine - if he didn't want to show his aura to people, he could hide it. Being a werewolf was not nearly so subtle.
"Ask her out and tell her then. I don't see the problem, here."
"Lupine? Shut up."
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Early friday morning, Lupine was looking insufferably pleased with himself. "I got us a gig," he announced at breakfast.
Isaiah surprised himself by smiling. "Where?" he asked.
"The 'Music Box.' They're opening this week, needed a spot filled tonight."
"Sounds promising."
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They made $1400 that night in tips alone, and landed a weekly Friday night slot at the club. It wasn't much, but it was income that they could split between themselves and the house. Isaiah knew that if he could supplement that with a job during the week - and convince Lupine to do the same - things would be easier.
Not that things hadn't improved.
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Late Sunday afternoon, Luna took refuge on the back deck. She found the size of the family that Lupine and Isaiah shared to be completely overwhelming, and was relieved to be away from the overcrowded house. She needed to clear her head - she hadn't expected to feel so lonely in the company of so many people.
The worst of it was not the cacophany of voices, excited children, toddler cries and wailing babies, but that there was so much history among them all. It was a part of Isaiah that she could never really get.
"Everything alright?"
Listening to the sound of Isaiah sitting down next to her, Luna couldn't help a reflexive smile. "I did not realise your family was so large," she replied.
"I never really thought about it."
"Mm. The wealthy rarely stop to consider their fortune," she said, quoting something her mother had often said.
Isaiah climbed back to his feet. "Let's get out of here."
"And go where?" she asked.
"Somewhere quieter."
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Notes
- Holy time-consuming task, Batman! This is one of the most complicated updates I've done, with about 95% of the pictures requiring staging, posing, or control of some kind.
- That being said, this is one of my favourite updates of Krow so far, if not *the* favourite. I've wanted to do this story for MONTHS and I worked hard on it. So, haters to the left.
- I would not expect future updates from this house to be in narrative style. This was enormously time-consuming, though fun, and I want to see what these guys get up to with actual free will.
- Isaiah is a hell of a lot more helpful when it comes to picture-taking than either Lupine or Luna.
- The house is not yet finished, it needs wallpaper and a bit more love, but it'll do for now.
- Luna and Lupine had three bolts when she first moved in, and holy cow did ACR want to take full advantage of that, to the point where I had to change Lupine's chemistry to avoid any disasters.
- And just so we're clear: Isaiah falling for Luna is not "curing" his homosexual behaviour. He has an equal appreciation for men and women, but a wolf-sim who wants 50 dream dates is a much better match than a flirty guy who wants to woohoo with 20 sims. That's all there is to it. He still swoons over Lupine all the time. I doubt that anyone's going to go flames-and-torches, but I still wanted to make it clear. I would hate for someone to take that message away from my story when it is very much not true.
- The 'Music Box' is Krow's third public lot, earned from having 12 households. The 12th is the Crowley family and they haven't had their update yet, so it's a tad premature but all the households are meant to be simultaneous, so I don't really care. I'll do a lot tour soon.
- Luna's addition to the neighbourhood means there are 48 playables, and with an SM of 14, the total population is now 672. The music career is also available.
Next will be the Hark family, I believe.