Not long after Evan and Vincent go to bed, Olivia, her mother, and her sister Stephanie come bounding into the house. Her father, her brother, and her sister Noelle split off to chase a deer.
"That gemstone is mine!" Stephanie battles her mother for the spoils of their hunt.
The long hunt has left them exhausted. Olivia and her mother sleep upstairs in some sleeping bags...
While Stephanie claims Vincent's bed for herself.
Drat! Evan's alarm clock broke, making him miss breakfast.
"Don't be late for school!" he tells Vincent on his way out.
Vincent goes up the stairs to get to his room and change, then yelps in surprise. He wasn't expecting to find his aunt and grandmother home!
Vincent's loud footsteps wakes them up.
Nicole, more experienced with her powers, shifted back in her sleep. Her daughters are both still in their wolf forms.
"Stephanie! Stop!" Nicole commands her daughter.
Stephanie reluctantly obeys, ceasing her clawing of Olivia's easel. Nicole is their pack leader, whether or not she's in her wolf form.
"Butterfly!" Hawky chirps at them cheerfully, "Fly!"
Nicole feeds Hawky his breakfast, preferring to keep her rather rabid daughters away from vulnerable animals...
Stephanie "helps" Vincent get ready for school by growling at him threateningly. He's never been out the door this fast!
"That's hardly polite, dear," Nicole says blithely once she's finished caring for the animals. "Sit down when you eat."
Like her sister, Olivia reluctantly complies with her mother's commands.
"That's better. Don't you want to change back?"
Olivia shakes her head. "I feel fine..."
"Olivia."
There's some disorientation after changing back. Olivia's still young and not used to it, yet.
"So tell me, how are things here? I see you have lots of pets," Nicole asks. Their hunt didn't give many opportunities for catching up.
"People in this town can be so stupid," Olivia complains, "I had a guy tell me he was looking for his "lost little birdie" and it turned out to be a cockatoo. They're hardly small!"
"You're preaching to the choir. I work in politics- half of my job is managing idiocy."
They both get up to clear the dishes.
"How are things at home? Are Stephanie and Isaac getting along better?"
"If you call ignoring each other getting along," Nicole sighs, "It's better than screaming, I suppose, but you saw how the hunt split up last night. I can't wait till they move out!"
"Anyways, I have to dash. Duty calls."
Olivia returns her mother's hug. "Have fun at work."
"If such a thing is even possible..."
After a shower and change of clothes, Olivia finds herself with work to do.
A cat stuck in a tree? Really?
Evan finishes up his own work day just as Olivia leaves the house. Say hello to the new planetarium operator!
After a frustrating time coaxing a cat down to earth, Olivia makes a stop at the science lab to drop off some rodents.
Since he's moving up in the astronomy world, his boss orders him to test some of their new technology.
"How does this thing work?" Evan mutters, trying to turn on his jetpack.
He figures it out quickly enough.
But there definitely some kinks left to work out.
Yikes.
Evan unearths himself, coughing out dirt. He'll definitely have to write about this in his report.
While Evan showers off, Olivia helps Vincent with some homework.
"How's school, kiddo?"
Vincent sighs. "Ok. Today we had music, which was really fun! But the teacher told me I was being mean..."
"What happened?"
He scowls, "Mark Lin kept messing up the notes! I tried to show him how to do it properly but the teacher said it didn't matter! But he kept getting it wrong! How can that not matter?"
"Well, you have to pick your battles, you know? Some mistakes are so small that they don't really hurt anyone."
"His music playing hurt me."
His reply is so candid that Olivia laughs despite herself, "Well. You can't really learn without making mistakes."
Vincent frowns. "But the other kids didn't make mistakes!"
"People make mistakes for different things. For example- that math problem you just did," Olivia peers at his work, "Nine times six isn't forty-five, Vince."
He pouts, but seems to get the message.
Olivia goes upstairs after a shower to take care of her pets. Vincent named her snake "Bo". The snake is actually female, as a trip to the vet has proven, but she thinks the name is pretty cute.
Evan waits for Olivia to finish up before telling her about his promotion.
She congratulates him. "So when do you start flying around in space, Mr. Jetson?" she asks playfully.
He laughs, "Judging from my jetpack test, not any time soon. Besides, I'm nowhere near qualified to be an astronaut." Evan's tests clearly indicated an aptitude for physics and astronomy, but not the technical skills or physical condition needed for a life in space. With Vincent still needing him, though, Evan's perfectly content to stay here on earth and identify stars with a telescope.
Olivia spins him around for a congratulatory kiss.
They both ignore Evan's phone.
Olivia thinks dreamily about their good chemistry before falling asleep.
They all have their different morning routines.
Olivia looks at the photos of Evan's parents when she gardens sometimes.
She can't believe that Naomi and Calvin haven't called a single time to see how they're doing. She can't imagine where she would be without her parents. Maybe it's a "werewolf thing" but her family, pack or not, are an important part of her life. How could anyone just abandon their children? It makes no sense to her.
She doesn't have long to ruminate, though.
Her sister Noelle told her about an injured turtle she saw on her way back from work. Olivia investigates. Its tail is bleeding and one of its legs is limp. It must have been attacked by a larger animal.
She coaxes the turtle into a container, ready to begin its rehabilitation.
"Daaad," Vincent still calls Evan his father, even if they're siblings, "What's 1/4 times 9?"
"I can't do your homework for you, Vince."
"But you're a genius!"
"Flattery will get you nowhere."
Hmmph.
"C'mon, Vince. Remember how you multiply fractions and whole numbers? Convert the 9 into a fraction..." He resists the temptation to skip straight to the last step- to just have 9 over 4- knowing that his brother is still learning.
"1/4 times..." Vincent counts on his fingers, "36 over four..."
"Then the 36 is multiplied by...?"
"...the one... and the four stays the same?"
"No, that's only for-"
"Addition and subtraction," Vincent finishes. "36 over 16...both divided by four... nine over four... Two point...something," Vincent scratches his head. Math is hard!
After a few more math problems, Evan eagerly tries out another gadget his workplace sent home with him. It's a PC that has a holographic screen. Its processing power is much higher than most other laptops on the market, but it's still experimental. Evan notes the glitches, the times the interface doesn't respond to his commands or is overly sensitive and takes his arms moving slightly as an invitation to clear the desktop of all windows.
Vincent is all too happy to put his math homework away in the favour of painting. He takes a long time- too long, according to his art teacher- to complete his art, but at home that doesn't matter. Alongside his paints and paintbrush, he brings a straight edge to map out the lines of the beginning sketch.
He's not aware of it, but his grandfather Billy Caspian would have been impressed, if a bit crude, about his approach.
Olivia tries to play it cool, "Yeah, stopped there on the way home from that turtle..." it's a bit embarrassing, but sometimes she feels compelled to steal. It's always small things, never anything more expensive than a good notebook or a picture frame, but she doesn't know why she does it. This book comes from the Bistro. Someone must have forgotten it after their lunch...
Evan doesn't notice, of course, and shows off their new drink synthesiser.
"It can make anything! Well, in theory...I'm supposed to program it myself," Evan sighs. He's their poor beta tester, unofficially. He doesn't complain, though, aware of the fact that getting his job...the way he did...hasn't won him any friends in the office.
They also give him this snazzy bed, the "Dream Pod".
Evidently, there are some kinks to work out with this thing too.
Olivia wonders if Evan's co-workers just have it out for him when they send over this buggy food synthesiser. She can't get it to make anything remotely edible
Evan has a bit more luck, but it takes a lot of trouble shooting.
At least he's getting better with the jet-pack?
Nope.
He's eager to tell his boss about all the technical difficulties.
Another lost pet?
Olivia's tired of this whole song and dance. After not finding any missing posters, she just takes the bird for herself.
Meanwhile: Evan gets another promotion. They give him this portable, high powered telescope. He's happy to have some functional technology for a change.
Olivia's been patient with all of this malfunctioning machinery, but this waterless shower crosses some kind of line for her.
"Are they just straight up scamming you now? How can air clean you?"
Evan gives her a lengthy spiel about sonic airwaves and the molecular structure of the various substances that make up "grime", but Olivia's tuned him out.
***
Evan's starting to get the hang of this.
Unfortunately for them, all that fancy technology makes them a target for a local burglar.
The intruder causes Olivia's more territorial instincts to surface.
This comes at a bad time for the police officer who arrives just then. She's never seen a werewolf before!
The burglar is also caught off guard, giving the officer time to pounce on him. Olivia laughs at the intruder.
The officer wins pretty easily.
The burglar is arrested.
"You ever come here again- you won't get to walk out," Olivia hisses, out of earshot of the cop.
The burglar starts to shake. He'll take jail over this craziness any time!
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AN: One of the other rolls is "perfect careers", which sucked for me since the future technology skill can only be levelled up (without going to the future) by constantly using future technology.
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