3.3 Transformation

Dot messes around with the DJ booth at the warehouse. 

She smiles triumphantly when the song she mixed plays. Not too old to make nice music, she muses to herself. 

"Booo, no vegetarian options!" Ume is annoyed that she can't have anything other than fries or nachos at this place. 

"It's not rocket science- just give me a wrap with no meat!" Ume's hunger causes her to abandon politeness. 

Dot is too busy greeting her boyfriend to notice. 

They start tearing up the dance floor. 

Dot giggles, "I feel a bit silly..." clubs have never really been her scene, especially now that she's middle aged. 

Erich laughs pleasantly. "I think you look fantastic! I'm so happy you invited me here! I've always wanted to come!" 

She smiles at his excitement. 

Dot and Aloiso later get excited over something totally different- Quartz and Shanda are expecting their first child! 

"Took you long enough," Dot jokes. Next to her, Aloiso wipes away tears of joy. 

"Well, first it was the career... then saving up for our own place...then my body stubbornly refused to bear fruit, so to speak," Shanda jokes light-heartedly. The truth is, she's relieved that she's finally pregnant. The constant disappointment and waiting was getting heartbreaking. 

Ah, still maturely ignoring your ex, I see... 

Marcie frowns at her ex-husband. It's been so long, would it kill him just to say hi to her when their daughter isn't around? 

Back at home, Tatum pumps her fist in victory. She's getting very close to cracking the chemical formula for the "imaginary friend metamorphium" potion, as the chemistry table's handbook calls it. Its actual chemical compound name is too long and clunky to sound appealing to kids. 

Eureka! 

The next morning while Tatum excitedly explains her breakthrough to her sister, Santos is back at it with the blog posts and articles. I'm not getting any younger, when can I stop writing this junk? 

Santos is saved from writing further garbage by the computer breaking down. He goes out to see some friends while Tatum repairs it. She wonders if he broke it on purpose. 

Dot's daycare business is still going well. 

She goes outside to get the mail and runs into Tatum on her way out. 

"Going somewhere?" she's surprised to see Tatum without her logic book. 

"Yeah, to the junkyard. I'll be back soon!" Tatum promises. 

"Take all the time you want," Dot's just glad that Tatum is finally doing something besides reading. 

Ah, yes. "Going out to see friends." That old trick.  Santos can't bring himself to feel bad about it. 

Tatum spends hours sorting through scrap. She's going to need a lot of it for her next project... 

Kaira explains as best she can in simple terms what's going to happen to Lucky when he drinks the potion. 

When he presses for more details, she tries to give him the scientific explanation Tatum told her... 

But in the end, she ends up just prodding him to drink it with winning sentences like, "just trust me", "how about if you have a little at a time? just a sip?", "Come on, you chicken?" 

"If I win the next pillow fight, you gotta drink it!" 

Cough. Lu is being strangely stubborn. 

"How about...if I win rock paper scissors?" 

"Best two out of three!" he's stalling. 

She can't figure out why. Her patience finally wears out. 

"What's wrong!? Just drink it!" she snaps. 

He looks down guiltily. "I'm just scared." 

She looks at him, a glimmer of sympathy in her eyes. "C'mon. What could be more exciting than changing your existence?" when his expression doesn't change, she tries a different angle, "I'll be here the whole time. Don't worry." 

He finally takes the potion from her. 

After a long silence, he slowly drinks from the beaker. 

"Agh!" he suddenly coughs and tosses the beaker away. It smashes into many small pieces against Kaira's bookshelf. 

"The hell!?" Kaira is alarmed both by the throwing and the strange light that envelops him. 

"I feel weird!" he sounds almost near tears. 

When the light fades away, Kaira has trouble believing her eyes. 

"Lu?" 

"I think I'm going to be sick..." he throws up on her shoes. 

He holds onto Kaira for balance afterwards. "Plumbob! I'm so sorry!" 

Kaira looks at her vomit-covered shoes in disgust. "I'm not cleaning that. Just...buy me new ones, alright?" 

While Lu becomes acquainted with the entirely new, shiny process of cleaning, Santos himself isn't feeling too good... 

"Dad?" Dot gasps in horror. Santos doesn't notice the first time Dot calls him her father. 

Even so, he will always be apart of the family. 

When Dot returns from the graveyard, it's very late and raining. She runs into a strange boy in her front yard. 

"I'm sorry, now's not a good time for visitors... I'm sure Kaira will invite you over later," she apologises to what she thinks is a classmate of her daughter's. 

Lu does some awkward explaining of who he is... 

"Oh! Well... I suppose you can stay the night then," Dot says uneasily. She's not entirely convinced he isn't some runaway, but she doesn't have it in her to turn away a child late a night who doesn't have another home to go to. 

When he asked Dot and Kaira where he should sleep, Kaira grudgingly let him take her top bunk. 

"Just for tonight!' she hissed at him. She doesn't want a roommate long term. 

Lu climbs cautiously into bed. It'll be his first time sleeping in one. 

"Good night, Kaira." 

She doesn't answer him.

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AN: Oh. My. 

GOSH. 

That took forever! I like Lucky (his actual name in game is Lu, but let's just say that's a nickname because I got him mixed up with Una's IF), don't get me wrong... just turning him real took way too long. I'll have to take a look at his traits the next time I boot up the game. The only one I remember is diva, but I ended up changing it to "perceptive" because about half the town has either the loser or diva trait. Divas are fun to play, but require a lot of micromanaging if you don't want them to fight everyone. 

Tatum's occupation is... inventor! 

The generation goal is property mogul, so Tatum needs to own three properties. I've played ahead, but that part of the roll isn't too exciting... I had her buy out the science lab and diner so far and I'm trying to save up enough to buy a third venue. 

Kaira and Lu are two days away from aging up into YA, so we should see that next chapter.