Strangetown, Season 3 - Curious
Moving back to Strangetown today, where the Curious clan have been waiting for me to quit playing college and finish their rotation, already.
Lazlo’s on childcare duty today, and he’s not having a great time. He likes playing with Tycho, teaching him to talk, to sing, but all the tedious, gross stuff, he could do without.
Luckily his (favorite) sister swings by to give him a hand.
Pascal’s finally doing well at work, and brings home a hefty bonus with his latest few promotions. Which is good, since their house is badly in need of re-modeling.
It’s Tycho’s big day! The Curious’ have an absolutely huge network of family and friends, but I tried to invite as many as possible. Lola had work and there wasn’t room for Jenny and Vidcund’s SOs, but it’s still a pretty sizable crowd.
Tycho grew into one of those darn shadow children and took a while to get fixed, but here’s a shot of him.
He looks so much like Pascal! Very cute kid.
“So you’re Lazlo’s other girlfriend, right? I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”
“Oh, hi! I’m Penny! You must be Erin? Nice to meet another girl with such great fashion sense.”
Oh, what???? Some incredibly awkward love triangles developing here…
Erin and Nervous have settled nicely into “just friends” territory, and remain close.
Here’s Tycho once he got his lighting issues fixed! He’s got glasses, because I don’t have any kids with glasses and poor eyesight seems to run in the family.
Lazlo decides to take his girls on an outing to get to know each other better. They’ve got a lot in common, and they’re both always on the lookout for new friends. (I gave Penny a pop secondary - how could I not with all those friends & outgoing points?)
Besides, it’s good to have everything out in the open.
“Sweet. I’m going to have photos of babes covering every inch of my wall soon.”
Taking the phrase “double date” to a whole new level. Sometimes Lazlo can’t believe he’s happily in love with not one, but two beautiful girls, and it hasn’t completely blown up in his face. Result!
Desdemona is in awe of Erin’s style. She looks like a real life, slightly hippie barbie doll! In a good way. They talk pink dresses while Lazlo heads down to book a table.
“Okay, I have to admit I had an ulterior motive inviting you both out today. I really want you guys to get to know each other.”
“Is this about three-person-woohoo?”
“What? No, Penny, God!”
“You don’t need to sound so outraged, Laz,” Erin giggled, “we might even be open to the idea!”
“Okay, uh. Groovy. But that’s not actually what I’m talking about.”
“Aw.”
“So, this might sound sort of crazy but I wanted to ask you both to move in. I know it’d be kind of unconventional, but we’ve never really been too conventional a family, right?”
“I can see the benefits.” Penny mused. “Having four adults in the house would certainly make dividing childcare easier.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking! And, like, I dunno. I’m getting to a point in life where I kind of want to settle down. Jenny’s been harping on at me that that means I gotta just pick one of you and do the whole marriage-house-nuclear-family thing but that’s not something I can do, man. I love you. Both of you!”
“Wow. Okay. We’d have to draw up some ground rules, obviously, but I’d be willing to give this a try.”
“Rad. What about you, Pen?”
Penny smiled. “It’ll be an interesting experiment, if nothing else.”
Erin’s got no jealousy issues here. It’s all artistic inspiration.
Lazlo and Street (Penny and Rhett’s kid) are already friends, and Lazlo greets him with a big cuddle when he moves in with Penny. Aww!
“So, you and the Weiss girl are both moving here?”
“Yeah! I’m not moving just yet, gotta take a few weeks to square things with Chester and get my stuff together, but yeah! Exciting, isn’t it?”
“Well, best of luck. Big families can be hectic.”
“I lived with Chloe! I know what hectic’s like.”
You wouldn’t guess that Tycho and Street weren’t real brothers! As soon as he gets home from school Tycho races home to give Street some much-needed attention. This blended family is working out so well I’m getting diabetes.
they even poo together lmao
Street grows quietly on his own, with most of the family out at work or sleeping. He’s not too put out by the lack of a party, though.
The kids’ room looks like a prison atm, gotta jazz it up a bit next time the family has money!
“Aunt Penny, read me a story?”
“Okay. Although I’m not sure this is the best place.”
“Sure it is! I get my best reading done in the bathroom.”
“Daddy says playing with blocks will make me smarter.”
“Yeah? Well Uncle Lazlo told me creativity’s more important than smarts.”
“Nuh-uh! Brains over beauty!”
“I’m drawing with my brain too!!”
Penny and Pascal are both thriving at work!
“Uncle Paz, will you help with my homework? It’s about planets.”
“I know a thing or two about those. Let’s take a look.”
“You checking me out, Pen?”
“You look nice.”
“Thanks. I try my best.”
“No you don’t! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you brush your hair.”
“Details, details.”
Penny gets kind of wired after woohoo. Luckily there’s a telescope just outside their room.
“Hey Laz! How’re things going?”
“Pretty great! Penny and Street moved in.”
“Nice! I always liked Penny.”
“You’re not allowed to hit on her.”
“I wasn’t going to hit on her!”
“Chloe.”
“Okay! Fine!”
Lazlo and Chloe spend most of the day telling each other lewd jokes. Chloe has kind of loose boundaries. But when Penny goes to sleep, she gets serious for a moment.
“By the way, Laz… be good to Erin, okay? She’s more sensitive than she lets on.”
“Huh?”
“I just don’t want to see her hurt, you know? She means a lot to me. Don’t tell her I said that, though.”
“Don’t worry, Chlo. I really love Erin. With, like, all my heart.”
“All your heart?” Chloe raised an eyebrow skeptically.
“Hey, the heart has room for more than one person. You of all people must know that!”
“Yeah,” she sighed, “I know.”
“Hey, kidlet. What did Pen fly you away here for?”
“She wanted to be closer to Uncle Lazlo, I think.”
“Yeah, women, always wanting to get closer… Your Dad’s still free as a bird, though!”
“Mommy says I’ll be able to learn all sorts about my heritage here, too!”
“Well, don’t forget about the other half of your heritage, eh? We Harts don’t like to get too tied down to one woman.”
Both the kids wanted a puppy, so Penny obliged them. What’s one more family member, in a big house like this?
Welcome to the Curious household, Sirius!
Mia Brooke (Pleasantview’s resident junior astronomer and sci-fi/paranormal enthusiast) takes to Tycho immediately.
Loki barges in for some reason (probably wanting to steal their research notes), but Mia’s unrelenting friendliness manages to scare him away.
Happy families!