Merha Mad Laboratory and domicile

[Kai Merha]

The first day of Winter Break!!!!

"Welcome home!" Kai held his arms wide as he gave a hug to his step-sister Octavia as she stepped/slithered out of his dad's fan. Octi was covered head-to-tentacle in winter gear, and even then was still shivering. Winter in the Scarribean was nothing like winter in New Salem.

"Steppie!" Octi hugged him back, not only with her arms but her front four tentacles. Even though the two of them chatted via Crypte every few days, it was still only howlidays and vacations that they got to see each other in the flesh.

"All fright you two, let's get inside. I'm freezing my suckers off." Abyssa, Octivia's mother and Kai's step-mother, swept them inside the Merha Mansion. Kai's dad looked up from a beaker of...something....and broke into a huge smile.

"Octavia!" He gave the newcomer a hug too, balancing the mystery beaker on a huge stack of dusty books. There was no winter break for a mad scientist. As Octavia told her parents about her flight, Kai headed back out and carried in her bags.

Two weeks! Octavia would be here for the entire howliday break. Kai tossed her bags into her bedroom, being scareful not to disturb her pet puffer fish in his special traveling tank. With Octavia here, Demona back in town and Melody finally back from her scaremester abroad, Kai finally felt like things were 'all fright' again for him.

"So." Octvia appeared behind Kai, her hands on her hips. "What are we going to do first?"

Kai grinned at his step-sister. He had a little bit of a surprise for her...

"We're going to the Maul!" Octavia looked confused.

"Why? I finished all my Cryptmas chopping in the Bermuda Die-angle. Don't tell me you still can't decide what to get your dad..."

"No, I finally figured that out. But...you need to buy a new dress."

"I do?" Octi asked, still puzzled.

"Yes, because we've been invited to the Howliday Ball at the Monster Embassy on Friday!"

Octavia's eyes lit up and she gasped - just the reaction Kai hexpected.

"A ball?! Ooh, I can't- Ooh!" She was speechless. Kai grabbed her scarf and handed it to her.

"Don't bother taking your coat off...let's get going before the crowd at the Maul gets too bad!"  

[Kai Merha]

Friday.

Earlier in the afternoon...before the Howliday Ball.

"Almost done....there!" Kai stuck a green candied cherry on top of the last of a mountainous pile of cupquakes. They were to serve as dessert for the early dinner that the Merhas would be hosting, before they packed up and went to Layla LaMia's big Howliday ball.

Kai was wearing an artists smock over his fancy ball gear...well, fancy for him. Never the 'top hat and tails' type, he'd opted to build his outfit out of bits and pieces he'd found over the last few months, topping it all off with a really great vest and tie he'd bought at the open-air market in New Goreleans the guys had visited for Fangsgiving. The vest was sewn from old New Goreleans tapestries reclaimed from the French Goreter. The tie was silk, but Kai didn't know much else beyond that he liked it. They coupled pretty well with a pair of jacquard purple dress pants he'd found at Ragstalk. Purple was Demona's signature color, so hopefully the two of them would coordinate okay.

"Cupquakes look great!" Octavia noted to her step-brother, herself wearing a giant apron to keep any of the shrimp-poufs she was working on from spoiling her dress. Yes, it was the dress Demona had bought for her a few days ago. The dress had mysteriously appeared on their doorstep yesterday with a note bearing nothing but a kiss on it. Octavia was as pleased as a pufferfish. "I think I'm almost done, too."

"Ah, what time is it, oh! Is it really that late?!" Kai's father, Homer, stumbled out from his lab. It would have SEEMED like the mad scientist had been distracted by his lab work, but he carried with him a large tray of bunsen-burner-baked biscuits. "These biscuits are scientifically crafted to be perfect! Unless they get cold, that is...."

"Everymonster should be here really soon." Kai glanced up at the clock himself. VERY soon, in fact. Shad and Melody, Demona and Damon, this was going to be the most monsters at the dinner table in a long time. Kai took off his smock and smoothed his new haircut. Abyssa had cut it shorter than he preferred, but fortunately his hair grew fast.

Speaking of Abyssa, she poked her head out from the big steampot and smiled.

"Scallops are perfect." She informed the family. "Bacon-wrapped and with a side of sweet apricot glaze. I dare anymonster on land to top my ocean cuisine!"

The full-figured kraken laughed at her own boast, but the smell was definitely making Kai's mouth water. He and Octavia got busy putting the final arrangements on the table. Napkins, filled water glasses, and place cards telling each monster where they would sit. At last, it was all ready.

Kai's tail buzzed the slightest of rattles....this had to go all fright...he had to stay confident.  

[Demona MH]

Kai Merha

Kai's tail buzzed the slightest of rattles....this had to go all fright...he had to stay confident.

Demona was shaking, she was so nervous about tonight. She knew her family was...difficult. that's why when she heard that Damon had convinced her father to come meet Kai's family she hexes him a warning as soon as she could. One that she unfortunately forgot to hit send on.

"Everyone can you please be on your beast behavior. I really want to make a good impression. Damon please please please be nice. And try to control yourself. Dad, don't steal from them, or be pretentious and put yourself higher from them. I want this to go well and you should too."

She said as she stood on Kai's front porch.

"Trust me, if Kai is the one that cooked I'm not eating it." Damon smirked at his joke.

"Oh my goth. No you can't say things like that please I mean this, be nice" she pleaded

Demona knocked on the door and fixed her hair.

Dementia leaned pulling demona close to her. Despite the fact that she had no idea what was going on.  

[Octavia Tempest]

"That's probably Demona and Damon." Kai told Octavia as he continued stacking cupcakes. "Could you get the door?"

"Sure!" Octi replied, taking off her apron and checking one last time to make sure that her hair looked fangtastic. She tentacled her way over to the door and opened it, hexpecting to see Demona and Damon. "Hey! It's good to...see...you..."

Octavia's eyes got wide. Demona...had brought her WHOLE family! WAY more monsters than they were hexpecting. The Kraken stifled a gasp.

"Hhhh....hi!" She tried to recover, plastering a big smile on her amethyst face. "I'm Octavia, Kai's step-sister. Er...won't you come in?"

Octavia backed up to let the Demon family in the front door. As they were helping each other with their coats, she slithered back...a little further back...and then a little more.

"HexcusemeforamomentbeRIGHTback-" She apologized breathlessly before taking off as fast as she could back to the kitchen.

Of course, as a tentacled Kraken, 'as fast as she could' was more like the speed of a casual stroll. So no matter how fast she rushed, all of the Demon family watched her frantic, slow retreat, slightly puzzled.  

[Kai Merha]

"They WHAT?!" Kai nearly dropped a cupcake as Octavia got into the kitchen and stammered the news about the entire Demon family being present. He groaned. Would it have slayed them to call or text that little tidbit of information ahead of time?!

"Pull in a couple of chairs from the den." Abyssa commanded as she finished tossing the kelp salad. "We've been working all moaning on this dinner and I'll be hooked and sunk before I let that ruin it."

Kai breathed a tenative sigh of relief. His step-mother was one of the Bermuda die-angle Krakens...not well known outside of their home waters, but practically royalty in the Bermuda sea. And she knew how to take command of a situation.

"On it!" He told her as he ran off to the den. In the meantime, Kai's father had walked to the foyer to greet the guests.

"Oh. Oh, hello there!" The Doctor took off his spectacles, wiped them, and put them back on to assure himself he wasn't seeing wrong. He held out a hand to Demona's dad. "Doctor Homer Merha. My goodness, it's very nice to meet you. Have any of you ever participated in genetic experimentation?"

Kai decided to get the chairs as FAST as he could.  

[Demona MH]

"I'm afraid not, I'm Darius, this is my bootiful wife Dementia. My adopted son Damon, and my Daughter's Demona and Deanna."

The man shook his hand firmly. Darius was tall his face is angular, he had a slight stubble which signified he didn't have the time to shave. His jet black hair slicked back into a small ponytail. He had a thick accent that was reminiscent to his Austrian aristocratic roots.

Dementia however looked impossibly gorgeous, her eyes were two different colors, one the color of sea-glass and the other a deep emerald green. Her face was square and she had cheek bones so prominent it was quite possible to cut yourself on them. Dementia was short, shorter than Demona, who had supermodel height. But Dementia wasn't shorter then her by much.

"Hexcuse me"

Demona said softly as she rushed to Kai

"You look shocked why do you look shocked I hexted you hours ago they were coming. Oh, you look uhhmazing. Uhm. Do you have anything expensive that my dad could fit in his pickets, I trust him it's of course just a thought.. Do you need any help?" She paced she looked more nervous then he was.  

[Kai Merha]

Kai reached into his back pocket and showed his phone to Demona - no texts, no messages all day. It wasn't important, though...this was happening now no matter what. The two of them picked up chairs and brought them into the dining room.

In the meantime, Demona's family had dispersed. Kai's dad was taking Demona's dad on a tour of his lab.

"What's that?" Demona's dad asked, pointing at a large machine.

"That's my genetic centrifuge." Homer Merha replied. Darius scratched his chin.

"Is it worth anything?"

"Yes...well, I mean, so long as you're a geneticist who is interested in distilling the genetic anomalies that cause vampirism from a stable genome."

"Meh." Darius shrugged. "What's that? It looks expensive."

"That's my lightning-powered electrical generator. Every good mad science lab has one." Homer tapped the two large electrical conductors affectionately, getting a slight shock in the process. The gray hair at his temples stood on end. "All the BEST science uses lightning, you know!"

"Yes, but does it make any PROFIT?" Darius asked, pulling out a gold calculator and started calculating the costs of everything he saw in the lab. Homer smiled.

"Well, there are the patents, of course, they pay for most of this. My investors are very interested in my research on an allergy pill for werewolves to combat their silver allergy."

"Investors? Tell me more..." NOW Darius was interested.

Meanwhile, Demona's mom had made her way into the kitchen. She started opening all of the cabinets and looking around at things.

Suddenly, a wooden spoon blocked her way from pulling a carton of bat-milk from out of the fridge.

"Now now...." Abyssa warned with a smile. "If you're in my kitchen, I'm going to put you to work.

Before Dementia could blink, she was wearing an apron and found herself buttering biscuits. Funny how well Abyssa commanded her kitchen!  

[Octavia Tempest]

Octavia was stuck giving the grand tour to Damon, who was carrying the Demon baby sister, Deanna. Damon kept wrinkling his nose at things.

"And this is the libury. I guess the family that used to live in this house broke the staircase, because it's been out of order every time I come here. I'm not really sure where the staircase actually goes..." The mansion that the Merhas lived in was quite old, and the family that had lived in before also had a mad scientist at the head of the household.

"I could show you my bedroom. It used to belong to a Tentacle, and I guess it must have dreamed of being a rock star because there's these neat vintage posters all over the place."

The baby yawned. Octavia's first impression of Damon, from the maul, wasn't a very good one, but she was trying very hard to be friendly.  

[Damon MH]

"You can stop this, if you want. I have been here before in a Februscary some time ago and Dr. Merha gave me and some other parents a tour of his lab..."

He paused seeing Octavia give Deanna little glaces

"Do you want to hold her? I can tell you want to.."

He handed the infant over helping her hold the ghoul properly.

"Be careful though, she's at that stage where she grabs everything she sees. Of course that's only when she's active, Deanna sleeps a lot of course."

He looked at his baby sister his face softened and he smiled.  

[Demona MH]

Demona looked at her phone and then groaned

"I am such a dorkfish, I must have forgotten to hit send with everything going on! I'm so sorry with everything just happening so quickly I just...it's just..."

She set the chair down and sighed"

"I'm scared that your family won't like my family, I'm especially worried about my mom. She gets really jealous really easy. Anything could set her off, or this could be one of her good days. I don't know I just want this to go well. This is pretty much your fist time meeting them and...I want everything to go perfect."

During her vent she was arranging the food and silverware. She stopped at Damon's seat

"Are you sure you want to give him these. Because he eats forks"  

[Melody Nocturna]

"Oof!" Melody shouted as she was suddenly devoured by coats in the Mehra's closet.

Shad's entrance could use a bit more work.

He gave a small nervous apology as Melody slowly nodded in understanding, smoothing out her hair from all the static in the jackets.

"It's alright, you were just a bit off," she smiled.

She felt around for the light switch in the dark closet as she began to think, "Hopefully this goes very well...Is this a date? Or a date date? Is he as nervous as I am?"

And as she finally managed to find the switch, she remembered Shad couldn't see well in bright light.

"Oh...well...erm"

She quickly took out her Icoffin from her small handbag and turned on the flashlight as an idea to at least look at Shad to talk before they faced the familiar crowd.

She gulped nervously, " There...so..are you ready?"

Shadeaux D Gloom

 

[Shadeaux D Gloom]

Melody Nocturna

She gulped nervously, " There...so..are you ready?"

"Sure... of course ... right on ... I'm not bugged!"

Shad nodded, drawing in a very deep breath, and almost shuddering. It had taken every amount of courage he didn't know he had to ask Melody to the Ball, but when she had also informed him they had dinner invitations to top it off, well that just about sent Shad over the deep end.

Of course, it was Melody -- and Kai was cool, so...

"Don't worry, Mel. Kai is real gone! It's a small dinner party so I'm sure things will be way wiggy. Now here..."

Shad, ever the gentlemanster, grasped the handle of the closet and opened it from the inside, stepping out to allow Melody to exit comfortably.

"And might I say you are looking TOTALLY Ivy! That gown, your hair, that..."

Shad turned and found himself staring at the surprised faces of Kai and Demona!.

"Eep!"  

[Melody Nocturna]

Shadeaux D Gloom

"Eep!"

Melody covered her mouth in surprise immediately when she saw the two shocked at their private entrance, her face and eyes turning a deep pink.

"Well...erm...we're here!" She smiled nervously as she gripped her handbag so hard it was as if she was being pulled by a tidal wave.

Demona MH

 

[Demona MH]

"I see that, you couldn't use the front door? It's not broken I know because I used it like 5 minutes ago."

She went back to making everything perfect, looking it over again and again. Fiddling with the same name plate, then putting it down again. She then put it down and looked at Shad

"You know what I don't think we've formally met. And since your dating my beast friend you should know that I don't exactly remember Melody as an Anti-social pushover. Despite what I've been hearing, and it may not seem like she is my beast friend since she hasnt even hexted me once but that's probably because she's been fanging out with you so I certainly hope you aren't a waste of her time."

She smiled and held out her hand

"I'm Demona, you may have heard of me. I'm his ex-ghoulfriend. Her beast friend and your potential frenemy, depending on how you treat her  

[Kai Merha]

Okay...they didn't arrive through the front door like Shad promised, but at least it wasn't, like, the refrigerator or the gene-splicing machine. The front closet was good enough.

"Heyyyy, cousin!" Kai gave Melody a scareful hug, trying to not crush her lovely dress. "You look great!"

Kai didn't want to freak out Shad (although maybe Demona DID? Not sure), so he invited the two of them to sit down at the dining doom table. Things were a little more crowded because of the extra place settings, but it still didn't seem too bad.

"Melody!" Kai's dad came out of the laboratory with Darius in tow. Somehow, Darius had managed to take Homer's spectacles, his pocket protector AND his lab coat without Homer noticing. (Not that he'd really mind that much) The mad scientist beamed at his young relative and gave her a hug that was much-less-scareful than Kai's. "Long time no see! How were your studies abroad? Did you make any great discoveries? Build any new inventions? Blow anything interesting up?!"

"Dinner is served!" The conversation at the table came to a halt as Abyssa and Dementia burst from the kitchen, trays of food in tow. Abyssa's wide hips made way as she set down a tray of kelp salads and bowls of fish soup. Dementia threw biscuits at everyone as they took their seats.

Kai leaned over to Demona.

"I think things are going pretty good!" He whispered, then knocked on the wooden table.