Yes, folks, this one includes the long-awaited Parents' Weekend (with special guest star Aleister Crowley).

By breakfast Monday morning, therefore, everything was pretty tense. Mel carefully didn't arrive until Tyler had already gone, and gave Ivan the cold shoulder until he managed to persuade her that he had, in fact, been studying all weekend. The worse offender was still not off the hook, though, as shown by Mel's tendency to fidget frighteningly with her knife every time Tyler's name was mentioned. Jasmine, not believing that her best friend could have done anything to deserve such contempt, tried to find out what had happened -- but Ivan (who had figured out the score) shushed her and promised to explain things to both girls in due time.

And so, on the way to their first classes, Ivan told Mel that she had been the victim of "the oldest guy trick in the book" -- getting rid of a girl by making such an ass of oneself that she decides to do the ridding. Tyler, he explained (with only slight dishonesty), was so wracked with guilt over their encounter that he had been deliberately cruel to Mel in order to scare her away so that nothing of the sort would ever happen again. Ivan even explained (leaving out the supernatural-foreknowledge factor and refraining from mentioning names) that Tyler had sort of an informally arranged marriage in his future, which was why he was uncomfortable getting seriously involved with anyone at this point in his life. Mel was still unsure, but seemed to have lost most of her outright hatred. A parting affectionate tweak to Ivan's nose (which discomfited him considerably; apparently the British don't, as a rule, tweak) showed that any breach in their relationship had been made up as well.

In class, Ivan hauled out his laptop and found Jasmine online (goofing off in her childishly-simple computer class as usual). About halfway through his initial explanation of the situation, a reluctant synapse in Jasmine's brain finally fired, and she realized that Mel was the mystery girl that Tyler had confessed to being in love with, but whom he had treated cruelly in order to avoid having to hurt anyone. (Hey, it probably made perfect sense to him at the time.) So Jasmine found out about the sex part, andIvan found out about the love part, and both were well and truly bummed. But hey, things had worked out, right? Ivan had Mel, and Jasmine had Tyler (well, not really, not yet, but at least their future marriage was not unduly threatened by his boffing her roommate on a regular basis), and everyone should be happy . . . they hoped.

That everyone was not, in fact, happy, they quickly discovered at lunch. Tyler was there, staring into space through his chic sunglasses and seeming generally disconnected from the world. After the rest of the crowd -- Mel, Brandon, Kelli -- had come and gone, the two PCs gently interrogated their friend. He had attended his great-aunt's funeral the day before, of course, but even that shouldn't have left him quite so disturbed as he obviously was. Finally, he looked straight at Jasmine, took off the shades (revealing eyes that betrayed no life or emotion behind them), and spoke two words: "Mom agreed." That immediately terrified Jasmine, but only confused Ivan further. Gamely he plowed on, now trying to ferret the truth about What Was Going On out of *two* strangely-behaving friends. Finally, retiring to a more private location, they told him.

And so Ivan learned about Tyler's evil grandfather and the plot to kill him that was being spearheaded by Tyler's mother. The "agreement" he had secured from her was permission to be part of that confrontation, and Jasmine's reaction to the news had been fear for her friend's life should he actually do so. Tyler's mom had also explained to him that he would likely become a target as soon as the moves and counter-moves had begun in earnest, and that she would "pull him in" to a position of safety at that time. Needless to say, he was having some trouble learning how to focus again on his day-to-day life at school while waiting for the phone call that would change his life forever -- and quite possibly spell the end of it. To quell his friends' unease, Ivan proposed to set up a means for Tyler to leave school at a moment's notice with little difficulty, and to give Jasmine a way to keep in touch with Tyler during his absence. That seemed to help a little. To further take everyone's minds off the uncertain future, Ivan reminded his friends that they still had tasks to accomplish in the present, namely the continued investigation of suspected stalker and sociopath Chadwick Bryce.

Minutes later (cutting class in order to be certain of their target's absence), the three had broken into the room shared by Bryce and Damien Mefford. The boys stood guard in the hall while Jasmine installed amicrocamera in the smoke alarm. Then they covered their tracks and headed innocently to their next classes. On the way, Tyler mentioned that he really needed to work off some steam and challenged Ivan to another fencing match. Ivan had a date with Mel later that evening, but suggested that Tyler might find a way to take out his frustrations and give Bryce something to talk about that night when they surveilled him. Tyler took the hint and, during a soccer game later that afternoon, seized a flimsy pretext to beat the absolute crap out of Damien Mefford.

A few hours later, the threesome gathered in Ivan's room (as he was the only one with a not-entirely-mundane roommate) to peek in on Bryce and Mefford. Damien, of course, looked like hell and could barely move. Bryce came in, chiding his roommate and reminding Damien that he had "warned himabout those people." ("Those people" immediately pricked up their ears at that, of course.) It seemed that Bryce had long considered Tyler and Ivan his only real intellectual rivals, the only possible obstacle in his path. Unfortunately, he did not clarify the destination of that path, but sat down to write in a journal he kept in his briefcase. (Aha, something to steal. . . .) The kids kept watching for some time, hoping that Bryce might get the itch to go out and prove his involvement in the "mad stalker" incident of the previous week, but nothing of interest happened, and finally they turned in.

The rest of the week was largely a repeat of Monday: classes and meals during the day, uneventful surveillance at night. No stalking incidents or epidemics of unexplained lust marred the mundanity of the days. The kids noticed with some trepidation, however, that the crowd of hangers-on at Chadwick Bryce's lunch table was growing by leaps and bounds. Tyler pulled off another (though slightly kinder) "oldest guy trick in the book," pawning his airhead girlfriend Kelli off on his roommate Brandon merely by starting to show the total lack of concern he had for the girl or the relationship. (Jasmine was mildly pleased, though she knew Tyler would likely soon replace Kelli with another just like her.) Tyler also, under threat of grievous bodily harm from Ivan, had a talk with Mel in which he apologized for his earlier cruelty and more-or-less became her friend again.

And so Saturday came, the dread day when everyone's parents would arrive to hug them and comment on their appearance and insist on being introduced to their friends.

Hmm, I don't think there's any way to pack all this info into narrative, so here's a rundown on the family members who'll be appearing, before we get to what actually happened that day. Here goes:

Ivan's dad. Does he need any introduction? Notorious black magician and taboo-breaker of the Victorian Age, now headmaster of an occult finishing school for proper young ladies in New York City.

NEAL CARMODY and MIA WALTERS

Jasmine's surrogate parents. Neal's a twentysomething mage, rescued by Katy O'Hara (see below) from his destiny of becoming the most powerful destructive force on Earth. (Well, OK, he's still that; he's just careful about it.) When barely out of his teens, he was saddled with then-toddler Jasmine, who may or may not actually be his daughter, and had to grow up fast. Now he demolishes buildings for a living. Mia is Neal's ex-girlfriend, a Vietnamese Akashic kung-fu master who helped him bring up the kid.

LUTHER CABRELL and KATY O'HARA CABRELL

Tyler's father and stepmother. Like Crowley, Luther's a crusty Victorian Hermetic (but with a less notorious reputation). He didn't learn about his son until Tyler was six or seven years old. Katy, now settled, spent her younger days as a world-traveling adventurer and, well, the slut of the occult community, having slept with everyone from John Constantine to Randolph Carter to (yes) Aleister Crowley. In fact, Katy has slept with the father of each of the three major characters in this game, without being the mother of any of them. (She boffed Neal in the Rabbi's synagogue, while in the process of "rescuing" him from his dark destiny.) Together, she and Luther have five-year-old twin girls, Angelyn (an introverted Hermetic prodigy and medium) and Alex (a boisterous future werewolf).

RYAN McCABE ELLIOT and MIKHAIL RODOCHENKO

Tyler's mother and stepfather. A pair of renegade Technocrats gradually teaching each other to act more like normal people. Ryan was a Syndicate agent and foe of Katy O'Hara, but in fact she was largely the pawn of her father, a Technocrat turned Nephandus. After escaping his control and reclaiming her son, she showed up on the Cabrells' doorstep and ultimately switched sides, joining the Euthanatos. A former supermodel and current fashion mogul, Ryan remains rich, powerful, and dangerous to cross, though she's been trying to discover her softer side. Mikhail is a hulking, quiet rogue Progenitor, usually called "Doc" by the kids. He genetically engineered his and Ryan's two-year-old twins, Victor and Ekaterina, each of which looks exactly like the parent of the same sex.

That signaled the arrival of Tyler's two sets of parents. Though slightly disturbed that the whole crew had shown up, Tyler introduced everyone around and hugged his little sisters before sending them over to tellJasmine all about their lives. Shortly thereafter, Tyler began to wish his mom and stepmom were still foes as they exchanged amused whispers and glances in his direction. Their magickal senses had immediately noted his lack of virginity, and they were quietly debating which girl at the table had done the honors, finally agreeing on Melanie. Meanwhile, Jasmine was being romanced (in a cute two-year-old way) by little Victor Rodochenko, who had brought her a flower -- apparently from the same bunch he'd been chewing on a few minutes before. Simon Price showed up a few minutes later and was immediately accosted by young Angelyn Cabrell, who could see that he was a medium like herself. The five-year-old assured Simon that the dead were nothing to be afraid of, not even the unpleasant ones. "If you were dead, you'd probably be grouchy too," she pronounced wisely.

Meanwhile, Ivan finally managed to make it into the parking lot and found his father's Bentley. He spent the walk back reminding Crowley that he had friends and a girlfriend and did not wish to be embarrassed in front of them. When "Mr. Neville" was introduced around, he proved perfectly cordial, though he did let slip a tiny smile in Katy's direction when he noticed her shocked recognition of him. He exchanged business cards and idle-rich prattle with Ryan, and offered Neal another card and an "opportunity" if he was interested. Meanwhile, Luther Cabrell -- the *other* crusty Victorian Hermetic -- was scratching his head and trying to remember where he'd seen "Neville" before. In England, maybe? Some kind of exclusive club? He couldn't be sure.

Having gotten past that hurdle, Ivan was soon confronted with another when Mel's parents showed up at the table, looking and acting clearly out of place in the high-society crowd that surrounded them. He introduced himself, turning on his "Eddie Haskell" mode and charming the hell out of the pair while letting just enough of the real Ivan slip through to keep his girlfriend in an amusing state of tension. Only one minor problem occurred, when Ivan mentioned that he was "teaching Melanie how to ride," and the two parents stared at him in horror for a moment before Mrs. Safford realized, "Oh, *horses*." Then Ivan had to introduce his *father* to Mel's parents, after which he performed damage control in the wake of Crowley's "little jokes." ("No, no, Father doesn't *actually* subscribe to the Church of Satan. . . .")

Meanwhile, Tyler had been bugging his mom about something, and once the Nevilles excused themselves, Ryan approached the Saffords. After looking Mel up and down, she asked if the girl had ever considered a career in modeling. Mel hadn't, but Tyler apparently had thought she might have the talent, and Ryan was inclined to agree. (One can only presume that Ryan exercised all of her legendary restraint to refrain from commenting about her son's having tested the merchandise. . . .) After cautioning that she'd still have to talk with some of her staff, and assuring the Saffords that the initial job would in no way interfere with Mel's schooling, she mentioned that starting pay would likely be something on the order of ten thousand dollars a show. Jaws dropped; Mel's days as the "poor" scholarship student were apparently numbered. Ivan, having overheard all this, immediately announced that "as Miss Safford's attorney," he would have to be involved in the details of the contract negotiations. Ryan regarded him with amusement; Ivan, for his part, didn't seriously expect to win any concessions, but looked forward to the opportunity to match his silver tongue against the legendary Ryan Elliot, as a good learning experience for the future.

At this point, the various parents and kids scattered to different parts of the campus to enjoy the day. Well, most of them. Jasmine went looking for a chance to talk to Tyler's mom alone, and was rather surprised when Ryan came looking for her, having anticipated this particular conversation. As politely as she could manage, Jasmine accused Ryan of lying down on the maternal job by agreeing to let Tyler go along on the expedition to kill his grandfather. ("Every other time we want to do anything even remotely dangerous, you guys say no. Now, when he could get himself killed, you're OK with it. I know I'm only nine, but I don't get it.") With unusual candor, Ryan admitted that she didn't like the situation either -- but Tyler had made it clear that he would be there even if she said no, and she would rather have him in on the plan than showing up unexpectedly. Even she had had to admit that being Euthanatos was Tyler's life now, and that he would have to start sometime. Jasmine lamented that Ryan would at least *be* there, whereas she would have no control over or even knowledge of the outcome until after the fact. It was clear that she couldn't go along -- Tyler would only be more distracted and vulnerable if *she* were in the line of fire as well -- but she did ask if Ryan needed any kind of overwatch surveillance on the job. Ryan already had that angle covered, however; she thought Jasmine would find her use afterward, when Tyler was processing the experience. That assumed, of course, that there would *be* an "afterward" for Tyler -- which was the point of contention in the first place -- but Ryan counseled Jasmine that the only way to keep from going crazy is to assume there *will* be an afterward.

Meanwhile, after playing (and losing) a game of chess with his stepdad, Tyler headed to the fencing salon with his dad, who had taught him the art in the first place. They found Ivan and *his* dad already there and furiously engaged. Once again, Luther tried to figure out where he'd seen Ivan's dad before, but nothing came.

After the exchange with Ryan, Jasmine hooked back up with her family and played a game of frisbee, which Mia the kung-fu mistress proceeded to turn into an object lesson in just how lax the kid had gotten in keeping herself in shape. Jasmine also spent several minutes trying to persuade her dad that "Mr. Neville" was in fact Aleister Crowley, which got her nothing more than pats on the head and indulgent smiles. (Admittedly, that was better than the *frisbees* in the head she'd been getting from Mia.) Later, Neal did ask around about Neville. Katy at first could "neither confirm nor deny" the man's identity, but when Neal proposed asking her *husband* about Neville, she panicked and told him that, yes, Neville was Crowley, but he was actually a nice guy once you got to know him. (She didn't say how *she* had "gotten to know" the Great Beast, but Neal could pretty easily surmise.)

Next session: Back to work with the Bryce investigation. . . .