#is I have a divine 0.1sec glimpse of a design

[cry-ptidd]

Very curious on Laura’s mommy and siblings, is there anything you can share?

I absolutely can!

Laura's mother is called Anne (her maiden surname being Charbonnier). She and Jean married in 1735, both aged around 25, and had ten nine children.

Physically, the first thing that had come to mind when I imagined her design was curly blonde hair and a long swan neck. Anne's build is quite tall and slender despite her age and number of pregnancies, and she has some noticeable birthmarks. Laura inherited her mom's diamond-shaped face and curly hair, as opposed to her dad's nose, freckles and complexion.

Anne was a headstrong and hardworking woman, with a strong loyalty to her husband despite his sour reputation. Laura was her first and eldest daughter, and both the pregnancy and birth were difficult for Anne, who nearly died in labor. However, miraculously, both her and her baby survived and made full recoveries. Thus, Jean baptized their daughter "Laura", to celebrate their little victory.

Laura was, as I said before, Jean's favorite child for that reason, and the fact that she was obedient and as headstrong as her mother solidified that fact. Anne saw it as privileging Laura, who also bothered her a bit because of her disinterest in marriage and her very outspoken faith, and so paid more attention to her other children and left Laura for her husband to take care of. Anne wasn't a bad mother and did her best, but she did emotionally neglect and/or lash out at Laura often, with an added touch of buried resentment due to the difficult birth.

When Laura got afflicted with her situation, Anne was so shocked she didn't speak to anyone for a week and worked her hands raw at chores to distract herself. She didn't go visit Laura, afraid of how painful it would be. An underlying guilt will follow her for the rest of her life, and her usual stern expression melted into one that appeared constantly worried or downcast after Laura's disappearance. Her husband, just as pained by the whole thing, silently forbade her and their children from speaking about Laura; it was a sour spot that the other villagers never brought up either due to the family's grief.

As for the Chastel children, here's their names directly from Wikipedia. I am NOT drawing all these guys.

There was rivalry between all of them, though it was never really serious and mostly just the product of their upbringing. Laura got along with her sisters better despite their lack of common interests, but also didn't overtly have problems with her brothers. As the oldest, Laura was the one reeling them in and often babysitting, always bringing them out of trouble. Her brothers would grow to feel protective of her in their teenhood, and constantly try to find her a man much to her annoyance. Jean forbade them from going to see her when she got bitten, mostly due to the pain of the transformation causing Laura to have to be constantly restrained.

After Laura's disappearance, the family dynamic started to turn sour, with a constant air of not addressing the elephant in the room. Some of the siblings left the town completely, while a few others turned out not so great; most ended up with normal lives, trying to move on from the tragedy that occurred. No mention of Laura would be spoken, as they all decided that talking about it would be too painful, especially considering the lack of answers they all have - and that Jean refuses to give.