The Government (Part 1)

The Government (Part 1)

For the trio, things went back to normal on Monday morning, and it was almost a shock to see Max without all the fur and the tail, but they quickly got used to it again. Even going to work wasn’t a worry, and Ethan assured them that there had been no reports of werewolves in the area. One month down, no issues.

Now that they knew the only danger brought the full moon was the threat of exposure, they weren’t focused on any sort of preparation, and they were able to go back to a kind of normal similar to what had been before Max got bitten by Adrian. They were concerned about the new policies when the new year came around, but Ethan continued to check for any reports, finding none each time.

For Ethan’s cousin, Andrew, the new year started a little differently. When the government announced that there were changes in effect to the policies on reporting supernatural creatures, his only initial thought was that it might increase the volume of reports available to view, which would help him write some of the papers on his syllabus for his next semester. He was taking a Comparison of Modern Supernatural Entities to Their Historical Records, which typically went by the slightly disappointing acronym CoMSETHR. It wasn’t meant to sound good, it was mostly meant to make it possible to use the name of the class in normal conversation. But in any case, he had to use primary sources for the modern supernatural creatures, which would most commonly be interviews from people who had encountered a supernatural creature or their official reports. Occasionally students had been able to use their own accounts, but that obviously wasn’t as common.

His first paper was on one supernatural creature currently in existence, one of his choice. He had been rolling around all the different options in his head, but a few days after the new year, he was looking through the official and unofficial reports to see what kind of entities might be common in the area. That would make it easier to get enough sources. He saw several which had been labeled unreliable, including one vampire sighting which, upon investigation, involved several bloody mary’s on both sides of the report. After all, vampires no longer even existed. A few others were labeled unreliable for other reasons – previously diagnosed schizophrenia, head injuries, etc.

The ones labeled reliable or confirmed fell mostly into the typical categories. There were many gnomes, which were really just a nuisance that involved pest control services. They popped up whenever someone neglected their garden, mostly, unless the person involved false gnomes in preparation. Gnomes were mildly territorial, after all. There were two recent golems, which were always interesting. The modern ones were significantly different from their historic counterparts because they were significantly easier to create in the days of AI. A person no longer had to summon a spirit and bind it, they only had to link an AI to a body and animate that body. But because of the obvious changes in them, they would almost certainly be the topic of someone else’s paper. Even though there were only five students in the class.

As he got to the bottom and saw the hag that had been reported nearly a year prior, he thought about the fact that the monetary incentive must not be working yet. After all, there wasn’t a single werewolf on the list.

That made him think about something he hadn’t thought about for quite a while. His own encounter – one he had put aside due to a lack of certainty about what it was he saw. He had thought it had been some blond guy being bitten by a werewolf, but he had been in his car on the road, about to pay a quick visit to his cousin Ethan, and hadn’t been able to put too much focus on the sight as he was driving. In addition, investigating a werewolf was a bad idea, since even some of the strongest humans weren’t as strong as a werewolf, and he wasn’t one of the strongest humans. In fact, he had abandoned the trip entirely and kept driving, not wanting to risk encountering the werewolf.

He hadn’t reported it because he wasn’t sure he had enough details to report – it could even have been a wild animal attack, which wasn’t entirely unlikely. But just then, another event popped into his mind, one he never would have considered to be related to what he’d seen that night before, but that he now realized must be connected. Ethan had asked him about werewolves.

The werewolf attack had been very near Ethan’s house, which he shared with two roommates Andrew had met before, at least briefly. One of Ethan’s roommates was blond. And Ethan had taken notes. Initially he assumed it was a personal interest that brought about the line of inquiry, but now Andrew realized that it was a bit out of character for anyone to be so interested in what he studied.

Andrew rushed to open the official reporting website and type in what he knew. If Ethan’s roommate was a werewolf now, Ethan would be safer if the situation were investigated properly, but also, only official reports were usable for his paper, so unless he made his report, he wouldn’t be able to use it for his paper. Of course, this decided the topic of his paper for him, and since it was due at the end of January, he was glad to have a solid course of action, even if the paper wasn’t the most intensive that he had to write for the class.

He entered in the information required for the monetary bonus, a nice little cherry on top of the whole thing. Not once did he consider how werewolves were dealt with in the modern age. That would be a question for when he did more in-depth research for his paper.

-:-

The government outsourced most of the investigations of supernatural creatures to the police. Then they outsourced most of the actual dealing with the problem to whatever organization was best suited to it. Sometimes that was pest control, sometimes animal control, sometimes the police once again, occasionally other private organizations that were equipped to deal with a situation. The government offices that dealt with the reports of the supernatural did hardly any work except organizing these efforts.

There were a few exceptions, which were the source of the rumors about the secret government organization that experimented with supernatural creatures, or hunted them, or cured them, or whatever else the rumors might say. One of the most notable examples of the success of one of these endeavors was stopping the only ever vampire incursion into the united states, which they did primarily by observing the situation and quieting down rumors after the fact. Their success was so great that it was commonly believed that vampires did not exist, though that was, as far as anyone knew, currently true.

The existence of this organization, as it was rumored, was entirely uncertain, but the clerks who dealt with the reports of supernatural creatures knew that there were specific sets of circumstances that required passing the report up the line to some people they never saw. What happened after that was never public, so no one knew for sure what those people did, but it often led to an absence of the reported creatures involved. Hence the rumors.

Those kinds of reports weren’t overly common, partially owing to the fact that there were hardly ever any secondary reports. The creatures were dealt with before that could happen, possibly, or the creature was isolated to the point that no one would run across them. But the procedure for identifying the cases that should be passed up the line was simple, though it was also put in the form of a list of known possibilities. In general, transmissible curses and deadly, malicious creatures were passed up to the higher authorities. Vampires would easily qualify for both reasons, some supernatural artifacts could lead to one of these kind of reports in rare occasions, but the most common one was werewolves.

Werewolves were commonly considered to be rather dangerous, and the supernatural disease was transmissible to the degree that they were hard to eliminate, so reports of them weren’t unheard of. At the same time, any given region might not have any reports of werewolves for a few years or a few decades. Such was the case with the region Carl worked in. He had expected the job to be far more interesting than it had turned out to be, and he had hoped the new laws would make it a little more bearable. But he was sorely disappointed when the number of reports hardly went up, and there wasn’t a rush of good reports from before the policy went into effect.

So, as he opened a new report, his expectations were low. That was, until he read that it was a report of werewolf activity. He didn’t want someone to poach the report, so he tried to contain his excitement, but he enjoyed the mundane tasks associated with the report far more than he had the entire time he’d had the job. He extracted the information on the region, description of the victim/possible werewolf, and any other information, filling out the necessary forms for each. The last step was to notify whoever would deal with the investigation –

Except that Carl would likely never hear about the case again. His excitement plummeted, and he put his head in his hands, frustrated that the only interesting thing that had ever happened to him here was now being taken away from him. And yet, when he had gathered himself, he submitted all of the information, including the full report and the forms he had filled out, straight to the higher ups. And that was that. There was nothing else he could do for that report.

He hoped the next report might be a parallel report, a second sighting of the werewolf event, perhaps even from the victim. He was once again disappointed when he opened the next report and read it.

Gnomes. Again.

Carl really wished he could afford to quit his job.

Was wishing there was a positivity post for original fiction writers since I see so many about how fanfic writers are doing so much for their communities even when they're not actively writing, and then I thought:

Be the change you want to see in the world.

So this is a positivity post for the writers out here who are working very hard on stories with no established community. Who can't talk about their blorbos and plot lines and brainstorming to anyone and expect them to know what any of it means. Who don't have much to share publicly, but are hoping they will one day.

You're doing a lot of hard work, and I recognize and appreciate what you're putting into the world, even when you're resting.

So I am aroace, and that shows up more prominently than I consciously intend in my writing. Which is to say that I have no problem with romance in stories and no theoretical problem with writing it myself, I just have very little to say about romantic relationships as compared to other kinds of relationships. I do think I have a unique perspective because I don't have all that sexual and romantic attraction muddying the waters, but really the main reason I focus on mostly platonic relationships is that I love them. I want to have close friends and repeated acquaintances (like my baristas, for the several coffee shops I am a regular at, who I don't know well enough to call friends but that brighten my day).

I have a previous post about inseparable duos, and while I do think some of these are romantic (and that can be very worthwhile to depict) the ones I have in my writing tend to be shades of platonic. I have Tye and Gio, Rowan and Sanc, and Kel and Dale. They are, respectively: the best of friends who have a deep understanding through similar trauma, mutual mentors (that bit's complicated) and accidental found father and son, and a slightly undefined pair that will follow each other anywhere, mutually protecting and trusting each other. I also have Liam and Winston (in a barely started book on the backburner), a set of childhood friends who fall further and further into different social circles and eventually different sides of the start of a kind-of war, but don't let it get between them.

Now, all of these I would say are more complicated and nuanced than your average friendship, and they're kind of hard even to explain, which is part of why I explore them in my writing. All of them also are kind of meant to fly in the face of the assumption that romance is the deepest kind of relationship. There are deep interconnected romances, but two people being "more than friends" makes no sense. More than two people who will always be there for each other, always seeking to accommodate each other through the rougher moments of dealing with trauma, being willing to do anything to ensure the other's wellbeing? More than two people who have spent much of their lives trying to teach each other how to live, how to move past mistakes, how to accept themselves for who they are? More than two people who trust each other so implicitly that they will open their minds to each other in such a way that permits no secrets, showing each other every emotion and embarrassing memory without worrying that their relationship would waver? I just don't see how you could have 'more'. Different, yes. And other kinds of relationships are also good. But don't put down these platonic relationships as if they are lesser.

So yeah, as someone who does not want any romantic relationship, I want to explore all the different ways people can be close, even incredibly close, without romance. For other people, who want romance, I wish you luck in finding in. But don't put down platonic relationships.

The Worry (part 2)

The second week passed without event, though Jake did pretend no one was home as Adrian came knocking at one point. No one else was home, so it wasn’t too hard to do. Now, though, it was Saturday, late afternoon, and Ethan had yet to come back from his coffee date with his cousin. It had been a few hours, so it was strange that he wouldn’t have come back yet. Max and Jake were sitting at the kitchen table waiting silently, both imagining how things might have gone, and what might be keeping Ethan so late.

Max’s mind, from the state of his shaking leg, was likely conjuring images of the government snatching Ethan and questioning him in a dark, steel room. Jake’s mind was conjuring images of a silversmith being astounded by the request for a silver bullet, Ethan coming home and deciding to hunt and kill the original wolf to reverse the curse. Of course, Ethan had said it was technically a supernatural disease, and had no reversal process. Jake’s mind easily changed course to Ethan busking on a street corner, scatting to get the money for enough silver to make chains. Of course, they had already ruled that out, but it was fun to imagine it.

Their reveries were finally put to rest when they heard the door open, and they tried to seem more casual than they were about rushing to hear what Ethan had found out and why he’d been gone so long. When they got to the door, though, they found the answer to why he’d been gone late.

Ethan’s arms were full of different bags, each from a different store, and none of them a store that Jake recognized. From peaking into them, Jake couldn’t figure out what the common thread was. There were herbs and spices, crystals, chalk, and deodorant, among other things.

“What happened?” Max asked. “What is all this?”

“Well, my cousin can talk for quite a while when you get him started. He told me all kinds of things to try. So I got them all, and we’re going to try them,” Ethan said.

“Walk us through the conversation as you unpack,” Jake suggested. He was incredibly pleased with this turn of events. Nothing would make him happier than attempting to prove or disprove every legend ever recorded about werewolves, using Max as a test subject.

“He’s been taking a course on the history of herbalism as it relates to witchcraft, so several of the things he mentioned are plant based. One of the first was wood from the rowan tree, which used to have all kinds of relationships to magic and the supernatural. Witches were supposed to use rowan wood to make wands in order to increase their magic, but it was also good for weaving, and more importantly, warding off evil. A tree planted in a town would steer away the supernatural beings trying to enter the town. But more than that, supernatural creatures, including werewolves, were believed to be unable to cross a barrier made of Rowan wood.”

Ethan took out several sprigs of wood, placing them all around Max where he stood with Jake’s help. They both looked at Max expectantly, who looked back in confusion for a moment before getting the idea. He stepped out of the circle of the wood without issue and looked back at the other two.

“Not surprising, it sounded like no one could agree on what the tree actually does. It’s probably only wood. None of this is scientifically proven, you know, or at least, most of it isn’t. There have been a few experiments with silver, but really not all that many of that, either,” Ethan said. “Well, then he mentioned this man who was tried for witchcraft for using this plant,” he pulled a conical sprig of yellow flowers from another bag, “agrimony. It’s got an old rhyme essentially positing that if you sleep with agrimony under your pillow, you won’t wake up until it’s taken away. We can test that one tonight, but I was thinking if you went to bed early before the full moon, that might be useful.”

“So a person would never wake up if someone didn’t take it back out from under their head?” Max asked. “That’s kind of creepy. If that works, you had better not make me stay asleep any longer than you need to to test it.”

“That’s up to our interpretation, right?” Jake asked.

“Up to my interpretation, maybe,” Ethan said. “Don’t worry Max, I’m not going to let Jake use this willy-nilly. Next one was easier to find, given it’s December. Mistletoe, which was sacred because it grew from the sky. This one was just kind of a catch all to ward off evil, and some stuff about future husbands, which isn’t relevant right now.”

Jake took the mistletoe from Ethan, which was in plastic. Jake unwrapped it from its protective covering in case that would affect how it worked, then he held it out at Max.

“What is being repelled supposed to feel like? Also, I’m not evil. Maybe that affects things. Maybe it only wards of werewolves who are evil.”

“Well, just get really close and let me know if you feel anything,” Jake said, and he watched Max take a step towards him and the mistletoe. When he got close enough, Jake placed the mistletoe on Max’s head, watching for any reaction.

“I don’t feel anything. Except a little bit awkward because I have mistletoe on top of my head, but other than that, nothing,” Max said.

“I don’t think you would be okay with it sitting on your head if it really were going to repel you. Maybe these things don’t work properly unless you’ve already changed, so we can’t rule anything out, but so far this is disappointing,” Ethan said. “Rituals next, then.”

“Oh, this is going to be the good part, isn’t it?” Jake said.

“Well, not all of the rituals he mentioned are viable, but I took some notes to make sure we’re trying them correctly. But some of the ingredients really weren’t possible to get. Human blood, for one, and another requires that it be the blood of the werewolf,” Ethan said, looking at the notes he had. Due to his focus on the notes, he didn’t see Jake leaving the room, and Max was busy looking through the other supplies in the bags.

“Ow!” Max said after Jake sliced open his arm a bit using a knife from the kitchen. He pressed the edges, getting plenty of blood to well up, then wiped it with a cotton ball. By the time he’d finished, the cotton ball was half-stained red, and the wound was already closing up.

“Got the blood. What’s the next step?” Jake asked, holding the cotton ball out to Ethan.

“Dude. I didn’t take notes for those rituals,” Ethan said, frozen in confusion and a small amount of shock.

“Do you think you could remember them?” Jake asked.

“I don’t know why you thought you were allowed to do that,” Max said, also frozen in confusion.

“You’ve already healed, it’s fine,” Jake excused.

“Even if I could remember them, one of them was to bind and kill the werewolf. I think the other was about locating a werewolf, and I don’t think that’s especially relevant in this context,” Ethan said.

“Well, that’s disappointing. I guess I have to just throw this away now,” Jake said, and did, in the kitchen trash.

“Now there was no point in cutting me without asking,” Max said.

“There wasn’t a point to begin with. We have some much more realistic options here. Now, take this sage,” Ethan said, handing Max the sage.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Max asked, holding the sage like a wedding bouquet.

“We’re going to light it after I draw this circle,” Ethan said, holding up colorful chalk.

“Where was this side of Ethan all my life?” Jake said in an aside to Max. “All it takes is an academic interest and practical causes to get him to do rituals in the living room. You should have turned into a werewolf ages ago.”

“Remember how it wasn’t intentional? Don’t know how you would do it intentionally,” Max trailed off.

“Oh, there were rituals for that, too.  Some people think that the origin of werewolves was rituals where warriors would consume the flesh of dogs and wolves to make themselves better hunters, and ended up gaining the ability to transform,” Ethan said, drawing a circle until he hit the edge of the couch. “Jake, can you move the couch, please? Thank you. Similar to how the origin of vampires was supposed to be early alchemical experiments, but there haven’t been any modern sightings of vampires, so either they were all killed or they were never real to begin with.”

“Do people hunt werewolves? I just realized I don’t know if that’s, like, a legal thing that people can do,” Max said.

“Well, they used to. That’s over half of what my cousin talked about. They had werewolf trials just like they had witch trials, though werewolves predate the concept that they’re evil,” Ethan said, finishing the circle. “Not now, though. The only ones who are allowed to deal with werewolves are government folks. And not the one secret branch, that’s just a rumor. So I wouldn’t call that ‘hunting’. What they do with werewolves isn’t public knowledge, though.”

“Can you go a day without making it obvious the government is going to hunt me like I’m bin Laden?” Max said. “It’s bad enough my murder will be unsolvable because I won’t even have dental records.”

“The only reason I decided against trying the teeth ritual is because you’re obviously too obsessed with them already,” Ethan said, handing a lighter to Max. “Light that bundle and hold it just like you were. Don’t burn your clothes.”

“There’s a teeth ritual?” Jake said in awe. “How are the teeth involved?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ethan said. “This ritual is about to be finished, so focus on that.”

“What’s this one supposed to do?” Max asked, holding the smoking bundle like he wasn’t sure how it ended up in his hands.

“Well, the one inside the circle is supposed to be stuck there until someone on the outside of the circle breaks it. Try stepping out,” Ethan said. Max stepped out, towards the kitchen, sage still burning.

EEEEEEEEEET. EEEEEEEEEET. EEEEEEEEEET.

Jake tried to turn off the fire alarm, but with the sage still burning, it wouldn’t shut off.

“Take that thing outside,” Jake shouted over the noise as he repeatedly pressed the button to silence the fire alarm.

Max obeyed Jake, going and opening the front door to a surprised Adrian, fist raised as if he were just about to knock. Not knowing how to react, Max held the smoking sage out to Adrian, who took it automatically, confused at the sight of a chalk circle and sticks on the ground, furniture moved out of the way, fire alarm going off nonstop. Max panicked then, shutting the door on Adrian and running back into the kitchen.

“What did you just do?” Ethan said quietly.

“The fire alarm finally shut off,” Jake said, exiting the kitchen without understanding why Max had so suddenly entered it.

“Jake, Max just gave that burning sage to Adrian,” Ethan said.

“Adrian is here?” Jake said in alarm, rushing over to the door. He looked out the peephole to see the situation for himself. “Oh, he’s leaving. He looks a little out of it.”

“I can guess why. He just realized he has crazy neighbors,” Ethan said. “Look at all this.”

“All of this was your idea,” Jake said. “For once, being the crazy neighbors isn’t my fault.”

“Well, it’s a good thing he’s leaving. We will probably have to convince him that this never happened, or else make a good cover story,” Ethan said.

“We could say it was for Lent,” Jake suggested.

“This has nothing to do with Lent,” Ethan said exhaustedly.

“Then we really should convince him it never happened,” Max chimed in. Anyway, he’s gone now, so it all worked out. Are there any other rituals?”

“No,” Ethan said. “Not right now, at least. There are some that are dependent on time of day, and a couple that we can only try on the night of the full moon.”

“Hey, why was I the one holding the sage? Doesn’t it make more sense for the people trapping a werewolf to hold the sage? I mean, how many werewolves would be aiding with the ritual to get trapped?” Max asked. Ethan furrowed his eyebrows in thought, rechecking his notes.

“I definitely wrote that the werewolf holds the sage. Maybe my cousin got it wrong? Maybe we should try that again the other way around.”

“We lost the sage,” Jake said. “And besides, I don’t want to set the fire alarm off like that again. Hey, if we’re going to be trying out rituals, can I try some if I can find any?”

“If Ethan’s aren’t working, why would you have a ritual that works?” Max asked.

“Well, maybe I can find something a little more current. His are all muddled by the time gap and false reporting and all that kind of thing. But there are werewolves around now, so there are probably some more current sources out there,” Jake argued. He didn’t want to admit that he was only arguing this because it would justify his knowledge of several odd forums in the depths of the internet.

“If you can find a good source, then why not?” Ethan said. “We don’t have anything that works yet, so we can’t go limiting our options too much.”

“Is the rest of this for rituals, too?” Max asked.

“Most of it, yeah. There’s some holy water and salt for barrier creation, though I’m less sure of those, but we might as well try them on the night.”

“And the deodorant?” Jake asked.

“I needed deodorant,” Ethan replied.

The Worry (part 1)

Jake did not get as much sleep as he would have liked. He was awoken at seven in the morning, criminally early for a Saturday morning. And for no good reason, either. It was Max, of course, screaming. Seemed to be happening too often in the past twelve hours. Jake tried to go back to sleep, but unfortunately for him, their apartment was a two-bedroom, and Ethan had one of the bedrooms to himself, so Max’s first course of action was to rush into their shared bedroom and ask him the dumbest question possible.

“Are you awake?”

“Yes, obviously. You made sure of that. What are you yelling about? Wait, why did you take off the bandage? You shouldn’t leave it uncovered right now, it could get infected,” Jake said, sitting up to lecture Max.

“No, it can’t get infected, it scarred over. And even if it hadn’t I am ALREADY INFECTED.” Max said, making Jake wince at his volume.

“You’re going to wake up Ethan,” Jake said, scolding.

“No I’m not, he’s already at the gym. And once again, I am already infected.”

“Infected with…Look, Ethan said to wait until next full moon. That’s almost a month away. Quit freaking about it.”

“You want to know why I screamed?”

“Because you’re overreacting to the idea that you might be a werewolf a month from now? Because you wanted to ruin the start of my weekend? Why?”

“I bit my lip.”

“Oh, go suck a lemon. You did not wake me up for this.”

“No, I mean…well, I mean, I did, but it’s not about biting my lip. I think it healed already anyway. No, I screamed because…well, because it hurt, but then I found out why I had bitten my lip.”

“Because you needed an excuse to keep me from sleeping? Because when you go suck that lemon I told you to, you wanted to be considerate and make sure it hurt? Why?”

“Look at my teeth,” Max said, and he pulled back his lips to expose his teeth as much as possible. Jake was not a morning person, and therefore did not have time or energy to guess what about his teeth was such a problem.

“What about them? They’re sensitive to cold water? You have a cavity? What?”

“Look at them,” Max said through said teeth, speaking while trying to leave them visible. “The canines are way vigger than they used to ve, and they’re supher sharph.”

“Alright, I get it, you can put them away. They really don’t look that different to me, but they’re not my teeth. So what?”

“So, obviously, I am a werewolf now,” Max said, allowing his mouth to move normally again. “Ethan was wrong. There are some changes before the moon cycles back around.”

“Anything else? Or is it just the teeth thing?”

“No, I mean, the bite in my lip healed super fast, and look at my arm,” Max held out the arm that had been bitten. It was healed enough that it was just a cool scar. It didn’t even look especially fresh.

“I’ll admit, those are something,”

“Something? That’s all you have to say about it?” Max said, offended.

“I was not supposed to be awake right now. You’ve upset fate and the rhythms of life. Give me a break if I’m not as articulate as we’d both like me to be.”

“Well, I don’t know what to do about it. I’m taking on wolfish traits, and that’s in human form. I really don’t want to know what is going to happen when the full moon comes, and I don’t even know if I’ll be able to hide these changes for all that long.”

“Hey, look on the bright side. Maybe now you can actually grow a beard.”

“Hey, it’s been three years since the last attempt, I probably could anyway. And it wasn’t that bad, even then.”

“It only wasn’t bad because you’re blond enough it was easy to forget that the patches of hair were there at all. Hey, at least your hair color hasn’t changed.”

“Why do you say that? Do you think it will? I don’t want to have to dye my hair all the time. That would be awful.”

“No, I don’t think it’ll change. But I don’t know, your teeth changing was weird to me, too. Not really a bad thing, though, and the healing’s cool.”

“I guess, but just think about when I turn all mindless and awful and start biting people. How am I going to avoid that? And what if I’m dumb as a wolf and I drum up all this attention and get reported, then what?”

“I don’t know, but it’s too early to worry about right now.”

“You’re right. I have a month to prepare,” Max said. Jake meant early in the day, but he wasn’t going to correct him. “But what do I do in the meantime?”

“Monitor the changes and go about your normal life the best you can, for now.”

“What is normal, anymore? I feel like I forgot.”

“Normal is letting me go back to bed.”

-:-

On Tuesday mornings, all three of them had to go to work at 8 am. Naturally, that meant that Ethan typically got up at 4, went to the gym, came back, showered, ate breakfast, and accomplished errands and read until he needed to go. Naturally, also, that meant that Jake typically got up at 7:30 and rushed to put socks on and leave. Max was the happy middle ground of the two. So it was that at 6:30, he should be getting out of bed. Max knew this, and was awaiting it with great anticipation, bags under his eyes and coffee in hand.

“What are you doing up already?” Ethan asked, walking into the kitchen to get his own coffee, already having done everything necessary to be ready for the time that he’d need to leave for work.

“Join me,” Jake said. It wasn’t intended to be ominous, but Jake really hadn’t gotten enough sleep. And his rhythms were all off, anyway. But it would be worth it.

“Doesn’t answer my question,” Ethan said, taking the seat next to Jake. “What are you watching for?”

“You will see. It’s about to happen.”

“What is? Did you do something?”

“Silver affects werewolves, right?”

“Yes. But as I have said, Max wouldn’t be a true werewolf until next full moon,” Ethan said, watching the door to the bedroom where Max’s alarm was going off for a moment.

“Max thinks he’s already a werewolf.”

“Well, he’s not.”

“We’re about to find out, aren’t we?” Jake said, not taking his eyes off the door.

“Are we?” Ethan said, looking to Jake in sudden concern. His concern was proven justified as a scream issued from the door. “What did you do?”

“Is there silver in my underwear?” Max’s voice came muffled through the door, but the anger was clear.

“You put silver in his underwear? So as soon as he started putting them on, he got burned?” Ethan clarified.

“It burns? I didn’t know that,” Jake said, bashful as he could be in his half-conscious state.

“Ow, ow, OW!” Max said.

“Good thing he probably felt it before they were all the way on,” Ethan said. Jake looked at the ceiling. “Because the silver was just, maybe, sprinkled on indiscriminately and so he got burned on his foot?”

“Sewn in,” Jake explained, embarrassed. “I got silver wire and stayed up most of the night.”

“To every pair? Where is the silver?” Ethan asked.

“Well, I started on the butt region, obviously. But then, you know, I was delirious and tired, and halfway through, I thought, the front would be really funny? I thought it would be irritating, like itch powder.”

“Oh no. So fifty fifty it was just his butt. Let’s hope-” Ethan was interrupted when Max slammed open the door, marching out without any silver-lined underwear on. Ethan and Jake make excellent eye contact with Max, apparently more concerned by his nudity than he was.

“You burnt my DICK!” Max yelled at Jake.

“Guess he wasn’t lucky,” Ethan said. “I will leave you two to it.” With that, Ethan gracefully exited the scene, retreating to his own room.

“I didn’t know it would do that,” Jake excused, though he knew it was weak.

“Well, how did you even know what pair of underwear I would grab this morning?” Max asked.

“I didn’t. I maybe, um…did it to all of your underwear. I mean, I couldn’t have done that if you didn’t sleep naked, not that that makes it any better.”

“You WHAT?” Max did a little turn, unable to find a proper outlet for his frustration. “Now what am I going to wear to work?”

“More than what you’re wearing now?”

“Yeah, I get that, but I have no underwear that won’t burn me, so then what?”

“I don’t know. I was thinking you’d end up going commando for a day.”

“To work?” Max said. His anger then started turning into tears, making Jake more uncomfortable even than the nudity. “I just didn’t want any of this. I didn’t want underwear to burn me, and I didn’t want to grow a beard that bad, and I didn’t get injured enough to need super healing, I want steak tartare and I never have before and I don’t know if it’s related or is I’m just psyching myself out, and now I can’t even go to the dentist because they have x-rays of my teeth and they’ll know they’re different and so I’d better brush and floss and do it three times a day, because once I get a cavity I’ll just have to have you or Ethan pull it and I want to keep my teeth, you know?” He was starting to devolve into sobs, and he took over Ethan’s chair to put his head on Jake’s shoulder.

“Maybe the super-healing heals cavities, too,” Jake suggested.

“But I’m gonna kill you guys when the full moon happens, and then what? I don’t want to do that. I don’t know what I’m gonna do,” Max said tearfully.

“Well, whatever it takes, we’ll help you. And maybe we can be an at home dentist or something,” Jake said. Slowly, sitting there, Max started to pull himself together.

“You really mean it?”

“Yeah, of course. We’re going to stick with you, maybe even after you kill us. Not that you’ll kill us. But for now, you really need to put on some pants.”

“I don’t have any underwear, you know that. You did that,” Max protested, unamused.

“Well, I didn’t realize it would burn you, so since it was meaner than I meant it to be, I’ll tell you now. I meant to keep this a secret for a day, but I actually kept one pair that has no silver. You can put those on, and then I’ll take the silver out of the rest, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks,” Max said while wiping away tears, and finally, after Jake provided the safe pair, put on underwear.

-:-

“I’m pretty sure people are catching on,” Max said Friday night once he got home from work. “Someone asked if I was doing something different with my hair.”

“Has your hair changed? I didn’t think it was any different.” Ethan said.

“Well, no, but she only asked because she knew something about me was different, obviously, so it’s a bad sign. Soon she’ll figure it all out and report me.”

“No one has reported the other werewolf yet, so I bet people don’t really notice any of the more subtle stuff,” Jake said. He had been checking somewhat regularly.

“Well, they’ll notice in three weeks, if we don’t figure out how to prevent that,” Max said.

“I was thinking about that. There’s an abandoned mine nearby, and I’m pretty sure a werewolf would get confused if it were in a mine tunnel deep underground. You’d basically be trapped by the mazelike tunnels, and then once you were back to normal, we could go in and lead you back out,” Jake said.

“That was an open pit mine. No tunnels,” Ethan said. “I’ve been trying to figure out whatever I can about werewolves. My first thought was silver handcuffs, because werewolves have enhanced strength, but silver cancels out supernatural effects. The problem is that Jake proved that, in either form, silver will just burn you. Probably because every bit of a werewolf’s body is supernatural due to the potential for healing and transformation. But anyway, we couldn’t count on the silver only burning the mindless werewolf form.”

“I’m telling you, it needs to be some kind of trap. Something that can be evaded by a human mind, but that a mindless beast couldn’t operate,” Jake said.

“I was still thinking I’d just run really far away,” Max said.

“The effective range of a werewolf is larger than you’d think,” Ethan said. “Actually, Jake’s idea isn’t a bad one. But I do think we’ll still need to incorporate silver to ensure that Max doesn’t just rip down a door or something to get around it.”

“Doesn’t the government have that branch that deals with the supernatural?” Max asked. “So someone knows how to deal with this stuff. There must be some kind of guaranteed method of trapping a werewolf, right?”

“Well, that branch is kind of a rumor, and either way, they might just not care if the werewolf gets a little burnt,” Ethan said. “I do have a cousin that’s studying the history of the supernatural. Everyone has told him there’s no way to make a career out of that, but I could always ask him if he knows anything that could help.”

“But how exactly are you going to ask without giving him the idea that I’m a fresh werewolf?” Max asked. “You can’t tell him, but even if you don’t, he might guess if you’re asking questions.”

“Well, he and I get together to catch up every so often because he lives kind of close by, so I’ll just try to subtly weave it into the conversation next time. It’s polite to ask a student about their studies, anyway.”

Max jumped when there was a knock on the door. He immediately went to hide himself, but there really wasn’t any reason for him to do so. Ethan opened the door momentarily, revealing that there was a man not much older than the trio standing outside. He carried a small basket of flowers in one hand, a bright purple.

“Good evening,” the man greeted. “I’m Adrian, and I’m new in the neighborhood. I am trying to make myself known to the residents and make sure they know how to contact me. I’m sort of an unofficial proxy for reporting supernatural creatures. Seen anything strange, lately?” the man asked, seeming to make it out like it was a joke, though Max was clearly trying not to panic.

“Oh, well, it’s nice to meet you,” Ethan said. “I certainly haven’t seen anything recently, but you’ll be the first to know if I do.”

“Excellent, glad to hear it! I’m passing out some fresh wildflowers also, so take this, and a business card,” Adrian said, pulling a business card from his pocket and handing it over alongside a sprig of the flowers he was carrying.

“Thanks! I think monkshood is one of all of our favorites,” Jake said, taking the flowers as Ethan took the business card.

“Oh, good. I’m always worried that I make the worst first impressions. If I had done that, I would have wanted to know right away. Well, I’ll leave you all to it, but remember, I’m just down the road if you need me, so don’t hesitate. I love hearing about anything supernatural,” Adrian said, and he excused himself. Ethan shut the door, at which point Jake had to physically restrain Max so that he didn’t start yelling about the situation while the man was still close enough to hear through the walls.

“Alright, so that was a problem,” Ethan said.

“At least the flowers were pretty,” Max said. “But otherwise I think I’m triple doomed.”

“Make it quadruple, since you still don’t know what monkshood is,” Jake said. “Hey, do these smell off to you?” he held the flowers up to Max for him to sniff, which he did.

“They smell fine, I guess. Not that great, though, on second thought. Almost bitter? Why?” Max asked, smelling the flowers multiple times to get a good idea of their scent.

“I cannot believe you just did that,” Ethan said. “Max, it’s wolfsbane. That’s what monkshood is. You just took a big whiff of wolfsbane. No wonder it smells a bit bitter to you.”

“No, it smelled like that to me, too,” Jake said. “I was really hoping it would do something interesting.”

“Well, it’s a good thing it didn’t. It is poisonous, though, so quit putting it in your faces. Do you think that man meant to find out if there was a werewolf in town using the wolfsbane?” Ethan asked, thinking things through.

“Yeah, obviously,” Jake said. “He didn’t exactly have access to Max’s underwear, so how else was he going to test it?”

“What if he already knew and he was just trying to prove it?” Max asked. “Oh no, someone must have reported me already. I knew my teeth would be a problem. I wish I’d been found out because I suddenly got buff, or something, instead of my teeth. Why don’t I have any super strength, anyway?”

“Well, that’s because you don’t go to the gym,” Ethan said. “I’ve invited you to go with me.”

“I’m not getting up two and a half hours earlier just to go to the gym with you,” Max said.

“Regardless, no one has reported you. I still think your teeth look normal,” Ethan said.

“That’s what I said,” Jake chimed in.

“Then what’s he doing showing up to our apartment with wolfsbane? He must know something,” Max said.

“Not necessarily. The local government has been incentivizing reports of supernatural creatures, recently, so he could just be trying to get some extra cash. Or…” Ethan trailed off.

“Or what, Ethan? It’s so much worse when you don’t even finish the thought,” Max complained.

“Well, congress has a bill up that has to do with certain changes to the laws about reporting supernatural creatures. For one, it would make reporting mandatory after a sighting. For another, it would implement a broader range of reporting methods and locations. You would be able to file a report anonymously, too.” Ethan said.

“I’m just now hearing about this?” Max said. “This is incredibly relevant to me specifically, why do you know about it and I don’t?”

“Well, it is publicly available to view. You just didn’t read it,” Ethan said. “But I didn’t tell you because it might not get passed, and even then, you can still hide. It’s only one night a month, that’s not so bad. I didn’t want to scare you for nothing.”

“Well, now I’m scared anyway. And I really have been craving something, like sushi or steak or a really juicy burger or something and I feel like I might even be able to enjoy it now because I’m half sure at this point that it’s completely unrelated to the wolf thing.”

“I’ll order some stuff and get it delivered, and then you can get it all out of your system,” Jake said. Ethan narrowed his eyes at Jake at that, but Max agreed, so they went about their business as normal until they got dinner, Ethan keeping up his suspicion the whole time.

Once they had everything arrayed at the table and they had all gotten partway through their food, Ethan’s suspicion waned. Just in time, Jake thought.

“Wow, Max,” he said.

“Don’t –” Ethan tried to interrupt, but Jake couldn’t be stopped now.

“You’re really wolfing down your food tonight.”

“I knew you had that evil little gleam in your eye, I just knew it,” Ethan said. Jake had to laugh, though, and between Ethan taking offense on his behalf and Jake being far more amused than he needed to be, Max was able to join in.

In regards to the character songs I have been working on (by the way I am not a songwriter this is just for fun) they have really taken me by surprise. For example, one turned out to be some kind of anxiety rap. Another turned into this long thing that I can't get out of my head (I guess I find it catchy). That one is Tye's, and since he is raven themed, so is the song. I feel like talking about that, so I will.

So the nursery rhyme "One for Sorrow" has inspired a lot of people and a lot of things. It's an old rhyme, so it's been around. There are even multiple versions of it, though they are somewhat similar. The idea behind the rhyme is that the number of magpies (yes, originally it seems it was magpies) would indicate something positive or negative. One and two are very established - one is BAD. Two is GOOD. One for sorrow, two for joy. This actually has roots in some actual bird behavior because a lone magpie means something about bad weather, I think, so it actually does hold that seeing single magpies is a bad sign compared to dual magpie action.

Now not everyone has magpies, but the practice of counting corvids holds true across a broader geographic range. So people "counting crows" is a part of that, though often in North America, people are looking at Ravens. It all falls into the same category, really.

I really find this a compelling concept because it really has a vibe. A single raven signifying sorrow? Poe loves it, too. The band Counting Crows obviously agrees with me. So Tye as a character is kind of the 'lone raven', and has to come to terms with the fact that he can't ever signal anything but sorrow: he can't ever be two ravens, so he'll never signal joy.

He also has a sort of obsession with counting crows (backstory reasons). As such, the song has several references to specific numbers of ravens. They also often vascillate between good and bad omens if you take away or add just one, so that's a repeated theme in the song. One verse goes "Five ravens, one flew down. I begged him not to do it, may as well have made no sound". For those of you with some familiarity of the rhyme, you may wonder why he's begging that one raven to stay - it's because in an earlier version of the poem, it reads "Three for a wedding, four for a death", so when it was five ravens, the omen was just about silver. With one fewer, it signals death.

If anyone has any interest in the lyrics I wrote, maybe I'll post them. Maybe I'll record the actual song, too, we'll see