Normalize Super Close Friendships Instead Of Assuming There Must Be A Romantic And/or Sexual Factorfriends

Normalize super close friendships instead of assuming there must be a romantic and/or sexual factor—friends are a wonderful treasure

The Government (Part 2)

Carla had never met any of the clerks who dealt with the supernatural reports. It wasn’t even allowed. The only contact she had with any of them was when she received the information from one of the reports that was too high stakes for anyone but the organization she was a part of. That information included only the name of the clerk who submitted it. This didn’t happen all that often, but now she looked at the new report and saw a name that made her do a double take. Weird coincidence.

The report was about a werewolf, which were typically one of the more straightforward cases, since they had nearly month-long periods of inactivity. Supernatural inactivity, at least. However, she was disappointed to see that this case was immediately more complicated than it needed to be.

The report had the typical problem with werewolves: the werewolf either looked like a person or they didn’t. The in-between period was short, and if the person wasn’t seen transforming, it was hard to figure out who it might be, or else hard to verify their status as werewolf or human. This report also contained a somewhat unfortunate possible transmission. The transmission wasn’t guaranteed by a bite, but it was very likely, so the report essentially contained the presence of two werewolves. She would have to make a note of both, which would be dealt with in parallel. The one who had been a werewolf at the time would be the far more difficult of the two to investigate. In fact, surveillance of the neighborhood was sometimes the only option in those cases.

So of course, when Carla divvied up agents for the two investigations, she placed herself on the investigation of the victim/second werewolf. They had a description and even a suspected identity. They would still have to deal with some paperwork and do some research before acting, but in general, it would be straightforward.

The only difficulty was that they couldn’t take in any werewolf without sufficient evidence against them, and while reports of seeing them transform would count as sufficient, accounts of a person being bitten were not. There was always that slim chance the disease hadn’t been transmitted, after all. So they would likely be on this case until the next full moon, unless they got lucky.

After doing their required prep work, the next step was to interview the people who were most often in contact with the suspect. Their research had yielded that their suspected second werewolf, Max, had an office job in town, so after she sent two agents to ask around the neighborhood to find out what Max’s neighbors had seen, all without being too flashy or disruptive, she dressed in plainclothes herself, going to Max’s office under the pretense of conducting a corporate review of his performance.

Though she had access to anything she could need to gain access to the office, a phone call proved sufficient. The person who had taken the call hadn’t taken any steps to confirm Carla’s position in the company. That was often the case, Carla mused, people not taking the time to investigate the claims of a confident person.

The day after the report had been filed, Carla arrived at Max’s office. She gave specific instructions that anything she talked about with any of the employees was to remain confidential, promising the same confidentiality in return. She wanted to avoid Max, if possible, so after being shown the small conference room, she set up her things, mostly props except her notebook and pen, and started taking employees one by one.

“Excuse me, do you have a moment?” Carla asked the woman whose cubicle was closest to the conference room – as good a place to start as any.

“Oh, yes, of course,” the woman said, quickly wrapping up whatever she had been doing and following Carla to the conference room.

“Will you please state your name for my records?” Carla asked.

“Willemina,” Willemina said.

“Thank you. Now, I am conducting a corporate review of Max, and I need some information from some of his coworkers. Please keep this information between us. Anything you say will remain anonymous, also, so feel free to be completely candid. Now, Max works Monday through Friday, I believe? Has Max ever missed a day of work, that you can remember?” Carla asked.

“Well, I don’t think so. He’s obviously had a couple of sick days, like everyone, but I don’t think he’s ever skipped out on work.”

Carla was unsurprised. Unfortunately, the last full moon landed squarely on a weekend, so Max wouldn’t have missed a day of work during the only moon he could have changed. If the condition weren’t so easily transmissible, it might even have been better to wait to do this part of the investigation until after the next full moon, but she couldn’t spare the time.

“Alright, excellent. Has he ever shown up to work late, inebriated, in a state of disarray, or with any visible injuries?”

“No, not really. Maybe a little bit of disarray a couple of times, but never drunk, and he doesn’t seem to get injured a lot. This is an office, so at least while he’s here, a papercut might be the biggest danger,” Willemina said.

“And what does he wear, typically?”

“Button up shirt and slacks, like the other men.”

An unfortunate industry and time of year for this investigation. Most of his body would be covered by his clothing, so unless he had been bitten on his hand or face it wouldn’t have been visible. He wouldn’t have needed bandages at any point while he was at work if he was a werewolf, due to the advanced healing process. The original bite always left a permanent scar, but that also would have been covered by his clothing, in all likelihood.

“Has his behavior changed at all recently, or has he told you of any recent life changes?”

“Well, I think he’s doing something different with his hair, maybe? I’m not sure, I think something’s different, but I don’t know exactly what it is. Maybe he’s holding his mouth differently when he smiles? Oh, I guess that’s not relevant, sorry.”

“Well, that will be all for now. Thank you for your time.”

Willemina had been very little help. Something vague was different wasn’t enough to go off of, and the rest of his behavior seemed to be normal. Carla got the next employee, going through the same routine. Once again, same result. There just hadn’t been enough time for the people he worked with to notice anything strange. That might mean that the neighbors would be a better source of information, but it was disappointing to have spent so much time with nothing gained.

Carla made the decision to end early, not interviewing all of the employees, since there seemed to be so little to have been noticed so far. She brought in one last employee. One of the other employees had implied that he was a bit of a gossip, so if there had been anything to notice, it likely would have made its way to him. Though Carla had low expectations, she figured she ought to do her due diligence by at least interviewing him before leaving.

“What is your name, for my records?”

“Sebastían, and that is with the accent,” Sebastían said.

“Alright, Sebastían, your fellow employees have let me know that Max is a pretty good employee, all things considered. Would you agree?”

“Yeah, I guess I would. I don’t agree with how he spends his money, but it doesn’t really affect his work, anyway.”

“And what is it about how he spends his money that you don’t agree with?”

“He got some veneers or something, I don’t know what it is. They look like they were custom or specialty, too, they’re not what I would have picked. But I guess they look fine. The work was really done right, too, the color match is perfect and everything.”

That was the first thing that interested Carla out of all the interviews. One of the potential, though not guaranteed, side effects of becoming a werewolf was related to teeth, not to mention the teeth ritual.

“And what do they look like?”

“Oh, mostly the same and all, it’s just a couple are sharper, maybe a little longer, and I think his teeth are straighter, but I don’t know how veneers would do that, so maybe I’m wrong. I think Willemina likes them a lot, though, but maybe it’s not just his teeth she’s staring at, to be honest.”

“And when did he get these done?”

“Pretty recently, it was this month, a bit before Christmas I think.”

“Thank you, that will be all. Just a reminder that everything said in this room stays in this room, understood?”

“Oh yes, of course,” Sebastían winked. That didn’t inspire confidence, but Carla assumed it was unlikely that the man would go straight to Max with the information, anyway. More likely it would be spread among the rest of his coworkers, but with any luck, that would inspire them to remember any odd behavior they observed in Max. Carla hoped it wouldn’t take that long to put this case to bed, but you never knew.

She packed up her props and returned to her office. She wrote up her notes – at least, the relevant parts. Willemina having a crush on Max didn’t qualify. Did qualify. Didn’t. She put it in. Who knew what might be relevant if Max started to spread the curse?

The two other agents working with her, Victor and Olivia, returned just after she had made that decision, stepping into her office to report.

“What did you find?” Carla asked them, turning her chair to face them.

“Most of the neighborhood hasn’t seen anything of note,” Victor said.

“The next-door neighbor reported seeing a wolf-headed man being invited into the house on the day before the full moon,” Olivia added.

“The fur color indicates that it was not Max,” Victor said.

“That’s relevant, but it doesn’t prove one way or the other if Max is a werewolf himself. Report this to the other group, it may have been the original werewolf. Still doesn’t give an identity for him, but maybe it’ll help,” Carla said.

“What are our next steps?” Olivia asked.

“For you, casual surveillance on the house. Don’t let anyone know you’re there, but see if you can’t catch them doing something odd,” Carla said. “Meanwhile, I think I’ll check if the one who reported the whole thing knows anything else about it.”

-:-

The semester had officially started, and Andrew was having the first cafeteria meal of the new year. It was a blessed meal for two reasons: firstly, he had forgotten how bad it could be, temporarily, and secondly, since there hadn’t been any meals served in the cafeteria for weeks, the food was all fresh, rather than an unholy amalgamation of old food and problematic new food. The new food was problematic, still, but at least it wasn’t quite as unholy.

“Mind if I sit with you?” said a guy about Andrew’s age, holding a plate of food and a drink.

“Oh, sure,” Andrew said. He hadn’t been expecting company, but he would feel awkward about refusing.

“Sorry, maybe you don’t remember me that well. I’m going to be in a couple of your classes this semester. I’ve seen you around before, but I guess I haven’t really introduced myself. My name is Liam, I’m a history major. I take some of the same classes as you, though I imagine you get to be in some really interesting ones.”

“Oh, hi, I’m Andrew, um, but yeah, I’m taking all the weird ones everyone says don’t give you any career skills,” Andrew says. Liam laughed at that.

“I can understand that. Everyone always says I won’t be able to do much else but teach, but obviously I wish I could be a museum curator or something interesting like that.”

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense. I’m more in it for personal interest, I actually don’t know what kind of career I’ll end up in.”

“Yeah, totally,” Liam said. “What class are you most looking forward to?”

“A Comparison of Modern Supernatural Entities to Their Historical Records, though everyone calls it CoMSETHR. It doesn’t sound that good, but at least it’s shorter.”

“Yeah, that’s a bit of a mouthful,” Liam said. “Anything interesting on the syllabus?”

“Yeah, absolutely! We have a bunch of papers we have to write, but the first one that’s due in a couple weeks is all about comparing one specific supernatural creature to it’s historical records. We get to pick which one, too.”

“Wow! That does sound interesting. What are you going to pick?”

“I’m thinking werewolves. It’s a hard one in some ways because the records of werewolves are kind of all over the place, though I learned a lot about them last semester. Did you know that there’s a historic ritual to make a werewolf’s teeth larger in their human form?”

“Whoa, there’s a teeth ritual? I definitely didn’t already know that,” Liam said, and if Andrew were a little more socially aware, he might have detected the barest hint of sarcasm in Liam’s voice. If he had known Liam a bit better, he might have noticed that his own teeth were looking a bit long and maybe a little sharper than normal, but Andrew really hadn’t spoken to Liam before then.

“Yeah, there are so many rituals in history and all that, it’s amazing – there’s even one to bind a werewolf to one location until released, but there’s debate about whether or not that ever actually worked.”

“Yeah, that’s really cool. I bet it would be really interesting if there was an actual werewolf around. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who has seen one in person,” Liam said.

“Oh, yeah, they’re not all that common, after all,” Andrew said, excited to impress Liam. “I’ve actually seen one, though.”

“Oh, really? That’s really cool! What did it look like?”

“Well, it was dark at the time, but I think it had like, dark brown fur, and it looked like it had just bitten somebody.”

“No way! Do you know who it was?”

“It kind of looked like my cousin’s roommate, actually, but I didn’t see for sure. It was close to where they live, though, so it could have been.”

“Have you asked your cousin about it?”

“Not really, but he did ask me about werewolves and all pretty soon after that. So I think he might know his roommate is a werewolf. But I didn’t think of that at the time, so I’ll have to wait until next time to ask him about it.”

“Well, what kinds of things was he asking about? Silver bullets, moonlight, all that?”

“No, I told him a lot, a bunch of rituals and stuff. He even took notes, so maybe he tried them out, too. I would really like to know if any of them actually work.”

“Did you tell him about the teeth ritual?”

“Of course I told him about the teeth ritual! I’ve actually heard that there have been a bunch of variants throughout history. It’s a really weird ritual, too.”

“Right, yeah. Well, let me know if you find anything out from him, that would be really cool to hear about. I’ve got to run, though, I have to get to a class across campus,” Liam said, taking a plate still mostly full of food with him as he left.

Andrew wondered why he’d never talked to Liam before. And why Liam had decided to talk to him now. Andrew was just glad that they both seemed to be so interested in the werewolf situation. He hadn’t thought Liam was one of the history majors that seemed really into that kind of thing, but maybe he had been wrong.

Carla, walking away, was counting the minutes carefully. She managed to get out of sight before she stopped looking like Liam. Except the teeth, which had never looked exactly like Liam’s. If that teeth ritual wasn’t benefiting her now that someone else was its victim, she would have vowed to kill its creator, however many centuries he had already been dead.

My own experience to add on the walking front: On relatively level ground, especially with proper pathways or roads, the walking distances hold true. Walking through craggy mountains without trails, the max is about 15. Helping along someone who is not doing incredibly well healthwise (say, extremely dehydrated, somewhat older or unfit in some way) while you're in the craggy mountains without trails, drop that to about 6 or 7 max. Basically, factor in the conditions of the paths being traversed and the people traversing them - marathon runners will be able to go further than 68 year olds, or a group which has normal people and someone injured or sick.

As an addition, biking can massively expand your range, given you have trails and are in decent shape - 10 miles an hour isn't too crazy, and 50 miles in a day isn't impossible either, depending on how much biking you're used to. If you're very fit, it can go up quite a bit more. However, weather plays a big part in speed and range, as headwinds slow you down and tire you out, and it's harder to keep rain off as you bike than it is when you're walking.

This is how Werewoof Undies came to be

I have typically just ridden the wave and remembered that this is a cycle that happens, so it isn't that my work has gotten worse, I'm just in that stage of the cycle. Would love to know if there are better ways, though

Okay, Tumblr writers.

We all know how many, even most, of us periodically get maudlin about our work and our skills as writers and whether or not anyone even likes our work and what they like about it and whatever.

I am trying very hard to be less maudlin all over other people all the time, especially on social media.

So what are y'all's coping mechanisms for these periods? I'm in need.

The Funeral

It was the following Friday when Ethan and Jake attended Max's funeral. They had met many of Max's family members, though they didn't know them well. The arrangements were partly made by Carla, who required a high level of secrecy about the events that had taken place. She had arranged for the body to be placed in a closed casket without anyone seeing anything, and even bypassed the coroner so that no one would see what had become of Max. Ethan and Jake were trying their hardest not to think about that, though, as they couldn’t talk about it with anyone else at the funeral.

“It's so sad, what happened. I suppose a person wouldn't know they had some heart condition at his age,” a woman was saying. Jake wasn't actually sure who she was, but he acted like he did to prevent having to go through that awkward conversation when he really didn't want to.

“Yeah, it was pretty sudden,” he said. That much was true, even though the heart condition was fabricated.

“You and that other boy were his roommates, right? Is it hard, now that he's not in the house anymore?”

“Yeah, it is. It just keeps reminding us of him, so we’re having a rough time of it. Actually, we're planning to move. Everything here just is a bit of a painful reminder, you know?”

“Yes, I can understand that. Well, if you boys need anything, don't suffer in silence, okay?”

“Alright, thank you.”

Adrian was not at the funeral. He would have come, but he had decided to move away due to all the activity in trying to catch the original werewolf, which, unknown to the agents for now, was him. He didn't want to have any risk of being caught the next full moon. He was also Ethan and Jake's new roommate, so when they moved, they'd be moving in with him. They had all agreed that, under the circumstances, it would be best to live where Adrian went to college, that strange place where supernatural creatures were so commonplace they weren't even reported.

They continued interacting with the others at the funeral until nearly everyone had left, and the casket was lowered into the grave. Then they went home, packing their things. They had both put in their two weeks notice soon after Max had been shot, which meant they had to stay a bit longer still, but their landlord had been very understanding of their situation, so they were free to exit their lease agreement early – they only had to finish out the month.

Both of them were restless throughout the last week of work, not wanting to wait before leaving that place. Ethan had one last meetup with Andrew, who apologized again for his involvement in the whole thing. He gave Ethan a copy of his paper, which he had decided to write in an attempt at exposing the reality of the situation, and drew from early history to show that the modern conception of werewolves as dangerous was inaccurate.

“This is well-written, at least,” Ethan said. “I’m sorry we can't tell you any more about the organization, but I think it's better for everyone if we don't.”

“I understand. I don't think it would have helped all that much, anyway,” Andrew said. “The paper didn't do that well. The professor thought I didn't have enough modern sources to support the idea that werewolves were benign, and I couldn't exactly say ‘my cousin knows a werewolf'. Or knew, sorry.”

“I appreciate the thought, though,” Ethan said. They continued talking a bit more before Andrew ended up leaving.

Finally, the time came for them to take their packed cars to the road. Ethan was driving a moving truck with his car being pulled behind, actually, but Jake was driving his packed car. Ethan didn't trust Jake to drive a moving truck, and Jake didn't question him on it.

The trip was two days in total, the first consisting of about ten hours and the second eight hours before they crossed into their new home state. It wasn't immediate, but as they got a bit further in, they saw several supernatural creatures in the open. When they arrived at their new address, Adrian came out to greet them in a t shirt and jeans, and since it was part of the full moon cycle, he was in wolf form. It was odd to see him openly like that, but Jake noticed a woman with snake hair walking nearby, so clearly it was commonplace.

“Welcome, welcome,” Adrian said. “And again, thanks so much for letting me live with you guys. It'll be a nice change, I think.”

At that point, their fourth roommate came out of the front door, wearing a tank top and jean shorts, blond fur sticking out, and tail wagging behind him, though he seemed not to notice. He had the biggest, toothiest grin anyone had ever had as he ran towards them and hugged them before stepping back for a moment to greet them verbally.

“Welcome to Florida!” Max said. “How was my funeral?”