This Is Incredibly Accurate

This is incredibly accurate

editing is so fun. I'm learning what the story I wrote is about

Inseparable Duos

My current project is one I have been working on for years now, and though it's kind of large and deals with a lot of things and has a lot of themes and consistencies, one that I have been thinking a lot about recently is the concept of 'inseparable duos'. These are pairs of people who are so close that, no matter what happens, you assume they will still be together. On example in pop culture is Lorelai and Rory, in Gilmore Girls. They might have fights, they might not talk, but you know the whole time that they will make up - the characters in the show also assume they will make up. They're properly inseparable, after all. I've also seen Crowley and Aziraphale put into this category.

Some of this is genre specific, as well. A lighthearted story is more likely to support an inseparable duo, but a darker story that shows death and separation of families, etc. requires more character intentionality or interventions of fate for a duo to stay together. As an example on the lighthearted end, my story "Werewoof Undies" has a sort of variant of the 'inseparable duo' (the inseparable trio) in Max, Jake, and Ethan. They'll stick together no matter what - they're inseparable.

On the darker end of things, the protagonists of my current project (a trilogy that's almost to the editing stage) each book has a pair of protagonists that are an inseparable duo. The themes in the trilogy are darker and the events get to be grim, so there is threat of things like death separating a duo, but these duos are, by nature, inseparable. They won't let anything separate them, not even death.

Does anyone have any other examples of this, either in your own work or in pop culture? People who aren't just around each other for convenience or unless something comes between them, but two people (or more) that cannot be separated, no matter what?

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.

The Worry (part 3)

Eleven days later, on Thursday the 21st, they had exhausted so many of Ethan’s rituals and ideas that they were finally trying one that Jake had found. The ritual had to be performed on an odd numbered Thursday, and the rest of the instructions were very specific as well, but Jake was intentionally keeping the details from the other two. He was worried that Max might decide that he didn’t want to do the ritual at all, and he was preparing to argue each element with Ethan individually, rather than all at once. Jake had the music prepped on his phone, the ingredients prepped, and he even had handouts. He watched the clock, waiting until it was about the right time to begin.

“Alright, Max. Take your shirt off,” Jake began. He pulled the two main components out of his bag.

“This is already off to a weird start. Why does it have to be eleven-thirty?” Max asked as he complied.

“It’s supposed to be close to the witching hour on an odd-numbered Thursday,” Jake answered.

“That sounds familiar. I think one of the rituals my cousin told me about was the same, but I can’t remember which one. It was one that we wouldn’t use, anyway,” Ethan mused.

“Now stand very still so I can get the sigil right,” Jake said, consulting a page where he had drawn the sigil he needed to draw. He opened up his Tupperware of blood and dipped his finger in.

“Where exactly did you get this blood?” Max asked.

“Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t bleed you or anything,” Jake reassured.

“That makes it so much worse. Do you know how many bloodborne illnesses there are?” Ethan said.

“What makes you think it’s even human? It just said ‘blood from a non-kosher animal’, nothing about being human blood. Although, I guess humans probably aren’t kosher, so that might work,” Jake said as he drew the sigil.

“So it’s pig blood?” Ethan clarified.

“Oh, yeah, that would have worked. I wish I had thought of that. Would have been easier to source, I bet, I was worried this wasn’t even going to come in time,” Jake said.

“What is it, then?” Max asked.

“Camel blood. See? Not all that weird. Now recline back a bit so I can put the glitter on,” Jake said.

“Glitter? Any ritual involving glitter could never work,” Ethan said as Max once again did as Jake asked.

“I know you say that, but probably a lot of these elements have several possible variants, or else it would have been really unlikely for any of them to have been developed in the first place. In this case, glitter is shiny, and the color is silver, so maybe the original used polished silver flakes or something. But that would burn him, so it wouldn’t really be worth trying it at that point,” Jake said. That was one of the two big hurdles he expected.

“Fine, I guess it can’t hurt. Except wasting camel blood,” Ethan said. “What’s next?”

“Well, then I draw a line from Max to each of us using the glitter,” Jake said. Ethan shook his head in continuation of his disbelief about the glitter, but Jake continued. “And then we have to fill our shoes with it and put them back on.”

“Right, obviously. You know, the only reason I’m still doing this is that you are reminding me of at least one of the rituals I heard about,” Ethan said, taking off his shoes for Jake to pour glitter into them. Jake did the same with his own shoes and drew the lines, opposite from each other and radiating away from Max.

“Do I have to have glitter in my shoes? And should I just be standing, or should I lay down, or something?” Max asked.

“No on the glitter, and it didn’t say, so do whatever seems comfortable for you, to be honest. You have the least active part. Except getting bloody, obviously,” Jake said. “Right, now take the handout, Ethan. We are going to need to do this dance, staying in the spot where the glitter line leads. Don’t mirror what I do, do it the same way I’m doing it, if that makes sense.”

“This seems familiar for a different reason,” Ethan said. “Anyway, it doesn’t look too hard. Is there a specific tempo, or is it just any synchronized pace?”

“Well, there is a specific tempo. We have to do it to Thriller, by Michael Jackson,” Jake said. Second big hurdle with Ethan.

“That’s a fully modern song,” Ethan said. He seemed to be giving up, though.

“As you said, it’s probably just for the tempo, so we might as well. And it’s pretty well themed, if I’m being honest,” Jake said.

“I think if you two are going to be dancing, it would feel weird if I was standing. I think I’ll sit, maybe,” Max said.

“Do you think you’ve got the dance down?” Jake asked.

“I guess so. I’ll have you to watch, anyway,” Ethan said. Jake knew his memory was really good, so he probably wouldn’t need the help.

“Alright, so when he sings the chorus, we start, and then we continue until either the blood catches on fire or the song ends, whichever comes first,” Jake explained.

“On fire?!” Max said. “I don’t know that I want to catch on fire.”

“Oh not you, just the blood. I don’t think it’ll melt the glitter, either,” Jake said, and he hit play on the music. He stood still, opposite Ethan, ready to start dancing – and then the chorus started.

The dance started with a twitch of the shoulder and neck, followed by a body twist and raising their arms to the side. Then there was a series of foot and hip movements, culminating in a clap. Slide right, stomp, look to the side and raise shoulders, slide left, swing one leg and arms to the side. Hips, superhero pose, hips, then Ethan and Jake pulled up their arms to the side, bending their hands like they were clawed, first on one side, then the other, standing on the leg opposite their arms each time.

“Is this really just the dance they do in the music video?” Max chimed in.

“It’s similar, but don’t interrupt,” Jake said. He and Ethan continued the dance, which required them to repeat the whole thing after they had finished going through it once. Jake was watching carefully for the blood to burn, which would indicate that they should stop the dance immediately, but it didn’t happen. Instead, the music stopped, and they stopped dancing when that happened.

“I don’t think it worked, but it did seem so familiar,” Ethan said. Just then the blood burst into flame, causing Max to scream and stand up, though he was ultimately unharmed in the process.

“Go see if there is anything different about you,” Jake said cryptically. Ethan’s eyes widened in recognition of why he had been finding it so familiar the whole time.

“This is the teeth ritual!” Ethan said. “You found a modern version of the teeth ritual! Why did this one have to be the one that worked, out of all of them? He won’t be happy.”

As if to punctuate the point, Max yelled “JAKE!” from the bathroom before stomping back out into the living room.

“So? Did it work?” Jake asked innocently.

“You did a ritual to make my canines even bigger?!” Max said, fuming.

“Well, the ritual was supposed to bring forward some of the most positive wolf-traits, just a bit, while you’re human. The teeth thing is probably just the most noticeable,” Jake said. In fact, there was debate about whether it affected anything other than the teeth, but he wasn’t going to mention that now.

“Well, they are,” Max said, pulling back his lips to show off his nearly animalistic canines, though they weren’t visible until he pulled his lips back. “If this is permanent, I’m going to kill you.”

“The site didn’t say it was permanent. I’m sure it’ll end either tomorrow, or after the full moon,” Jake said with a confidence that was entirely undeserved.

“Alright, fine, but if they are still like this after that, I really am going to kill you,” Max said, slightly comforted. “I’m going to bed, anyway. You kept us up this late on a Thursday night just to make my teeth bigger for a few days.”

Max marched into bed, leaving Ethan and Jake in the room together. They were silent for a moment before Ethan felt it was safe to talk without Max hearing.

“So…in the context I was told about that ritual, it was developed to mark a werewolf so that they couldn’t hide if they left to go somewhere else. So, yeah. It’s hella permanent.”

“Don’t say hella, it doesn’t work coming from you. And I’m prepared to die, anyway,” Jake said.

“Well, glad to hear it, because I’m not going to stop him. ‘Night,” Ethan said, leaving Jake in the room. Jake stayed in the living room for several more minutes in silence before standing to go to bed.

“Yep. I’m hella dead,” Jake said.

-:-

The next day, the moon was absent all the daylight hours. That didn’t mean very much, given the daylight hours were few and far between, but it still made it hard to track how full the moon looked. It made Jake uncomfortable how full the moon had looked the previous day, though he didn’t talk about with Max. Ethan kept reminding him that it wouldn’t truly be full until Saturday, but Jake wasn’t convinced. He was so unconvinced that he had to say something, which he did when they were all back at their apartment.

“I know the full moon isn’t until tomorrow, but it’s gonna look pretty full tonight. And I looked, and technically the last full moon was on a Thursday, not the Friday night that Max got bitten, so I really think we should set everything up and try it tonight, just in case,” Jake said. He had already started, actually, just before the others had arrived home.

“I’d prefer to be safe rather than sorry,” Max agreed.

“Alright, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. Just until the moon has risen a bit, and then you’ll be able to get out anyway. The whole setup will only work while you’re not smart enough to deal with it,” Ethan said.

With that, they got to quick work, setting up their wolf trap. It was in the bedroom Max and Jake shared, which meant that Jake would have to sleep on the couch on any night Max actually was a werewolf, but that was a sacrifice Jake would just have to make.

The trap was a mix of a few experiments and a few certainties. The holy water they had mixed with salt and formed a line trapping Max in – or at least, trapping him if he were evil or if salt really had any effect on supernatural creatures. The more certain aspect was a padlock wrapped in silver wire. The key was also wrapped in silver wire. While that would burn Max, if he had the mind to, he would be able to cover his hands with something and unwrap the silver wire from the key, unlocking the padlock without issue. If the wolf even had mind enough to use a key, then the silver wire would probably prevent it from picking up the key. At least, that was the hope.

There was also a few strands of silver wire strung about the room in the hopes that it would prevent a werewolf from busting through the walls. There was a chance they wouldn’t be sufficient for that purpose, but they didn't have any better way to ensure the wolf couldn't thwart their efforts.  Max was already inside the room, and the key was on the floor. Max still had to close the padlock once the door was closed, but otherwise, they were ready. Jake closed the door and pressed his ear to it until he heard the telltale click of the lock snapping into place. Then he and Ethan went to the kitchen table to wait for the moon to be fully out.

It didn't take too long before they saw the moon, looking basically full. Ethan went to the door, informing Max that the moon was out. Max had a timer set for an hour, which was just to be extra safe and ensure that they didn't let Max out right before he transformed. They figured if he didn't transform in that hour, they'd be safe until the next night. On the way back, Ethan froze when they heard a crash from the room.

“Are you okay?” Ethan called out. There wasn't a response from the room, but there also wasn't any other noise, so Ethan came back to the chair he'd been sitting in. “Maybe you were right about setting it up tonight.”

“I don't know, I expected a lot more commotion from him changing. You know, the muscles growing and the getting taller and all of that. I would have thought he'd be moving around and be too big to fit properly in the room, and all that. So I'm guessing that was just Max being a dork and not wanting to admit it,” Jake said. Of course, he hoped he was right. It was kind of exciting to think that his bedroom would be trapping a giant murderous beast. “Oh, and a howl. I mean, wolves are pack animals, so werewolves probably are, too. So they probably howl to get together right after they all transform.”

Ethan looked only slightly skeptical, and the two waited to hear any kind of noise from the room after that. They spent nearly half an hour waiting before they heard anything, and when they did, it was the sound of ripping fabric. They waited a bit longer, expecting to hear any continued sounds of change. Instead, they heard the metallic click of the lock being reopened.

“Timer's not up yet,” Jake whispered, getting nervous.

“No, it's not. It seems the wolf might be smarter than we planned for. Let's hope the salt and holy water stop it,” Ethan said, more calmly than Jake but still nervous for what was about to happen.

There was a thud of the lock dropping to the ground, and the doorknob moved. The door opened, barely revealing the tip of a wolf's muzzle from inside the room, confirming their fears. The door opened wider, revealing Max in his full werewolf form.

“So what pisses me off about this,” Max said, his voice maybe slightly deeper or more raspy, but ultimately the same as usual, “is that it means whoever that guy was, he bit me, like, fully with the knowledge of what it would do and in his right mind. That's way worse than if he were some kind of mindless beast. Who does that?”

“So your mind is the same in every respect? Anything strange?” Ethan said, eyebrows raised at the unexpected sight of Max's werewolf form.

“Why are you only in your underwear?” Jake asked.

“I started changing and I took all my clothes off so they wouldn't rip. But then I didn't really get any bigger. The tail might have been uncomfortable with pants on, though,” Max said, looking himself over.

“But we heard ripping. What ripped?” Ethan asked.

“My underwear. It was intentional. I had to make a hole to put the tail through,” Max said, turning to show them the tail poking through just under the waistband.

That prompted each of them to give Max a proper looking over. His fur, which covered his whole body in a medium-length slightly fluffy layer, was a similar blond to what his hair had been. His face was a full wolf head, ears, teeth, and nose. His legs were an odd blend of dog and human, making it look like Max might have just been standing on the balls of his extra-long feet, were it not for the pads and claws. His hands also ended in claws, but were otherwise fairly human. He was maybe a few inches taller than he was before, but he didn't look larger in any other dimension.

“Did it hurt?” Ethan asked.

“No, it didn't really feel like much. It just felt weird afterwards, because of the fur and the tail. And I'll have to get used to the claws. The feet, surprisingly, not that hard to get used to,” Max said. “I only fell once.”

Jake was stunned by how different Max's werewolf form was from what he was expecting. So much so that he couldn't form the right words for a moment, but eventually he found his voice again.

“You're really just…” Jake said, searching again for the right words. “a cute little werewolf puppy.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow at Jake, but Max's mouth was hanging open in shock. It was surprisingly expressive for being so wolf like, Jake thought.

“I will BITE you if you say anything like that ever again!” Max said, clearly offended. “Wait,” he continued, clearly coming to some kind of realization. “Oh, man! I called that werewolf a cute puppy! And then I threatened to bite you for that, so I guess I get it now and that means I can't be mad at him! This is the absolute worst.”

So I finished the first round of editing on the first book of my WIP trilogy. Absolutely relieved it's over - now on to the next thing! The second round of editing. So that's great.

Original Stories

I made this blog so that I had a place to share any comics, short stories, novellas, etc. that I don't have a better place for. The only one I can think of that's locked and loaded is called Werewoof Undies, and it's a campy werewolf novella, urban fantasy, short little lighthearted story. I'll be posting that on here as I figure out how this whole blog thing works, so if you're interested, be on the lookout!