A woof that's not actually a woof [Network/Action]

[catted]

Date: January 8th-19th
Characters: Mary Ann & Open!

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1. January 8th, Network/Video, filtered away from Nel, Thom and Gizmo

So

I don't know how to start this. It's so ridiculous. [She runs a hand through her hair and then continues.]

All right. A few days ago, I felt an echo happening but I have not yet figured out what it is. And since I'm worried that this ...other person was a werewolf, and the full moon is close... [She'll let people draw their own conclusions.] Point being, I'll spend the onset of the full moon in the basement and I hope that that will be all that there'll be to it and I I'll be wrong and nothing will happen, but in case that there is... I don't want Janice to be alone in the house with the kids.

So what I'm trying to ask, would someone here stay over at my place on the 9th and all the way up to after midnight on the 10th? [Sit out the beginning and height of the full moon - if nothing has happened by the time it starts waning, she should be fine.] You can stay in Feste's room, they's currently away on a trip and have offered, and there's wifi and everything. [She might be joking now, trying to lighten the mood.] Free lodging and delicious dinner and breakfast included.

Any takers?


2. After midnight on the 10/11th, Action

She's been watching the clock with anxious, careful ...triumph, really, all the way up after they ticked into the spot at which she knows the moon to start waning.

Only then does she allow herself to relax and climb the ladder that leads up from the hole-in-the-ground basement under the living room, knocking against the latch that connects the two rooms. She can't open it herself with the heavy dresser that has (for good reason) be placed over the latch.

Hopefully whoever is watching hasn't fallen asleep on the sofa. She'd really rather spend the rest of the night in her own bed.


3. January 15th, Action, locked to people in her house

Something that Nel said a long time ago still sticks with her. Have you TRIED turning? You could be the kind of werewolf that doesn't react to the full moon....

She's been unable to stop thinking about it, and so early on Sunday, while everyone in the house is still asleep, she goes down into the living room, only dressed in her nightgown, and focuses. Ever since the trips to the tunnels she has been able to make herself hear and smell better than normal, so perhaps if she just pushes that principle even further...

Others who live in the house might hear a ripping of fabric, and when they come downstairs find a lean, grey wolf with a few black stripes running through her fur trying to get out of Mary Ann's nightgown. It's kind of stuck to the front legs and around the neck, though.


4. January 15th, Network/Video

It's still early morning, and nobody is really up, so Mary Ann decides that the best thing that she can do is go on a run while she tries to figure out how to reverse the effect.

Eventually, she stops at a lake and taps her number into the surface. ...She has no idea how to actually communicate in this form, though, so all people will see is a lean, grey wolf with a few black stripes running through her fur, sitting in a forested area.

Comments

4, Video

[iamnotgod]

[Staring wolf, meet staring man. True, they'd been talking about this before, but it's not the same as seeing a wolf using the Network.]

Hello? How about, howl if you can hear me?

Or tap the screen twice.

[Howling might draw her unnecessary attention.]

[catted]

[...she's going to tap the water twice. Howling sounds like an absolutely terrible idea.]

[iamnotgod]

[Mary Ann is a smart cookie.]

So, can I assume you transformed on purpose?

That's twice for yes, once for no.

[catted]

[...yes, and no? She did transform on purpose, but not for a purpose. More to figure out if she could.

This is probably turning into a more philosophical question than Walter intended it to be. She taps twice.]

[iamnotgod]

[Walter shrugs.]

I don't suppose your Echo gave you any information on how to transform back?

[He has a follow-up question, but that can wait until she responds.]

[catted]

[There's one tap, but then she shakes her whole body and whines softly. And then taps again, twice.

Technically, it did not. She can make assumptions based on what she knows, though. It's not an issue. She's fairly sure that by the time noon rolls around, she'll be fine again.]

[iamnotgod]

[... Right.

That makes sense.

Walter nods, looking both curious now and concerned for her.]

You'll be able to figure it out on your own anyway?

That's good for now, I suppose.

[catted]

[She looks around, and then steps away from the lake, making sure to be well out of sight of the surface. She doesn't want to accidentally flash the network, after all. After also making sure that there's most definitely nobody around, she focuses, and after a bit of trial and error returns to her human form. From where she's sitting back, she calls out:]

Are you still there?

[iamnotgod]

[A wise decision.

Though, the fact that she's able to change back so (relatively) promptly makes him laugh.]

Yes. That does answer that, I suppose!

You may have to repeat that trick to get back home unnoticed, though. Unless you want someone to pick you up?

[Not that Walter can offer - all he has is a bike.]

[catted]

[She laughs.]

I'll repeat to get home.

I can hardly call my wife like this, I couldn't exactly carry a phone like this.

[And she is perfectly uninterested in being picked up this naked by someone not her wife.]

[iamnotgod]

[Walter nods - then replies, remembering she can't exactly see that from her point of view:]

Of course.

Still, looks like today's been a successful venture for you.

[catted]

It has, at least, been rather enlightening.

...I wish I could keep my clothes on me, though.

Thread wrap seem fair?

[iamnotgod]

You may have to settle for carrying a spare set of clothes in a backpack.

[Much as the rest of them do for unrelated reasons.]

yep!

[catted]

If I find a backpack that fits on a wolf.

[she laughs.]

I should change back though before someone comes past. See you.

2, Action, on the 11th

[warped_replica]

Privately speaking to Mary Ann after she had made the post on the Network, Benjiro had volunteered to keep watch without the need for lodging. It would be very convenient for him after all. He could simply walk down the street back to his home once the window of time the moon should be an influence had closed. It didn’t hurt his personal schedule is flexible and leans into the late hours.

Benjiro is settled on the floor with his phone in front of the couch when he hears the knocking at the latch. The metallic sound is clear and a localized cue that means she has a clear head. He stands and walks over with silent steps to lift the dresser in order to set it aside with a quiet thump. Best not to make noise dragging it after he noticed a suspicious look from Mary Ann’s daughter when he came over.

Crouching to lift the door open, he offers her a hand with a pleased smile and a hushed congratulations, “Looks like you’re in the clear.”

[catted]

"Hopefully," she whispers back, but it's that last vestige of I don't want to jinx it, not actual worry. If she hasn't changed all the way up until the moon started to wane, there's no lore that she knows of that would suggest that she'll do it now.

Which begs the question: "Makes you wonder what the actual content of that echo was." SOmething very hard to notice, obviously, but what? She has no idea.

3, Action

[vernal_miss]

The problem with sleeping excessively for weeks is that when one is finally able to shake off the magically induced fatigue, the cycle of sleep and awake is a tad wonky. While her return to school routine had been helpful, Nel still experiences lingering effects. As such, she is merely dozing when Dizzy bolts into her bedroom with a thump against the door to burst through the narrow space only to dive under her bed to hide.

Startled out of her light sleep, Nel crawls to the edge of her bed to hang over and look under at Dizzy. The poor thing is visibly fearful with pupils wide and fur bristling. Confused and mildly alarmed, she looks up towards her bedroom door and slides out of bed to investigate. Walking to the top of the stairs, she hears some movement below. With a glance towards her mothers’ bedroom door, she creeps down the steps until she can see the impressive grey wolf standing in half torn clothing.

Even having been expecting that her mother may become a werewolf for some time now, it’s startling to find a wolf in the living room after the full moon has passed by days. Wide eyed at the sight, she actually misses the next stair step in her descent. Rather than tumbling down the remaining steps, she lands awkwardly with one hand and arm managing to catch the railing firmly enough to stop herself. Still latched tight to the hand rail, she manages to get her sentiment out in one word, “Mum...?!”

[catted]

Her daughter stumbling and almost falling down the stairs causes her to leap for her reflexively, attempting to break her fall - but rather than doing that, she trips over the fabric around her neck and legs and falls flat on her face. Snout. Front... parts of her body.

It hurts, but a lot less than it would have had to trip and fall face first normally. It's probably the lower falling height that makes the difference.

She quickly tries to scramble to her feet, looking for Nel to see if she hurt herself.

[vernal_miss]

The sympathetic wrench in her gut from the misstep and the subsequent sting of her hip lent to breaking through the shock. As such, when the wolf responds with a similar degree of surprise and grace as opposed to anything akin to growling, Nel has sufficient evidence. The remains of her clothing is certainly familiar enough.

“Mum! It’s okay, slow down,” she starts only to see that her mother is focused on her. Pushing through her feet, she leverages herself back up to stand with her second hand on the rail and gets her forearm free, “I’m alright. I’ve taken worse tumbles.”

Moving carefully, she walks down the last steps to join her mother. Her pace is kept slower, despite her urge to hurry to her. Hands sliding into her red locks to push it back out of her face, she marvels at the way her mother looks, “...blimey. You look like a regular wolf. Well...except for your nightdress.”

[catted]

She calms down a bit when Nel gets up and doesn't seem to be hurt. Because Nel is right; her kids have taken worse tumbles, all of them. Neither her nor Janice have ever been overly protective in that way, figuring that if the kids learn how to climb trees at a young age they'll have better coordination and not fall out of them when they're older and can climb even higher trees.

Instead, she barks at Nel with some indignation when the girl comments on the nightdress. Because really, she knows. And it is rather in the way. But she also didn't want to stand in the living room naked, shielded as it is from the street by curtains and bushes and trees.

[vernal_miss]

Anxiety tends to foist itself upon present events when it has nowhere else to go. For Nel at least, finding her mother as a wolf and in control of herself has taken down the worry hanging silently in the back of her mind since last summer. It appears that an alternate theory to the stereotypical out-of-control werewolf legends has won - and she could not be more relieved.

The bark is unexpected, getting a small jump through her shoulders when she hears it. Her mother may look like a wolf, but that had not yet filtered to the anticipation to hear her mother’s voice when with her. Hands dropped from her hair, she takes a step to the side to lean and look at the way the garment clings to her new figure with a curious hand reaching to touch the fabric, “Hmmm. I think I can get it off if you’re sitting.” That would position her mother in a more human posture through her shoulders, and if she can get the neck over her head, the arms would easily follow.

“Or maybe I should get some scissors?” she adds as another option. Rather than wrestling out of an already ruined garment, she could cut the fabric. While she has not sewn since weeks before the equinox, her strength had fully returned so it should be a simple and quick task.

[catted]

She likes this nightshirt.

Which she should probably have thought about before she experimented in it... There's a displeased huff, and then the wolf nods her head. If Nel cuts carefully, she might even be able to fix it later. At least she'll have a better chance at it than if they just tear it off.

Plus it will be quieter, and she kind of hopes that all this ruckus hasn't woken up the whole house. Nel isn't an issue, even Janice or Thom wouldn't be, but she'd prefer the non-numbered children to not find a wolf in the living room.