Let's Arm Wrestle Who: Aidan and Lochlan Where: The Brewery When: Noonish
Aidan woke up late, feeling like he needed a drink, but waited till noon to make good on it. He was rolling a new keg into the bar, fresh from the brewery itself, as he wondered what he was doing to do about Darcy. It was a subject of contemplation that couldn’t go without a beer, even if he knew that would cloud his thoughts rather than sharpen them. She was out of line telling him who he could or couldn’t see, but he didn’t think she’d drop it like he wanted her to. That was fine, he supposed, so long as she kept her mouth shut, but that was unlikely as well.
Lochlan was distracted at best. Dead on his feet at worst. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the whole 'werewolf' thing and the tension between he and Patrick. Nothing made sense and being back in the bar after the stint in the hospital had him in the midst of a cloud of unwanted deja vu. Until he walked straight into the keg and, rejected by physics, fell on his ass. Something inside him stopped and suddenly restarted with a bray of laughter. "Shit, Aidan. Top of the morning to you, too."
Aidan assumed Lochlan saw the keg, right up till he found himself on the floor. At that point he just shook his head and tried not to roll his eyes, a small smile cracking at the corners of his mouth. “You already started drinking?” he asked. “I was about to have one myself, just as soon as I get this one on tap.”
"No, man, I was thinking. First time in my life, I know. But there you have it." Self-deprecation was definitely on the menu today. "Wish I was though. Seriously, life is one big shit storm isn't it these days?" He fairly grinned. "Now you're talking. Care if I join you? I'll help the rest of the way," he offered, positioning himself to finish the keg roll with his cousin.
“Sure,” Aidan said, shifting to one side so that Lochlan could help him finish moving the keg into the bar area. “What were you thinking about so hard?” He wasn’t going to pick on Lochlan for his mindlessness, though it did seem to be a fact. Aidan just couldn’t tell if his cousin was preoccupied with a real issue or just had his head in the clouds.
Lochlan wouldn't have blamed Aidan for wondering if he was just being his usual flaky self. It was possible. And what did Aidan know about Lochlan's situation other than that he and Patrick had been hospitalized - as Lochlan assumed he'd been clued in by Eily or whoever else in the family. He shrugged when they were done with the keg. "Stuff's been weird since I was attacked by that wolf. And I went to the weirdest AA meeting ever," he said, making light of the 'werewolf' meeting he'd been to.
“Weird how?” Aidan asked as he set up the keg in the bar. He’d heard of the attack, even if he’d not been there for it. He’d even dropped by to see his brother and cousin while they were in the hospital. But they’d recovered so fast that it was hard to remember it happened some days, especially since both of them seemed completely healed. Now that he thought of it, that was weird. He poured himself a beer, then poured one for Lochlan. “What meeting?”
"You really want to know?" he asked, only mildly incredulous. Still, it had been a bit since he'd really talked to Aidan and he liked his cousin. Respected him and felt the guy probably had some good insight that neither Patrick, who was too caught up himself, nor Eily, who wasn't a man, could give him. What did it hurt to share? "I can smell stuff. Like from seemingly miles away or in the past. Some guy Eily met, I could smell him on her. And I can hear things that I shouldn't be able to either. Like your heart beating." He shrugged and leaned against the bar, sipping the beer with a grateful expression. "This meeting some guy called for people he thought it would be fun to gather together and then tell them they were werewolves."
“Generally when I ask, yes, I want to know,” Aidan said with a small smirk. If he hadn’t wanted to know, then he wouldn’t have invited Lochlan to have a beer with him. And, as it turned out, have a very interesting conversation with. His mind immediately jumped to Sylvia and wondered if Lochlan was a vampire with the description he gave, but seeing as how he’d walked through the sun to get there, that was doubtful. “Werewolves? Well… that’s… a possibility, I guess. You were bitten by a wolf and are now displaying wolf-like tendencies.” He cast a glance around the bar, just to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation. He supposed that anyone that could hear it would have Lochlan’s hearing, in which case they’d already know. “What do you think?”
"Yeah, yeah," Lochlan said dismissively though good-naturedly. "I know, I know. You and Eily." His brow furrowed, his neck pulled in slightly and his head tilted as he tried to get a read on whether or not Aidan was poking fun at him too. "Come on, Aid. Werewolves? I mean, I get there are zombies, but what are the chances we're living in a world where every fairytale nightmare comes true?" He took a long drink from his glass, finishing it a lot more quickly than he should have.
“I know, it sounds ridiculous,” Aidan said, pausing to think about it for a second. If vampires were real, then he had no doubts that werewolves could be, too. Anything could be, for that matter, but he didn’t think springing everything on Lochlan all at once would be a good thing. “I guess I’m a bit more open minded about it since we’ve seen ghosts wandering around town and we know zombies are real. And I’m tempted to say if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s most likely a duck.” Not that Lochlan was a duck, but hopefully he knew that.
Lochlan had kind of forgotten about ghosts. Had pushed a lot of that out of his mind because of the tension between him and Patrick. But Aidan brought Chiri and her ghost recordings back in sudden, full color. Shit. What if? No, he did not want to go there. He was not a werewolf. Lochlan eyed his cousin as he poured himself another beer and halved it rather quickly. "Quack." He didn't like that idea though. "I haven't changed into anything that I know of." His tone was apprehensive rather than disbelieving.
“If you don’t slow down there, you’re going to be a drunk duck,” Aidan grinned, taking a sip of his beer. It was too early to be drunk. He had work to do. But later? Maybe he would indulge a little. Then again, he wanted to take this information to Sylvia and he didn’t need to go see her wasted. “I thought werewolves only changed on the full moon. You know that’s coming up, don’t you?”
Lochlan looked at his cup and gave himself a mental checkup. He didn't care if it was too early to be drunk. But, not even a smidge of tipsy registered. Which wasn't unheard of but not exactly normal. He said nothing, though, but slowed. "Apparently not all of them have to wait. I let Avery drag me to Twilight eons ago." He shrugged. "Okay, well, if the full moon does come up, I fully expect you to be there to club me over the head if I grow a snout and claws."
“I highly doubt a movie with sparkling vampires knows shit about werewolves,” Aidan laughed. He knew how very wrong that movie was on vampires, so he couldn’t even imagine what was off the mark on everything else. If Sylvia sparkled in the sun, she wouldn’t be sporting burns. “You’re out of your God-damn mind,” he said, shaking his head. “If there’s any chance you’re going to turn into something, I say we lock you up, not wait for you to rip our necks out.”
Lochlan lifted a brow, unable to resist teasing. "And just why do you know about sparkling vampires?" He hit the button on the automatic brew coffee machine. He needed something with a punch. Beer wasn't doing it. He cast a sidelong glance at his cousin. "You think I need to be locked up or are you tossing out what-ifs?"
“Because I was, like, fifteen when that movie came out,” Aidan reminded him. “It was kind of hard to avoid it.” He hadn’t seen the movie, but people made enough fun of it that he could reference it successfully. “What I’m saying is that there’s a lot of different possibilities for what could happen,” he said, raising a brow as Lochlan abruptly switched to coffee from beer. “If you turn into some kind of half-beast, raging monster, I don’t know that I want you in my living room at the time.”
He took leave to laugh some at that. Not derisively. More like letting off steam. "I bow to your teenage pop knowledge." Lochlan didn't make a move to actually drink the coffee he was making. Rather he sipped at the second half of the beer in his glass. He had, in the past, thought he'd convinced Eily he was up to good when he'd started the coffee. He figured it worked with all his cousins. "I'm sure I definitely don't want to be in your living room. It's kinda crap," he answered, clearly being an ass. "But you'd stop me hurting anyone, right?" he asked, this time very seriously.
“I’ll be sure to let Eily know that, since it’s her setup,” Aidan grinned. He kept to his own room because otherwise his sister would likely start throwing out his stuff. Aidan was a hoarder, maybe not the worst kind, but enough so that he had stuff everywhere all the time. The living room looked much better by comparison, but that was Eily’s domain. “Yeah, I’d stop you,” he nodded, noting that Lochlan was serious. “Is this just you we’re talking about? Or you and Patrick both?”
Lochlan laughed and drained his beer without thinking. "Yeah, I've told her it's crap too. She says things like 'priorities' and 'reality' and I tune out." He appreciated it that Aidan followed him into a more serious tone. He trusted Aidan to have his back - the whole family's back. It was good to know there was a failsafe that wasn't Eily's determination. "Just me. I don't know what's up with Patrick. I don't want to say for him. But I don't feel five by five. I don't want to hurt anyone…'
Aidan shook his head. At some point reality really should kick in for Lochlan, but if it hadn’t done so now, then Aidan didn’t know when it would happen. “Best plan would be to build a pen of some sort. Maybe in a basement or a storm cellar. Let us figure out what we’re dealing with before you go running out in the wild. Because even if you’re not some crazy killing machine, the wolves that were here before were and people have it in their minds to kill them,” he said, taking another sip of his beer. “And if we’re wrong? Locking you in the basement for a night isn’t going to hurt anyone either. You can read a book or something.”
If he hadn't been completely sober still, that would have sobered him quickly. It hadn't occurred to him Aidan would take this so seriously. He was trying not to take it that seriously himself and it had been working until his cousin started talking about building pens and locking him in overnight. "Really? You think that's going to be necessary?" He skipped the coffee and pulled out a bottle of clear liquid with a hazardous material symbol on the front - a sticker he'd put there himself for the fun of it because the content was practically lethal. He knocked back a shot and it burned but he didn't feel the immediate warmth as the alcohol spread through him. "Shit. Yeah, I mean, I can do that. It wouldn't hurt."
“What the fuck are you drinking?” Aidan asked, losing focus on the current conversation when Lochlan pulled out a bottle of some unknown liquid and poured himself a drink. For all he knew, his cousin had just downed a shot of pipe cleaner, which was far more concerning than a possible werewolf transformation.
Lochlan took a second to switch gears. He looked down at the bottle and actually grinned. "Molotov cocktail. A little bit of this and a little bit of that. A concoction to curl your chest hair." He frowned slightly though then. "Except it's not exactly working the way it usually does. If someone's been watering down the alcohol here, we're in trouble."
“The beer’s fine,” Aidan said, bristling at the idea that his beer was not up to par. He couldn’t speak for the liquor, though, since any they had was either homemade or from outside the dome. At some point they were going to run out, at least without the traders, but beer was their business, so he wasn’t too worried. “The liquor’s always been questionable. And I don’t trust bottles that you’re mislabelling. For all you know, someone might’ve added water to that and washed the counter with it, not knowing what it was.”
Lochlan's nose wrinkled and he looked at the bottle now as though it might contain bear piss or something someone had wrung out after cleaning the floors. "Thanks, man. Thanks so much for that." His tone was disgusted but good-natured. He shoved the bottle and shot glass away. If he'd thought about it, he might have marveled at how quickly and efficiently a method of getting someone to not drink that had been. But he was still distracted by pens in the basement and werewolves of all things. He actually drank some coffee to wash the what-if-nastiness taste out of his mouth.
Aidan’s lips ticked up in amusement, but he wasn’t going to reassure Lochlan that his deadly mix of liquor waste was worth drinking. He really didn’t think that leaving something like that behind the counter was a good idea based on everyone else that sometimes worked. “Here to help,” he said. “So who all was at this thing last night, besides you and Pat?”
"Yeah, good job," he said and chuckled wryly. His mind turned back over to the meeting. "Some pretty testy guys, that's who," he replied, remembering just how much he would've liked to shut Jack up. Though not entirely remembering why he felt so strongly about it, other than the group tension running so high. Damn this whole post-being-bitten thing. "The guy who called the meeting was alright mostly - Doctor Micah from the hospital. That guy from Eatzy's, Justin I think, had some good stuff to say, but almost no one listened to him." He shrugged. "A lot of hot heads waiting to fight each other is what it seemed like."
“Interesting,” Aidan said thoughtfully. He was glad to have gotten some names out of Lochlan, even if he didn’t really know either of them. It gave him a better idea of who else might be suffering the same symptoms, if he decided to look into it. “And what did everyone else think of the whole werewolf thing?” Did they have a lot of non-believers in town, or was everyone on board? It would matter, come the full moon.
If Aidan hadn't been family, Lochlan probably would've been closed-lipped about this information. Who knew what it could lead to in the wrong hands. Crazy hands would have pitchforks and flames outside doors. Figuratively at least. That was the last thing he wanted. "There were varying degrees of acceptance. One guy in particular thought he knew all about it. Talking about there being packs and alphas and didn't we feel the tension and what not." He rolled his eyes. "Of course, there'd be tension when you put a bunch of recent wolf-attack victims in a room and tell them you think they're werewolves."
Just listening to Lochlan was informative. It also made him want to run over to Sylvia’s and ask her everything she knew about wolves. He was sure she’d have a book on them somewhere. “Well, wolves are pack animals. If you’ve inherited a wolf’s senses, you might have taken those on as well. I’ll let you know if you seem to be behaving any different,” Aidan smiled. “So far, you’re pretty much the same Lochlan you’ve always been.” It made him wonder if Lochlan was alpha or not, based on the other wolves. He’d stepped up and taken the lead while they were outside the dome, but that didn’t mean he’d do it again, not if someone else did so first. It would be a curious thing to watch evolve, that was for sure.
"Believe me, I think you're a little late to the schoolyard, cuz. I've already been acting weird. Didn't Eily tell you about me and Patrick?" Lochlan meant the near fight to the death. Maybe, though, she wouldn't have talked about that? Maybe Eily had wanted to keep cohesiveness in the family without spreading the news to all of them that the two cousins had tried to murder each other then abruptly stopped and walked away. And now? Lochlan felt no desire to challenge Pat's leadership. Not after that meeting with the other wolf-attack victims.
“What are you talking about?” Aidan asked because, yes, he had missed the memo that his cousins had gone at each other. They were supposed to be healing, not fighting, and Aidan couldn’t even imagine what might’ve come over them to start. Generally, those two got along decently. Patrick might not have been a ball of sunshine, but he usually didn’t pick fights.
Realizing that Aidan had no idea about the fights, he covered by answering, "That we had a fabulous time sharing a hospital room together," his tone weighted with amused sarcasm. "Not. But we made it out alive and I guess that's all that matters. It put a strain on us until that damned meeting. I'd rather close ranks with Patrick than be stuck with some of those guys in a 'pack' where one of them figures he's the leader."
“So you think that’s maybe due to your new werewolf gene or something?” Aidan asked, trying to recall the last time he’d seen either his cousin or his brother get into a fight. “What were you even fighting about?” It had to have been something important if they’d gotten into it at the hospital, of all places. “Oh, and did you stay long enough to see who ended up the leader of the other pack?”
"I think it started with me requesting he bathe at some point and him telling me to shut the fuck up." He shrugged. "I deserved that. But whatever this 'werewolf gene' thing is had me wanting to box his ears." He glanced at his cousin in amusement because his questions sounded like something Avery would ask -- if he'd chosen to let her know about the changes he was going through and what not. Which he hadn't yet. "No, we left early. Pat called bullshit on the idea of all of the alpha-wannabes fighting it out because he sure as hell doesn't want someone else as his leader. And we walked out shortly thereafter."
“Seriously? It was over bathing?” Aidan asked with a small laugh. He realized that his own scent must drive a werewolf nuts, all smoke and beer, but he wasn’t going to alter his own habits for the comfort of others. They’d just have to stand a few feet back from him if it bothered them. “So Pat called bullshit basically because he wants to be a leader too,” he smirked. “At least you’re following him. It sounds like the kind of situation where you might need that support.”
Smoke and beer weren't a problem for Lochlan. He'd been inundated with those smells for a lot of his adult life, bar tending and then burned out buildings while fighting the zombies. Aidan wasn't particularly offensive, but rather sort of home-y smelling. "Nah, it was about being grumpy bastards ultimately. Maybe we wanted to both be alphas. But Eily almost got hurt and I lost any desire to have that fight again. It's not worth hurting people just to end up top dog." At least, it wasn't to him anyway. "Well I can't speak for Pat, but maybe he just didn't want someone else to be leader? Whatever the reasoning, I'm good with being the backup. Just call me junkyard dog." He smirked.
“Nothing wrong with being backup,” Aidan pointed out. “A successful leader is dependant on the people who follow him.” And without any followers, one couldn’t be considered a leader at all. It seemed like a good thing that Patrick and Lochlan stuck together, even if Aidan was still curious about the others. “I’m glad no one got hurt,” he said. “Must be pretty powerful stuff if you got Eily into it. Start thinking about what you want to do on the full moon, okay? Maybe talk to Patrick about it.”
Lochlan knew from experience that was true. He'd had his time as a leader and he'd very much depended on his family. He'd grown his great respect for Aidan during that time. "You're right about that, man. And Pat has a better head for decision making in this place than I obviously do." Because they both knew he was as flaky as pie crust since settling into the dome life. "It was like we had no choice, to be honest. A little scary. Yeah, uh, full moon. Right. Any idea when the next one is? I'm okay with the whole pen in the basement idea if it means I don't hurt anyone."
“I’m pretty sure it’s this week,” Aidan said, frowning. That didn’t give them a lot of time to pull something together, so they’d have to work fast. What would hold a werewolf in? Aidan wasn’t even sure where to start. “Are you stronger than you were before? Faster? Anything we should be aware of?” At some point Aidan was sure Lochlan was going to get sick of his questions, but he’d keep asking them as they came to mind. It might be something important, something that could save their lives.
"This week?" Lochlan's eyes bulged some and he looked for his stupidly labeled bottle. Maybe it didn't matter what was in it as long as he could get stupid on it. "I… don't know," he answered honestly. He hadn't tested really. He knew he'd been able to handle Pat, but if Pat was stronger how would he know? Lochlan would've answered questions until the cows came home. He'd done it with Avery and it was so much better than thinking about how his life was changing so drastically. "The only powers I got were stupid. I can hear more, see more, and smell more -- not a prize."
“Yeah, this week. So we may want to get thinking on what to do when it gets here,” Aidan suggested. He didn’t want to scare Lochlan, but he didn’t think waiting around to find out was the best approach. “I don’t know I’d call those stupid. They’d have been useful outside the dome, so who knows when they might come in handy. Want to try out strength with arm wrestling?” he smirked. He had no idea who was stronger, but if Lochlan had gained any kind of super strength, then that should make it pretty damn clear.
Everything was stupid right now to Lochlan. This whole situation, the people involved who weren't family, the full moon being this week. Not being able to be fucking drunk right now. His Peter Pan syndrome was getting a punch in the gut from all of this and he wasn't enjoying it. But it was good to know there were people like Aidan who had their feet on the ground and could think rationally about this. And gave a shit about him in the process.
"Please, knowing whether or not Eily's coming because I know her perfume or which dog peed on which tree doesn't seem real helpful. But you're right. It'd be helpful outside. Except who knows when anyone will get to be outside the dome anymore." He looked exasperated, but it was mostly the idea of an impending full moon that had him feeling that way. "Arm wrestling. Sure, but if I break your arm, I apologize ahead of time."
“Okay, so you know more than you want. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever be able to use it,” Aidan pointed it. Honestly, he thought it sounded pretty awesome, but Lochlan was too frustrated by it all for Aidan to say so. He didn’t want to seem jealous of his cousin’s misfortune. “You seem pretty confident that you’ve got some new super-strength if you’re apologizing first,” he grinned, circling around to the other side of the bar to put his elbow up on the counter. “Ready when you are.”
Lochlan raised a brow but agreed with a nod. "Yeah possibly. I won't rule it out."
"Not confident. That's the last word I'd use. More like, if Pat and I are 'werewolves' then he and I were evenly matched and you might not be." Though part of him realized that even the silly Lochlan would've been cocky for the hell of it. This was worse then. He was tiny little girl Lochlan. Fuck that. "Yeah, okay, let's do this."
He put his elbow on the counter and slapped it into Aidan's. "Ready."
“Let’s do this,” Aidan said and immediately began to push back against Aidan’s grip, expecting this to be an easy win. He considered himself in better shape than Lochlan, so without any kind of super strength he should win, right? That didn’t seem to be the case, though, as Lochlan pushed back against his grip with a force that Aidan wasn’t expecting. Aidan immediately worked harder at winning, though he wasn’t sure it would make a difference. “Dammit.”
Lochlan was sure he was going to win only because he'd had a sudden resurgence of the 'I ain't taking this shot no more" after realizing he was being a wimp about the whole thing. Maybe he was starting to feel the alcohol a little. Liquid courage and all that. He was definitely not as fit as Aidan, but that didn't matter as he pushed back. He wasn't even pushing back with all his might and Aidan was cussing. He put on the whole show then, everything he had.
It didn’t take long for Aidan to realize that Lochlan was going to beat him. He was putting all his strength into it from his end, but Lochlan didn’t seem to even be breaking a sweat. He was actually getting tired, while Lochlan looked to be enjoying himself. If that was the case, then there was no reason to kill himself trying to win. Aidan’s arm fell back against the countertop and he sighed, releasing Lochlan’s hand and shaking out his arm. “Either you’ve been lifting weights or you’ve got some kind of strength going on.”
Lochlan gave him a look that said, "Oh really?" Instead he said, "Have you seen me lately? I fell over your barrel just a few minutes ago. All I do is run." Still, unless Aidan had let him win, which he doubted seriously, there must be some added bonus of strength to being a werewolf. In human form. What the hell would he be like in wolf form at the full moon. His look turned serious. "Bro, we need to start on that pen. Like ASAP."
Aidan rolled his shoulder, thinking now that he was going to be sore from that match. He would have never guessed that Lochlan could best him like that. “Yeah, we do,” he sighed. “I’ll run out today and see what I can find in the way of building materials. Or even empty spaces we can convert just for that one night.” The hard part was going to be figuring out where Lochlan and Patrick could go that wouldn’t attract attention. “You got everything you need here at the bar? Cause I can start on that now if you don’t need me.”
He hadn't expected quite so serious and immediate a reaction, but he knew it was the best one. And he was thankful Aidan was there to offer and was entirely capable. "Yeah, I got everything, I think. Just don't cut me out of the planning unless it's necessary to keep people safe. I want to help, okay?" He wanted to be sure he didn't just toss off the responsibility to others when he was the one who should shoulder some because it was for him. "I'll keep my ear out about empty spaces."
“Of course,” Aidan smiled. “I’ll let you know what I find. We’ll touch base tomorrow at the latest.” Hopefully they would have a plan of action by then. He didn’t want to see anyone get hurt and the best way to avoid that was to be prepared for everything, including the worst. If Lochlan was this strong as a human, Aidan couldn’t imagine what he might be like in werewolf form. They were going to need something sturdy to hold him in. Him and Patrick. Though even with them penned up, there would be others out there, and if they weren’t prepared, then that was where the most danger lay.