So They Might Be Werewolves Who: Pat and Lochlan When: Evening time Where: Patrick’s side of the townhouse shared with Eily
Patrick had spent a lot of his time thinking after that stupid run the night before. He’d locked himself in his room and only texted Lochlan to come over once he was sure he had his head about him.
So they might be werewolves. That was...apparently a thing. They might be werewolves and if they were, then he and Lochlan really needed to talk about this face to face. He needed to get Lochlan on board with his vision, since he was positive it was the best one for the family. So he was waiting, pacing downstairs outside of his door as he waited on Lochlan to arrive.
Lochlan had finished his shift at the pub and run back to Eily’s to check in. He didn’t need his cousin worrying that he was off running wild and never coming back again. Not that he would now. Not after his conversation with Aidan. That had scared the crap out of him until it had settled him into determination not to be a prissy little girly anymore about this. It happened, he had no choice, he had to face it head on. Like the zombies. And who better to do it with than family?
He’d finished a shower but had decided yet again not to shave when Patrick’s text came in. He wasn’t long getting outside and face to face with his cousin.
“So, thanks for calling bullshit at that meeting,” he said by way of greeting, shaking water out of his hair.
Patrick looked up at Lochlan's entrance and nodded, perfectly fine with dispensing more conventional pleasantries in favor of these ones. "Those asshats were not gonna sit there and tell me what to do, tell you what to do. Not on my watch. Fuck them. We don't need them when we have the family, each other." He looked back at Lochlan after he spoke. "And whether or not this werewolf thing is real, we gotta stop fighting with each other and band together or else those idiots will try to move in again."
Lochlan mouthed the word "asshats" and chuckled. He wasn't sure when the last time was he'd talked with Patrick without it ending in gnashing of teeth. "I'm with you on that, man. Bros before those… guys. I don't need anyone else but family in this. Especially if werewolf-y stuff is real now. Not sure I need 7 other guys in on that sort of business, you know?" The oddity of being polarized with Patrick against others after their recent near death match wasn't lost on Lochlan. "I'm good with that. I honestly have no desire to start anything at this point." He paused and gave his cousin a somewhat shit-eating grin. "Though you could do with a shower."
Patrick felt like he'd made this decision a little easier by so whole-heartedly writing off the other possible wolves. Lochlan was what mattered, and the rest of the O'Reillys, but other than that? Patrick didn't really give much of a damn about anyone else. So when Lochlan teased him, he just rolled his eyes and moved to sit down on the stairs. "Yeah, well, if you hadn't just taken one I'd say 'right back at you," he said, looking back at Lochlan. "…But what do you really think, Lochlan? Do you think this is real?"
Lochlan smiled at the roll of eyes, so used to Avery making the same face at him and knowing he deserved it too. He sat down a step or so away from Patrick and folded his hands out in front of him, arms on his knees. "I don't know, man. It sounds really, really stupid. But so did zombies when I first heard someone say that's what was happening. And there's the whole new aggressive side we sprouted… the heightened senses. Which, I have to say, have been more of an annoyance than anything helpful. I don't care what Aidan says. Other than we definitely need to take precautions." He rubbed his scrubby chin. "What do you think?"
"I think some weird shit is happening to us but do I think we're werewolves? I…don't really know. I don't know if I can say no for certain. They shouldn't exist, just like zombies shouldn't exist…" And Patrick was nothing if not superstitious, which meant he was going to be watching the phases of the moon very, very closely. "…But if we are, then I'd rather the pack be just you and me and our family than any of those bullshitters."
“You know what it feels like? Taking the zombies into consideration and now, the weird stuff happening to us that doesn’t fit any kind of scientific shit to date. Except bizarre stuff like werewolf. Well, it feels like there’s some big hand up there in the sky playing puppets with us. Here’s a re-animating, disgusting virus for you and here’s a heightened senses, aggro-enhancing virus for you. Now all of you play nice.” He grunted his annoyance because registering the fear that made him feel wasn’t an option just now. “Yeah, definitely a much better idea to stick together as a family. It’s how we’ve survived so far. Those guys are mostly all loose canons as far as I could tell.”
Patrick did chuckle at Lochlan's imitation, which was possibly the first time he'd really chuckled in a long time. He shook his head a little. "…Fuck, Loch…who even knows what's happening right now. All I know is that if I've gotta have anyone by my side, I want it to be you, not them. So…I think we gotta talk about you and me and the family, then. Set up a plan of action for if this is real, and for if it isn't and those guys just think it is. Either way, we need a plan."
Lochlan smiled having finally cracked the exterior of his usually serious cousin. He wouldn't push it though. Last thing they needed was to end up fighting again. He nodded at Patrick's assessment of the situation. "You're right about that. We need a plan but I don't know how to plan for the possible eventuality that I'll turn into some kind of animal that attacks people. Which, if the wolves that bit us are any indication, will mean we're pretty damned dangerous. Besides, I used to watch those movies when I was younger. It looks really painful to turn into a werewolf," he said wryly.
"Well, for starters, we sure as hell aren't here when the full moon hits. If we…Jesus, if we are werewolves, we need to be far far away from this place. Maybe we….shut down the pub and the brewery and one of us takes one section and the other one takes the second…Just in case," He said, looking back at his cousin. “And if we don’t take the brewery, then we...just go somewhere far away from people, as far away as we can.”
"Yeah, but we'd find our way back if we really wanted to, Patrick. We can't go anywhere really. Not in this dome. Aidan had some idea for pens or something. I think that might be the best way to go. Unless there's some kind of lockable shelter here somewhere… like a walk-in freezer. Do you think Eatzy's has one? They could turn it off and lock us in." His mind was going a bit fast now, almost tripping over itself to come up with better ideas than trying to keep themselves contained in the pub.
"No, no freezer. Not unless there's multiple ones. We can't…we can't be in the same place, Lochlan. Not if what happened at the hospital is any indication of what what will happen when…if something goes down on the full moon." Patrick shook his head. "And wouldn't we find our way out of a cage if we really wanted to? And then where would we be? How would we even make a cage anyway?" It wasn't like the dome had infinite resources and Patrick just also didn't like the idea of being caged. It scratched at him internally and the idea was painful and made him anxious enough to balk against it immediately. "We need to be somewhere away from people, away from each other, so no one gets hurt."
"Oh right," Lochlan said with a distracted nod. He hadn't even thought about that aspect of it. If they were raging animals there'd be nothing and no one to stop them from duking it out and possibly one or both of them ending up dead. If they could die. Could they? Lochlan wasn't sure he wanted to test that out. His eyes went wide though the more he listened to Patrick. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can't go all big like that and make this sound like we don't have a chance of controlling ourselves. We do have to find a way to be away from people. There has to be a way that will work." He wanted Eily right then to insert some kind of calm into this if there was any possibility of that. But what could they do?
"I'm just trying to think of everyone's safety here, Lochlan. If we are werewolves, then we have to be prepared for this. We don't have much time here to make these decisions. The last thing I want is for us to be around this place, to be around Eily, if this hits us. And if we are, I don't think there's any sort of control in it for us the first time this happens." This was such a ridiculous conversation to be having, but Patrick didn't know what else to do. Right now, Eily's safety and the safety of the rest of their family was trumping his thoughts.
"No, I get that, Patrick, I get it. But I mean you're like nay-saying all the options as though we have no hope. We have hope. Don't we?" Lochlan asked and in that moment he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not cut out to be the alpha of anything. And he was glad that Patrick had taken the lead. "I don't want us to be around people either. Especially not Eily. The last time…" He stopped and shook his head, not even wanting to think about how much danger his cousin had been in when she'd stepped between them. When they were off their rockers. "But what about Aidan's idea of some kind of pen? I think I'd trust it if he built it and locked us in. I really would."
Patrick didn't answer Lochlan's first question, because he didn't really have an answer and a made up one was even worse than not answering. Did they have hope? He wasn't sure. Not yet, at least. In the future, if they made it through this…if this was even real, then possibly, but he needed to be practical about their first brush with impending changes.
Then he looked back at Lochlan, confused. "I didn't know Aidan wanted to build pens. Did he tell you anything else about this?"
Lochlan had moved beyond wondering if it was real anymore. He was feeling pretty doomed and just wanted to not hurt anyone in the process. Aidan's suggestion seemed like the best possible answer anyone could come up with right now with so little time before the full moon. "No, I told him about werewolves and that was his suggestion. I want to be sure that we're all of us safe. Especially the girls. I think a pen would work if he could fortify it enough. We gotta at least try, right?"
Patrick wasn’t sure how he felt about this, without any real plan or blueprints or anything. But at least there was an idea in place, something for them to start with. Nodding, Patrick reached out and clapped Lochlan on the shoulder once. “We gotta try. We’re gonna try,” He promised. It was all they could do, really.