#{ also i cant believe it doesnt exist??? is it really that uncommon??? }

[curseofbreadbear]

today i learned that there is no official name for one of my biggest phobias (the fear of something invading your body) so i'm officially calling it "ennardphobia"

[hatgame]

I do love going through your tags to read the backlog of thoughts you have on snatcher so if hes not asked?

he has not been! i am grateful for your interest.

any pronouns & unlabeled everything lol

a very uncommon opinion i have is that he finds great but self harming and maladaptive comfort in the cellar and blizzard stages of his life.

to base this:

something ive seen a lot but disagree with is the claim that after their death they gained control, going as far as to become lowkey power hungry and enjoy and crave being treated as an authoriy. living its truth as a spooky spirit and generally being content with this life.

hat(and bow?) kid kind of pokes fun at that by calling him a tsundere and a big softy, but i never thought of it as her seeing him as a literal tsundere. she saw something he doesnt want to be viewed as and went with it to gain the strongest reaction, even if only in theory, while really meaning she doesnt think his behavior is sincere. this might look like im putting words in her mouth but i just genuinely always assumed this was the intention. its pretty in character, too - shes mischevious and childishly malicious at times. i think its fits. i also only bring this up because itll be important later

with the blizzard still present around vanessas manor, ice covering the subcon well from the inside and chunks of ice randomly forming around the forest i believe its fair to say it did not vanish on its own and is instead actively suppressed by something. considering snatcher provides an array of services to the subconites (granting them bodies, likely supervising the new vilages construction, maintaining community important structures via contractually obligated mortals - none of her contracts benefit her directly. they resemble community service far more, which is remarked on by hat/bow kid in her diary) it wouldnt be too far of a stretch to come to the conclusion its by his efforts the blizzard is contained - not to mention when first encountered he tells hat/bow she needs her to take care of "some other things, that i cannot do myself..." implying there ARE things it can and does get done! and its for the blizzards suppression specifically i believe it steals and absorbs souls.

(newer content typically has them claim they hate chores and use minions for everything which i choose not to take into account due to most of said content severely contradicting his main game appearance writing wise. i also think there was something that justified treating it as an unreliable narrator but i cant recall what exactly so i wont be using that argument to defend myself here. so, source: trust me)

this places snatcher in the place of a damage suppressor for the blizzard. this, if on its own, while an interesting dynamic, isnt much more than that. its effect on snatcher as a person is unknown. that is, unless you take his backstory into account.

the blizzard is typically interpreted to exist a result of vanessas actions and unlikely but possibly continued efforts, but i personally would claim its an extension of her, similarly to how the snatcher is an extension of the prince: its her soul and personal apocalypse externalized. its her.

in this way, snatcher, even after his death, is forced into a relationship with her ghostly presence infusing and dilluting subcon where it must expose itself to and suppress her. its a dehumanizing and horrible position to be in. something to note is that in the subcon layer of the tour rift snatchers tree is shown beneath the village, coveted in frost. it always was a deeply haunting thing to me, and now i realize it can be used as further proof that the village can only really exist at the price of snatcher enduring constant violence behind the scenes. i used to say this very likely acts as a parallel to princes and princess vanessas relationship before realizing its not a parallel, its an extension of it. its almost like he never left.

the only opportunity he ever got from the constant pressure and obligation to keep up a notably insincere appearance, being used as a tool to keep something that feels larger than anything it could ever be in check, was when he was abandoned to fall apart in vanessas cellar. he even calls it home once. ("this captain guy is great! his nasty smell and dead eyes remind me of home..")

i will be honest, im mixed on to what degree he is aware of any of this, in the timeframe of the ingame events at least, but if he does come to the conclusion hes been going in circles i dont doubt hed start craving the only place defined by the lack of vanessas presence.

i have a lot more to say such as why he initially chose to leave the cellar, what he thinks vanessas opinion on him is, or how exactly the subconites factor into their recovery, which is fully possible btw, but thats it for now. thanks for reading, now you have a bit more context to my art

if hes feeling affectionate towards her it might also wish to wander in the blizzard again.. since its an extension of her, its kind of the closest they can possibly get, literally residing inside her soul while still remaining isolated and staying out of her reach and sight. its also invasive creepy and miserable and completely erases all boundaries between the two of them

[an-emo-trashbag]

that's a good point that it's a domino effect after the owl house, I definitely agree.

on one hand youd think that making things people like would he the most beneficial to the company. but on the other hand, renewing shows and keeping them going means people are more likely to watch things (catching up/rewatching to refresh memory/etc) outside of the window where they dont have to pay residuals with the current deal. I do kind of wonder if they're continuing to create bad content on purpose because of this?

like, if they make a good show (or at least one that people really liked regardless of how good it was) that has a higher likelihood of being rewatched as a result. they then have to pay more residuals because of more people watching outside of their no-residual window. so to prevent people from rewatching for memory refresher purposes (amd people watching late because the new season announcement informed people who didnt know that this show exists at all), they just... dont make more because then theres no reason to refresh your memory for the new stuff because there just isnt new stuff? and no new stuff also means those people who didnt know about the show may not find out and watch it because they werent tipped off by new season news?

and as for the cartoon aspect, I dont know if this is a common experience for autistic people, but I find that I tend to gravitate towards animated shows significantly more than live action ones (I think because I have a much easier time reading facial expressions and connecting with the characters etc with animation) and I do often see many of us in fandoms like the owl house - although that very much could be confirmation bias because this is tumblr, I am not certain. its just a theory based on my observations. if it is true though that it may not be totally uncommon for autistic people to gravitate to animation, I think were also more likely to rewatch because comfort shows, familiarity, special interests, etc. in that situation, I dont think exec's are aware that that is the factor and that they're purposefully like "yea cancel the cartoon because fuck the autistics!", but if my observations have any ground then statistics probably show cartoons as having a higher rewatch ratio - which comes back to the residual payment factor. they dont want to pay residuals if they can prevent it. animated shows like big mouth on the other hand, I dont believe would have a very high rewatch rate? based on what little i've seen of it anyways, but I may be entirely incorrect here. at the very least I think its less likely to be rewatched than dead end is. that idea doesnt really explain why something like stranger things or wednesday are still going though. because with their popularity I imagine lots of people watch/rewatch outside of the short window. I suppose those with the tiktok pandering (I enjoyed Wednesday but I cant deny they did pander to tiktok) they're pretty marketable for merch and stuff though? I'm not sure. I think it's also where your theory may come in

I do think that regardless of whether or not my theory holds any actual ground that you are also correct. people do definitely view animation as being for kids (hell wasnt there just some joke about that at a big award show a few months ago) and because of homophobia and thinking seeing queer people is gonna corrupt the youth, then someone decides they should axe it to "protect the kids"." and then also because the show was made in the first place regardless of how quickly they cancel it, they think they get to gloat about "look! we made a diverse thing! you should give us money!" for approval points like disney+ did back in june with the pride category. and it works! people want to see themselves on screen so they watch it to support that and the company gets to profit and rake in the views, even when they fuck over the program. disney really did show other companies they will still make a profit when they cancelled the owl house

I really feel you with your tags about being done with netflix bc yea I agree. honestly considering just watching the netflix shows already on my to-watch list and then nothing more from them that's new 😭 because as much as I dont want to punish the creators of these shows by not watching, I'm also very tired of starting new things i end up loving just to be left with an incomplete story because netflix only cares about stranger things and big mouth (+ wednesday now) and will cancel everything that isnt those :/

I'm so glad they at least let kipo have a satisfying end but god everything else deserves one too ☹ and the cliffhanger dead end was left on too????? MAN 🚶‍♂️

I don't even understand *why*, it's a bad business decision, when they make a new season Netflix gets about the first two weeks of revenue, besides - shouldn't they want to appeal to a variety of audiences?

The only real explanation is that they're burying their gays, this seems to be a new trend with streaming services. Specifically cartoons are getting cancelled, because it's viewed as children's content, so when a cartoon has gay people an executive can argue that it is inappropriate for children and remove it from their service or cancel its renewal.

I think it was a domino effect caused by Disney. When they got away with cancelling The Owl House, one of the biggest cartoons at the time, and they still got views and made revenue from the special Netflix saw that as something that they could get away with as well.

It's like the popular kids in a stereotypical highschool.

[3000s]

ig i just dont understand ur post bc like if a “cis” woman wants to transition to look more masculine and has dysphoria about being a woman and wants to become more like a traditional man isnt that just being a trans dude? and like if cis women start transitioning while still calling themselves women wouldnt they be misgendering themselves? also wouldnt us calling them women after transitioning just give more excuses to transphobes to misgender trans men?

the thing about that is like, if they dont identify as trans men then they're not trans men! the reason these labels exist isnt to categorize people based on how we see their experience, its for people to have the language to describe themselves!

i think a lot of yall get stuck on the idea of dysphoria being something that makes someone transgender, but thats not something i believe, so thats a large part of why an argument based in transmedicalism would fall flat on this subject... people have the right to self-identify, just like how there are trans people who dont medically transition, there are also cis people who do, and you cant force them to identify as transgender if thats not how they feel!

its def important that ppl within our community learn that as trans ppl we arent the only ppl who can have a complicated relationship with gender. i've mentioned it a couple times before, but there are a lot of factors at play with regard to someones gender + presentation + dysphoria + decision to medically transition! race, sexuality, and things of that nature can play a part in the way someone experiences these things... for ref, this post puts it well; even a cishet person of color can have a more complex relationship with gender than a white lgbt person, and some further explanation on that in a post here as well! like, for example, historically (yes, even within lgbt spaces and relationships) black women have been and continue to be treated as though they are more masculine than white women because of their race, and although that isnt exactly what you asked, thats why i say that peoples experiences in a gendered society vary, that can cause someone to have a different relationship with gender, something you or i may not be able to relate to

and really anyone can feel alienated from belonging to their assigned gender with those factors at play to influence it, and that doesnt always cause them to feel like they belong to another gender either. there are many lesbians who feel that their only ties to womanhood are through their sexuality and love of other women, its not uncommon for them to use pronouns other than she/her, or to go on testosterone, or to get top surgery, but at the end of the day they can still tell you explicitly that they do not identify as trans men, and it wouldnt make sense for someone to assign them that label.

you didnt mention it here, but to get it outta the way: the last thing i've seen argued is that women are using up & taking spots in line for life-saving resources that transmeds believe trans men should be entitled to... honestly i think its kind of batshit how the ppl saying this don't realize how stupid they sound by advocating for the medicalization of transness, having to jump through all these hoops for these treatments, then somehow placing the blame on other people looking for treatment. like, if you were a cancer patient needing chemo you wouldn't go around blaming other cancer patients as the reason you arent getting treatment, right? it makes no sense, and we should be talking about the issues with the way access to hrt and affirming surgeries are set up rather than prying into the personal lives of others to see who "really" needs it the most, yknow

anyway this got long as hell, my bad, dm me if u have anymore questions or w/e

[bi-lesbian]

I got into a bit of an argument today with my mother over the use of "folx" in a book. I don't entirely understand it but I know it exists to validate/cater to those with non-traditional pronouns. Her argument was that "folks" is already neutral so "why do we have to change it." She also kinda believes that anything past mainstream labels is unnecessary/only exists to make people feel special. I was wondering if you knew why it was coined since I know you use non-trad pronouns. Love your blog! ❤

honestly im not really familiar with the use of "folx" that much, ive only seen it a couple times and idk the history with it or anything :Oo and like folks Is neutral too but its not like its being replaced or something, so i dont get her "why do we have to change it" thing. however, i do know x tends to be placed into words often to signify nonbinary or related sorta things, so i assume thats what "folx" is aiming for? its just a more specific variation or such :Oo

also. Ugh i fucking hate the "people only do/identify as x to feel special" shit, im SO god damn tired of hearing that. like fucking!!! when are people going to stop acting like they ~really~ know the reasonings for a TONS of LITERAL STRANGERS actions!!!!!!!!!!!! it drives me fucking crazy !!!!!!!! yall dont fucking know these people!!!!! shut the fuck up already !!!!!!!!!!!! its practically impossible for hundreds and hundreds of people to literally have only ONE reason for all of them to do a certain thing !!!!!!!! people dont fucking work like that!!!! were different !!! complex !!!!! sorry im kinda fuckin ranting here this kinda thing just makes me want to rip my fucking hair out jgkxjfkdf im SO sick of how people treat strangers- people they DO NOT KNOW- and act like they DO know what their actual thoughts, feelings, and reasonings for things are. it makes me want to slam my head into a wall with how so many people fucking think this way

the reason for there being so many labels past just the mainstream ones is because PEOPLE ARE DIVERSE. THEY HAVE VAST KINDS OF EXPERIENCES. theres so many people out there !!! so many different lives theyre all living !!! we cant all be just summed up into a small selection of boxes!!!! the fact that there is so many people coming up with and using uncommon labels is proof enough that its a very common experience for TONS of people to not feel fully defined with just a few set labels!!!!! who fucking cares what is necessary or not!!!! people want more specific/different terms to describe themselves better !!!!! fucking let them!!!!! it literally doesnt fucking harm anything like people try to claim it does!!!!!!!

[actualbird]

BIG LONG POST of bakunawa boy world building under the cut sponsored by the fucking star of an anon who sent me so many mcfucking incredible asks about this au world

ohhhhh gosh i love this so so much. language is a huge interest of mine and seeing this progression of it is FASCINATING. “fog” used as the term is so fitting because supernaturals, most probably werewolves, since theyre the most common, would describe the feeling not as a loss of control, but instead like things are just...a little harder to completely focus on. and when the focus slips, other older, more magical things ring out a bit clearer, and they would follow. 

moonlust would ABSOLUTELY be deemed offensive because it implies not only the loss of control but like. the sexual tinge to it would make people >:(. the moon is a very important figure for many supernaturals and while it isnt worshiped, it’s definitely respected. that big rock in the sky takes care of us, do NOT say that to it. (possible meme: dont fuck the moon)

since only werewolves come up in my head when i think of creatures that shift at full moon, this term is totally used by literally anybody who is even remotely affected by the moon. sea spirits, harpies with owl blood, and of course the bakunawa. not everybody really agrees with the implications of moonfog though. there are a bunch of spns that describe the moon’s magic as something that makes everything even clearer (sea spns mostly).

for michael, he finally gets what moonfog means when he first manifests. it’s hard to think straight when the rumbling in your head is louder than ever. 

i still cant get over “fogged” tho. it’s sounds close to fucked so “DONT TALK TO ME IM STILL FOGGED UP” hjskdfdsfsdhhh 

:(((((( fuck i hate thinking about the ugly bits of any world but this is real shit.

guhhh i wanna disagree with the implication that spns go berserk and kill humans tho. only because if this were true, this world would probably be a lot more dystopian. i want things to be slightly okay so:

spns rarely ever go “berserk” these days and youre kinda a dick if you still believe spns are big scary monsters. i figure a lot of aggression existed back in ye olden days, because magic is powerful and passionate and righteous, but all those things remained while the aggression diluted. prolonged and generally peaceful co-existence with humans does that. that being said, HUMANS R STILL DICKS

there are always complaints coming from spns about human neighbors not following regulation, but theyre usually handwaved away if youre in a human majority community. if ur lucky, maybe the human will get told off. once in a blue moon, theyre fined. spns everywhere look into the camera like in the office. 

same would go for basically...every thing that humans deem mundane and safe but are actually harmful for spns. the blanket statement is “how was i supposed to know that hurt them?” which is bs but also school’s would only really have a super basic intro to a handful of spn biology. spns are used to being the ones to have to adjust.

like a common for all spns is that conversation they have to have with every human friend about stuff that’s harmful for them. michael was a sweetheart explaining to jeremy because jeremy is awesome but everybody else? werewolves and vampires and the such kinda have it a little easier since their weaknesses are common knowledge but michael is Rare Boy. dragons hybrids are already uncommon the bakunawa? people cant even spell it right, much less know what sets michael off. he’s joked about having a business card. “hi im michael im a bakunawa and loud noises make me feel Very Afraid thanks for listening to my tedtalk” hkjhkjkhdd.

(while im on this thread, #JustSpnsThings is a hilarious hashtag that totally exists. you know kinda like #GrowingUpWithAWeirdName thing? something like that but it’s just spns screaming into the internet. “late for my 8am lecture because a coworker dropped a box of paperclips and i Had To Count Them All FML”)

i went a bit off topic here. uh. welp

ohhhh gosh i love this!!!! especially the bit where like. sometimes it doesnt work. 

the thing with spns and magic is that both are very heavily tied to nature. while magic in technology has made huuuge leaps in the past century, no witch/sorcerer architect can find a way to build anything thsat truly makes a spn feel at home like the real thing. spns totally get this and since not all of them are fucking loaded, they just make trips to wherever they have to be.

post-manifestation, michael starts driving to the coastline. he’s not allowed to stay for too long though. and he’s not allowed to go alone. 

(the thing about the real thing sometimes is that the magic is so strong, you might not be able to say no to whatever it might say. the sea doesnt know how to stop calling its children. the magic doesnt know how to reel itself back. 

so spns have to be the ones to adjust.)

//BIG EYES EMOJI!!!!

hrmh okay so this is def a case to case basis. generally, after the confusion of the first shift/manifestation, spns would slowly get used to it. kinda like riding a bike: once you learn it, you cant unlearn it (i think. i never learned how to ride a bike, but thats what people say so).

ive referenced in previous discussions that spns with a shifted form find that part of them selves like a separate aspect in their head that they can hear/understand. in sunny’s bakunawa fic, Sleepsong, this is illustrated beautifully:

There was a voice in his head, grumpy and rumbly, telling him he should pull back. Too cold, too cold. Michael had ignored it, of course, because he’s seven years old, he can make his own decisions thank you very much

and this is like. That’s It. going off of this, when shifted, it’s more of the former!! spns are their usual self, but that spn aspect in their head is louder or holds more control. up to the person themselves on whether or not theyll follow it. 

post-manifestation, it would take maybe two or three more full moons for michael to completely get a hang of the fog and not be a loopy mess. when he starts practicing shifting outside of the full moons (where he either involuntary shifts or feels the Great Need To Be Shifted), the instincts are a little bit more dulled since he’s the one in control and making choices. i hope that makes sense kjhkfjdhkfsd

wb!anon thank you so much for sending all of this in!! this was so much fun and your brain is a STAR!!!

[kristie-rp]

[2018] Garrett: Turning

It is a truth universally acknowledged that anyone acting particularly weird in the hospital must be in want of Doctor Vincent Constantine. 

Okay, no, that’s not true, exactly. It’s more a truth acknowledged only within the hospital itself, and weirdness is relative, and they don’t always know they need Constantine’s expertise. That’s just how it gets explained to Garrett when he starts his placement during med school, by a curly haired woman speaking behind her hand in a stage whisper. Doctor Constantine himself snorts and shoots her an unimpressed look, and does a double take when he sees Garrett. There’s something vaguely familiar in it, and the intern smiles politely. “Hi, Doctor Constantine.” 

“Call me Vincent,” comes the reply. “She’s right, in a manner of speaking. If something seems particularly... peculiar, then I am the resident expert. Feel free to come to me.”

Garrett doesn’t think much about it, afterwards. The thing is, he doesn’t work in Vincent’s department, at least not at first. The older man operates largely out of the basement, where a morgue would be in any other hospital: it has been turned into a ward, and the windows of half the rooms are blacked out with heavy tarps. It’s eerie. When Garrett brings his toddler daughter April to work some days, when she is too young to be home alone and not able to be at daycare, she tends to spend time with the old man. He doesn’t get it, but he allows it. 

He’s been a fully qualified medical practitioner employed by the hospital for eight months before he thinks about the description of Vincent’s specialisation. A couple have brought in their terrified daughter, who is incredibly pretty for a human child and also very quick-witted and persuasive. She has talked the nurse out of at least three lollipops before Garrett arrives in the room to introduce himself and shoo the nurse away. 

“Do you really need so many,” her mother is asking a little helplessly, taking the third one from her daughter. The little girl shrugs, and asks her dad to get her some water, please, from the vending machine. Because her mother is the one with money, she goes, too. The little girl is alone with Garrett. 

“They think I’m sick,” she informs him flatly, pouting slightly. “I don’t think they’re wrong. I mean. I know I’m not like the other girls. And there are these.” She tugs at her beanie and it lifts away to reveal small horns on her forehead. She is very careful not to rip the wool. “My mom’s worried.”

“Cutaneous horns aren’t unheard of,” Garrett tries. He doubts it’s that simple; the very sentence sits wrong on his tongue. Plus, every instance of cutaneous horns he’s heard of presented in the elderly. 

The little girl, apparently, is aware of this. “I know how to Google,” she says dismissively, “and I know only old people have that happen. So why is this happening to me now?” 

Garrett hesitates. He can order tests – of course he can. But something gives him pause. The mother and father return, and Garrett makes up his mind: he leans out of the door to catch a nurse as she passes by. “Hi, sorry – can you run down to the basement and find Doctor Constantine, please? I need a consult.” 

The nurse looks at him curiously, but returns in fifteen minutes with Vincent himself. He looks between the couple. “Are you her father?” 

The man shakes his head. “We adopted her a few years ago,” he explains. The little girl doesn’t seem bothered by this, and her mother has rested a hand on her little girls shoulder. “We have the record of her biological parents medical information –” 

The mother starts to search in her bag for the papers. Vincent stops her with a wave of her hand. “No matter, they won’t be accurate.” 

The parents make outraged sounds, and the little girl blinks at him. “You know what’s wrong with me?” she asks. Her voice is much smaller than it was earlier, alone with Garrett. He can’t blame her, really; Vincent has that effect on people. 

“Have any of you heard of a Cambion?” is what Vincent asks, completely without preamble. Garrett starts, because he’s heard of those, in fascinated Wikipedia spirals that almost always end with him looking up different takes on mythological beings – and this doctor, whom he respects, is talking as though the creature is real. “It is the result of a sexual union between an Incubus and a human woman. I’d bet the mother listed her boyfriends information before giving her up, knowing exactly what she was getting into.” He pauses, addressing the girl directly. “The horns may be surgically removed once they are fully grown, but that won’t happen until you’ve completed puberty. You likely had almost no pulse until you were seven, and you’ve likely noticed you barely need to breathe. You’re clever and beautiful, more than human girls, and you’re persuasive. Many would call you manipulative. Does this sound right?” The little girl is staring at him, somewhere between dumbfounded and fascinated. Garrett can see in her face that this explains everything. “You have the potential to be evil, but with good parents – nurture over nature, all that – it can be subverted or at least limited. Any questions?” 

If there are, Garrett doesn’t hear them, watching the girls face instead. He can’t see Vincent’s, but that girl is looking at him like he told her the meaning of life, and has no longer left her confused and wanting, unsure what she is. 

Garrett doesn’t know if he entirely believes the story, but he’s half-way there. It helps that the little girl pauses to give him a hug and to thank him on the way out, beanie back in place.

Garrett’s co-workers think that his fascination with Vincent’s so-called department – which exists primarily due to the Constantine’s donating more money to the hospital than the accounting department is willing to disclose – is ridiculous and confusing. They think Vincent is insane, or delusional, or at least eccentric, for all they respect him as their fellow doctor. But every single one of them is willing to call the older man for a consult when the situation calls for it, which is really all Garrett can hope for, so he mostly ignores the opportunities to mock them.

(Mostly, because sometimes he cannot bite his tongue fast enough to ensure he is less sarcastic in the workplace than he is at home, with April, who by now is a teenager who really ought to have a more sincere parental figure to turn to.) 

Anyway: it is not uncommon for Garrett to visit Vincent’s basement, either to ask pointed questions or chat with patients kept so separate from the others. He does this more predictably on the nights when April is not supposed to be coming home, and tonight she is staying at a friends place while they work on a project for class. He does not have to be home in time for dinner, so he meanders down to where he can visit at his own pace. 

There is a woman with albinism in one room. She greets him warmly, as she had the last time he’d been here, by putting on a terrible Transylvanian accent and calling herself a vampire. Garrett quirks a brow at her, thinking something along the lines of you wouldn’t be quite that pale if you dined on blood, Zoe. She laughs aloud. “Alright, fair enough, I’ll let you have that one. Stop by on your way out, Doc,” she insists, and he can almost feel the idea settling in his mind, ensuring he will do as asked later. 

“Is your tail ever going to heal?” Garrett asks the man in the next room, curious.

The merman with his blue-tinted skin snorts, his teeth growing in jagged rows; according to what he’s told them, he is a hybrid of some sharks that wouldn’t ever frequent the bay around Port Lyndon. “I’m not the doctor,” he says, splashing impatiently. He is caught halfway between human and mer form, and the pain shows in how pale around the gills he is. “Ask Vince.” 

“Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that. Straight after my stopover at H.L. to let them know what I am,” Garrett retorts, earning a laugh from the mer as he splashes contentedly. 

He stops at the door of the selkie to smile and let her know that he’s passing through, because he knows she’s mostly here because of the debilitating anxiety that came from losing her pelt – only she hasn’t felt compelled to actually go to anyone, so it isn’t stolen, just legitimately lost. There’d be more chance of finding it if it was stolen, from what Garrett understands – it is hard to get her to talk, because Vincent is the expert, and he’s not exactly personable. 

The next room was home to a slightly burned dryad the last time he was here, but his bark was basically finished moulting, which means he should be gone, and the room should be empty. Garrett opens the door to check, eyes widening when he instead gets an eyeful of a wolf-like being – it’s a fully transformed werewolf, he knows that – and yet his immediate panicked reaction is to step closer and slam the door closed.

Yeah, his self-preservation instincts have always been terrible, he is aware. He does things like drink hot sauce on a dare (college) and break into his parents liquor cabinet (high school) and grab the arms of angry looking people on crutches to prevent them from walking into traffic (summer between high school and college, and actually he’s proud of that one). He has a feeling he’d step in front of a gunman to save someone, even a stranger.

That might explain locking himself in with an angry looking werewolf. One that’s currently edging closer. 

“Crap,” he croaks, panic making his voice crack, and presses himself against the door. 

He blacks out. 

It’s probably for the best.

“I have to hand it to you, Garrett,” a familiar voice is saying when he comes to, blinking at a white tile ceiling, “if you were going to be infected by a supernatural condition, this is probably the best possible place you could’ve done it.” 

“That’s nice,” Garrett says. He thinks he sounds about as sarcastic as usual, but he might be a little dazed. It’s something to do with the fact that he can make out the little specks across the surface of the tiles, which is weird, because he should be wearing glasses, and he can’t feel them on his face. “I think my veins are on fire.” 

“That’d be the wolfsbane,” the voice answers, apparently unbothered. It’s Vincent. Garrett is not surprised. 

Garrett closes his eyes. “You’re suppressing a transformation, aren’t you. Isn’t that a bad idea?” 

“Which one of us is the expert?” 

Garrett scoffs. “Which one of us is a werewolf?” 

There’s a long silence that makes Garrett want to open his eyes, but it’s bad enough that he can hear a heartbeat that he’s pretty sure isn’t close enough to be Vincent. Which means his co-worker doesn’t have a heartbeat. Which – he had to pass a medical to get this job; how did Vincent get the job with no heartbeat, without causing some sort of crisis? He keeps his eyes firmly shut, thanks ever so much. “Touché,” Vincent says at last, and Garrett can hear the amusement in his voice. 

“How long was I out?” 

“A couple of hours. Your phone rang; it was your daughter. She’ll be here soon.” 

“Sure, that’s a brilliant idea,” he mutters, sarcasm heavy in his voice. Garrett’s eyes fly open and he sits up a little quicker than he would like, blinking against the abrupt change of scenery and the headrush. “By which I mean, you just said I’m a newly turned werewolf, Vincent, what the fuck?” 

“At least you already know werewolves exist,” he says.

It’s not helpful. Garrett gives him the glare he thinks he deserves, and then lays back down, pressing his palms into his closed eyes. Maybe if he thinks hard enough, this will go away. “I can’t be a werewolf,” he says, as if it will change anything. “I have a teenage daughter. I’m a medical doctor. I work night shift half the time, I can’t take every full moon off!” 

“That’s what the wolfsbane is for.” 

“Oh, right. How could I forget? My veins feel like they’re actually on fire and this is the only way to not turn into a wolf that will bite anyone around.” 

“You’re a very negative person, aren’t you?” 

Garrett grimaces. He’s just realized what the heartbeat he can hear actually is, and attempts to peer at the other occupant of the room, the one he missed. “Sorry, Dave. I didn’t mean any offence. Much.” 

Dave, the werewolf responsible for this entire thing, snorts, but it sounds half-hearted and exhausted. He is trembling. “I should be the one apologizing. I ruined your life, man. I owe you.” 

“Should I be worried about the shaking?” 

“Doc didn’t give me any ‘bane until I’d already transformed, is all. Remember to take it like you’re s’posed to and it works out better.” 

“Great.” Garrett takes medication for anxiety on the daily. He now has to add injections of liquidated wolfsbane to his schedule at least once a month, twice in a blue moon, and he really doesn’t want to wish harm on Dave – so he doesn’t. He closes his eyes again, takes a deep, supposedly steadying breath. “This is just what I needed.” 

“Dad?” 

Garrett opens his eyes and looks up. April is standing over him with a look of concern, the door open behind where his head has been resting this entire time. “Hey, sweetie,” he says, trying for a sincere smile. He doesn’t know how close he gets as she dumps her bag and kneels down beside him. “I hear your sleepover wasn’t that great.” 

“Muriel is being mean, so I called to come home. Vincent said you were – hurt?” 

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just – um.” Garrett pauses. He cannot lie to his daughter, she needs to know what is going on. It isn’t fair to keep her in the dark. 

He has to tell her about supernaturals, if she hasn’t guessed already.

Garrett groans aloud, pressing his palms back into his eye sockets. “Remind me to kill you later,” he mutters. “It’s the least you deserve.” 

Vincent snorts, and Dave’s noise is more like a whimper. There’s something decidedly lupine in it, and that’s exactly the sort of thing Garrett needs to hear right now. 

“So,” he starts, pulling his eyes away, “you know how there are humans in the world, and they have different races? African, Asian, Caucasian, Mongoloid.” 

“Yes...?”

“Well, those differences are just aesthetic. The differences that actually matter a little bit are the ones that make human beings into something – supernatural.” 

There’s quiet for a long moment. “Are you trying to make a joke about that TV show?” April asks, wary. 

Garrett sighs. He wishes he was. “I wish I was,” he says, “but what I’m actually saying is that vampires and werewolves and dryads and all that – it’s real. That’s what’s special about Vincent’s patients. That’s why they are in the basements, that’s why pretty much everyone avoids him and thinks he’s insane.” 

“Hey,” Vincent says. It’s mild enough that Garrett doesn’t believe he actually cares. 

“Also, that’s Dave. Say hi to Dave.” He waits for April to wave awkwardly at the patient. “He’s a werewolf. And he bit me.”