#i keep saying that since i've written a werewolf tommy fic and a weredog jon fic

[radialarch]

Ooh, director's commentary on 'the night is for hunting (the day is for sleep)' if you're still doing that?

ah, werewolf fic was a lot of fun to write. weirdly it has a lot in common with space au, writing-wise, though i do think there are more grounding details here that i like. i did a lot more research for this, though, including looking up full moon charts and poring over google maps for washington dc, which i think helps.

so in its inception, this whole fic came out of the idea of jon “include me” lovett. i’m always fascinated by this tension between lovett’s need to be in on the joke and the fact that jon and tommy had this whole life before they met him. it’s interesting on the one hand that the fic ended up focusing heavily on jon – but on the other hand, it makes sense, because jon’s a peacemaker, and he’s both narratively and emotionally a great bridge between lovett, who knows nothing at all, and tommy, who knows too much and doesn’t like to share.

but tommy is a werewolf in this particular fic for a couple of reasons: one, that he’s a great pack animal. i’m perpetually fascinated by how tommy seems a little more socially aloof than, say, jon, but also keeps on making life choices that land him straight in the middle of a large group of people. (see: lacrosse team, his frat, the pad he shared with jon in chicago, the obama campaign, 1309 in dc, crooked.) he always has a pack! so a werewolf without a pack is a great situation to put him in, where he has to kinda figure out how to cope.

(the other reason is that lucy mentioned that “tommy comes from a long line of new england werewolves” would be a fun premise :D)

i had a great time including bits of werewolf lore in this, which obviously jon has done detailed research on. how many times do you think jon’s pulled out that “fdr had a werewolf in his cabinet” factoid? it’s a lot, and you know it’s a lot, because jon would defend tommy to the death and he talks about tommy all! the! time! and of course this world has modified architecture for werewolves, which tommy doesn’t want to talk about, and there are websites for werewolves to connect, and jon knows that wolves can’t digest bread, and all these details are fun to imagine but also a great indication of just how much jon knows about tommy’s world, even when tommy’s actively trying to keep him out.

(and there’s werewolf superstition, too, which lovett’s mom would know all about.)

i think technically, it’s cheating to tag this an ot3 fic because nothing explicitly romantic happens between them. but you can see it kind of there, the potential for something to happen, and honestly that’s a space i really love to write about? they’ll get there. they just need a single push.

(maybe new years will be that push!)