#this is also why the solstice both summer and winter are of reletive import

[jacqcrisis]

Question I've had for awhile: How do the werewolves work? Like do they take time off for their, ah, monthly?Are there modern criteria or places the wolves while they're transformed?

*rubs my hands together furiously* okay, so first thing is that magic in this world ebbs and flows throughout the months and especially over the year. The full moon is when you can expect the best outcome for any arcane craft you are planning on doing as that is when magic is at it's height. It's also when the body will experience the least amount physical stress from the usage of magic, and this is both true for witches and some otherly evolved.

Secondly, werewolves are technically in a group of devils that have a form of primordial, under-developed magic, along with things like vampires, selkies, kelpies, etc etc etc. For the hounds, this is specific to their shapeshifting which they can have some control over for most of the month if the individual werewolf has practiced and trained be able to shift on command. Though this is an incredibly physically taxing process outside of the full moon and it's easier to be able to train this skill if the practice starts when they are younger when their two forms haven't quite separated yet. In modern times, this has fallen out of practice in more populated parts of the U.S.

On the full moon, when magic is at it's height for the month, this shift is triggered automatically at sunset and they are locked into that form until sunrise. By various, necessary labor laws, werewolves have to take that night off, partially for safety concerns, mostly for Obfuscation concerns. You don't want some non-magical person walking by and seeing the werewolf from Van Helsing getting the zoomies in an office building cause he stole Debra from accounting's stapler. Again.

Some spend this time at home with the rest of their immediate families, some in more rural areas go zipping around the fields or the forest or some hiking trail close by. In Fairglenn, the medium sized park that sits at one corner of the werewolf block has a 'charity' evening on the full moon where volunteers and special enchantments ward away the have-nots as the more canine shaped locals let loose for the evening. This night and these enchantments used to not exist until a certain restaurant owner started funding the project to give the mostly cooped up werewolves a chance to breathe and an easier commute home as they used to have to either drive or pay to get bussed out of the city every month if they wanted to not spend the night inside their apartments.

Thankfully, due to this being the night most witches are being witches, a lot of the magically owned businesses who employ werewolves have a severe dip in patronage. So while Majorie's can get a little short staffed (depending on if someone is sick or got fired) in the back on these nights, it's also not generally busy because most of their customers are doing either magic or religious shit depending on what floats their boat. Sometimes they even just fucking close if it's like... a rainy Tuesday and only Gary and his newspaper are coming in.