2020-03-25 - Swearwolves

Geoff drops onto the trail with a grunt and jumps to his feet with a look of alarm in his eyes, the man obviously having been sleeping as evidenced by the fact he is only wearing a pair of plaid pajama bottoms. Looking around with a wide eyed wariness he grumbles under his breath "I fucking hope this isn't cannibal hillbillies..." rubbing at his sides he attempts to warm himself, then looks up to the sky for a moment before seeming relieved. At least with whatever horror this dream might inflict there won't be the internal monologue.

Katherine's alone in her home office, burning the midnight oil. Again. Back to her old habits. She shouldn't be...but she is, and she knows who and what is to blame. She's unable to sleep, such as it's been for the last couple of nights. She can't stop thinking about how much she'd wanted to clear the air, to be the better person, and how quickly it had blown up in her face. She can't stop thinking about how much the anger had gotten the best of her. She's filled with regret. She steps out of the room to head to the bathroom but before she can even get there, something strange happens...

She notices that her feet are wearing sneakers and there is a crunch crunch when she steps down, and she notices there are leaves on the ground. Why does she have her sneakers on? She's still in her navy blue sweats, her hair disheveled and a bit of a tangled mess, as if it had been taken out of a ponytail and not brushed out. When she looks up, her surroundings become clearer and she realises where she is. The hiking trail at the gorge, the one they always went to. It all comes flooding back and she struggles to keep herself composed as she walks around. She doesn't get very far, maybe two or three feet, when she hears the howling. Fuck. What is even happening? She doesn't even say a word when she realizes that there are others nearby. Maybe it's dark enough that they won't notice her.

Three AM and Byron is still awake? That means he has a couple of hours to sleep, if he cared to sleep at this point, before he tends to wake up for the day. At around 2:30, he decided to put on some clothes and have a smoke out on the terrace. Thank God the weather's finally clearing up as winter moved on to spring. The air was still chilly, so he'd thrown on a pair of jeans and a soft navy blue sweater because he was wandering outside. That in itself was probably a terrible idea. The early morning winds would invigorate him rather than lull him into sleep for the next few hours.

With his pack of cigs in hand, he reaches into his pocket for a light before crossing the threshold to what should have been his penthouse terrace. Instead, he was in some forest, for all he knew. And it wasn't winter going on spring... it was fall. The leaves told him so. This doesn't stop him from lighting up. In fact, it gives him more of a reason to do so as he tries to determine whether he actually did fall asleep and was dreaming of if he was Dreaming. Breathing in that sweet nicotine, he winces. After a very recent Dream, his tastebuds had been shot. That doesn't stop the legal drug from working into his system to try to calm him.

The sound of the howl has him extinguishing the cigarette altogether. While he finds a place to crouch down in an attempt to hide, he'll reach out mentally to try to locate where this thing was and possibly, what mood it's in.

After hearing Easton's loud yelling, not only is Katherine on high alert, but now she's also on edge. Does she want to run into some sort of dangerous situation for an asshole who acts like he doesn't seem to care about her well-being or her feelings? No, she's not going to run. She's going to (power) walk there, and if she gets there before anything terrible happens to him, she'll take cover behind a nearby tree. Because fuck that, she's not going to die for Easton Fucking Marshall. But maybe she might still have his back, even if it's just to prove a point. Because whether it makes sense or not, that's who she is. She'll help him just to spite him.

She comes dangerous close to being hit by one of the werewolves, but then it narrowly misses her, causing Katherine to quietly sigh in relief.

Geoff goes running off the path to juke behind a tree, ignoring the feel of nature biting up into his feet as that big hairy wolf he's been antagonizing whiffs hitting him and scrapes bar "What, you think I'm just gonna stand still for you, ya hairy bitch? I've seen grannies that are more fierce then you are." The man shit talking as he circles about the tree, trying to keep it between him and the killer werewolf, of course the werewolf seems to shake off his attack like it's nothing.

Was that Easton's voice? And did he say something about Were--

So that's what the howling was. Byron is not amused by this revelation at all. In fact, his jaw tightens as he remains hidden in some shrubbery besides a tall tree and a scattering of autumn colored leaves. All that he can think of is that those fuckers better not lay a hand on him. He was already in a world of pain and now this. Before he realizes it, one of these wolf fiends launches out at him, clawed hand outstretched and never mind the pain at the roof of his mouth, these claws tear through his sweater to drag across his abdomen as he works to scramble away. "Shit!" He calls out, alerting the others of his presence.

Being this close to the creature, he lights his hands up, encasing them in a crackle of electricity in a quick and sudden retaliation against this assault. "Marshall, you here?" He calls out as he works to move out of the way and away from the thing. "Geoff...?"

Why did she hear people in her house? And was that howling? Harper moves quietly down her hallway basically dressed for bed in an oversized hockey jersey and finds that the dark walls resolve to ... winter trees? And the hard floor is now a trail with dead leaves crunching under her bare feet. She really should dress better for these things.

"Are those werewolves? Jesus christ!" Easton's recognizable yelling somehow makes the situation more sensical. Still transitioning to this version of pseudo-reality, though. But they are apparently werewolves; and they attack a bit down the path from where she's arrived. A cursory glance at the gathered people tells her she recognizes two of them and the third is a stranger. "Dammit, Turner. If you get hurt, I'll kill you." With a shake of her head, Harper works on summoning up something more useful than her formidable literary expertise, remaining right there in the path, rather than scrambling for cover. Yet. Byron gets swiped and Harper utters a little sound that might be defined as a growl, her fingertips flickering with a spark or two in the dimness.

It finally dawns on Katherine that it's not just Easton in this with her when she hears Byron cursing loudly and call out not only for Easton, but also for someone named Geoff? Someone she didn't know. Great. And when there is another female voice that speaks, she sighs, feeling the anxiety rise in her usually calm and composed demeanour. At least she knows one person will help her figure out whatever this is.

Out of sheer panic, she freezes and doesn't end up behind cover this time. She freaks out at the werewolf getting dangerously close to her, and something new and inexplicable to her happens as she yells, "FUCK! GET AWAY!" Her hands spark and crackle with electricity at the werewolf who had previously attacked her and missed. It doesn't seem affected by this new thing that Katherine can do. But the brunette is also attacked, and missed again.

"Byron, are you okay???" she finally calls out, breaking her silence. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If Easton is going to yell at her for being here...well it's the least of her concerns.

Geoff takes a raking blow across his chest, the claws grazing over his skin and drawing lines of blood "You fucking son of a bitch, looks like you can give a little can't ya? Let's see how well you can take it now." A broad grin touched with a surprisingly amount of excitement pulling at his features as he makes a savage gesture towards the wolf, a wicked looking gash tearing open across it's chest and spraying the ex con with blood...Which only seems to add to his excitement.

With a laugh he calls out towards Byron, already eying the wolf he's tangling with as his next prey "Hey man, fancy seeing you here, need any help?" then he catches sight of Harper and her dispatching of her wolf "Way to go babe, you've fucking got this."

"Son of a bitch." Byron continues to curse beneath his breath on realizing that the dark shadowy wolf creature was still on his tail. The scratch at his torso was seeping blood all over his good once good sweater and for a time, he applies pressure there. By the sound of things, it's not just Geoff and Easton caught up in this mess and as he's high-tailing it out of the way, he can see commotion coming. "Katherine..?" He's surprised to learn that she's here and to the group he calls out, "One of them got me. This nightmare fucker that I've been trying to shake. It's just a flesh wound." That's still staining his shirt, "But this thing is quick." And strong as he notices, being able to endure the jolt of electricity that he tries to send its way.

"I'm not gonna decline help if you're offering." While he says this, he turns in the direction where one of the Werewolves had fallen in the distance. "If there weren't so many of these things, I'd offer to try and distract it. Stun it in some way." But even with the downed wolves, he has a sense that more are on their way. "I don't think we'll have that liberty."

The grey werewolf is closest and approaching, so it earns the brunt of Harper's displeasure. There's one of them for each individual she sees present. She flicks her fingertips in its direction, zapping electrical energy directly into the giant creature of nightmares and some mildly successful movies. Clearly it's a strong enough hit to knock that intimidating creature out with a puff of sickly-sweet smoke smelling of burnt flesh and singed hair. Geoff's bloodied. So Harper strides through the crunchy leaves in Geoff's direction. Byron seems to know the other woman and for now they can deal with what's on their end. "I'm the only one who gets to claw Geoff, goddammit."

Katherine focuses her energy towards the brown werewolf one more time, and this time, she seems to manage to cause it some harm, but as she turns to run away, it takes a swipe at her, clawing at her back. She notices it fall over as someone else also attacks it. She looks over to the stranger (Geoff) and nods, giving him a stoic look.

"Easton???" she calls out, not having heard him since his initial cursing. After having considered running, she decides to just call for him, once. Kate has words for things Easton deserves, but being mauled by werewolves is not one of them. Besides, she's more concerned about Bennie being worried and upset. He has someone to come home to, so she might as well see to it that he goes home. Even if she has no idea how she got here or how to get home.

Geoff makes another gesture, this time it is aimed at the wolf that attacking Byron, and brings about similar results, opening a vicious wound across it's back that spurts blood. He watches with keen appreciation as Harper's mojo keeps the wolf that was a attacking him from landing a hit. With a cocky smile aimed at Harper he arches an eyebrow and asks "You ever wanted to make out with a guy covered in werewolf blood? Now's your chance." His arms opening as if to show off the fact that the werewolf painted him like a felled ronin from a Kurosawa flick

While he's playing keep away with the wolf that's stalking him, Byron scrambles towards one of the trees before standing his ground in an attempt to force the black wolf to look the other day, sending forth a mental distraction which stops the thing in its tracks. It's just at that moment when he sees the spurt of blood pouring out from the lupine creature, making him lift an arm up as way to shield himself from the splash. Byron has open wounds already, he doesn't need this wolf blood seeping into his blood stream.

At the time of the carnage, he could only guess what happened to the thing, but seeing Geoff standing /right there/, eases some of that tension as he tries to wipe some of the blood from off his cheek. "Thanks, man." For a time, he just stands there over the corpse and while there might be an urge to nudge it with a foot, he refrains. Instead, he surveys the area in the case that there's more where those came from. He heard Harper somewhere as well and it would've been a lot of cooler if he actually got to witness her badassery, but he had problems of his own. "Hey, Harper. You okay?" From what he can see she's fine, but sometimes you can't tell.

That's when he notices Katherine. He recalls hearing her early on. Byron even called out to her. And unlike the other two, well Harper, Geoff was covered in blood, he wanders in his lawyer's direction, seeing that she had not come out of this unscathed. "Unfortunately, I can't help patch that up. But with those wolves gone, we may be waking up soon." Or so he'd hope! But she asks the same question that was on his mind as well. "You heard him too, huh?" Easton Marshall. Taking a good look around, he'll lend his voice, "Marshall? Where are you?"

"Easton!" Harper raises her voice to call out to the marine, concerned that he might be facing a handful of his own monsters. Her call comes right on the heels of Katherine's. But there's that other werewolf to address. She lifts her hands and flicks her thumbs against the nails of her fingers in a 'go away' sort of gesture with considerable success. Still, she's headed -- as she has been since arriving on the trail -- toward Geoff.

"You okay, Byron?" This is asked while Harper eyes the bloody clawmarks across the front of Geoff's body. "Not okay," she tells him, as if he intentionally went in search of an injury-via-werewolf.

His arched eyebrow, the look itself, and his words, however earn the shirtless man in pajama bottoms a roll of quiet laughter from the staticky librarian. Another glance over toward the other two just to make sure they're not being attacked and she steps up to Geoff and traces those same fingertips around the bloody clawmarks. "Not the sort of body art we discussed." Once she determines he's not in immediate danger, however, Harper winds her hands up around Geoff's neck and promptly bloodies that oversized hockey jersey with his fresh blood as she pulls him down for a brief but intense kiss. "You heard him too, right?" To Byron, Harper turns a smile, "My legs are cold and I want to find Easton, but otherwise everything's copacetic."

And the brown werewolf after Katherine gets a chestful of electricity that sends it flying back just as it swipes at her. The wolf goes down and like the others seems to lose it's coloration and some of it's mass.

The last wolf that lunges at Harper learns why that is not a good idea, just like the gray wolf before it. This one gets zapped before it even gets so much as a swipe or a nip in on anything and falls off to the side. It's howl of pain sounds an awful lot like a snarling curse upon Harper though completely unintelligible. Like the others, it's mass starts to shrink away as soon as it hits the ground.

The black wolf's back is split open and the blood spray is impressive and terrible. The red spray on the leaves blends in beautifully with the oranges and yellows of the other fall colors though. When the wolf falls, it's bulk melts away but not so much the height. The black flaming fur fades away though, as do the wolfen features. The form is clearly that of a man after only a short while, a tall man, possibly with blond hair? It's difficult to tell in the dark with all the blood. Seriously, so much blood.

After a while it's clear that in death these creatures are reverting to human shape. Some are even regaining consciousness, though extremely confused.

And one of them is easily recognizable to everyone. The last wolf, the one who favored it's forepaws, melts away to resolve a very beat up looking Easton. Not just the damage from Harpers attack but it's clear that whatever he suffered here not only left a lot of marks on him. Easton manages to sit up and look around at all the people. "Well that was fucked up..." He looks around, rubbing at his eyes and trying to get his bearings.

Katherine hangs back, tears forming in her eyes, threatening to fall, she leans back against a tree, some distance away, close to where they were but not too close. She's not in the mood to be yelled at for just being there, she doesn't want to be yelled at for not being able to explain how she got there in the first place...and she doesn't want him to see her scared, worried about him. She stays quiet, but also within visual range of Byron, so at least one person knows she's not dead or running away from the scene. At least not until she figures out Easton is back to being an asshole and he's not too badly hurt.

Geoff returns that kiss of Harper's before looking to the wolf that is slowly transforming into Easton "Holy shit man, are you okay? Let me see what I can do for you." Geoff leaving the librarian's side to go over and kneel down next to him, and Easton willing he uses an outpouring of spirit to potentially patch him up "How'd you even turn into a werewolf, don't tell me you got bit....Because if so I think I got something to worry about." his eyes dropping down to the wounds across his chest

"I've had better days." Byron murmurs to Harper's inquiry of whether he's hurt. He then gestures to his torn sweater, making a comment, "As long as I don't get any werewolf disease or curse, I think I'll be fine." It's right at that moment where these wolves begin to transform and all that Thorne can think of is: Great. Now what? Rather than it being something worse than they just experienced-- well, it depends on who you ask, because Easton happened to have been one of those wolf things.

"Shit..." He practically spits out, repeating a curse that he'd uttered before. He looks back at the other three to make sure that they are alright, though his gaze especially watches Katherine, since she's new to all of this. "Really?" He asks the former Marine. But knowing, or thinking he knows, of what some of this group had done to the wolves, Marshall's probably hurting. Making his way over to Katherine, he'll ask again, "You okay?" He probably means both physically and mentally.

"Dear god," Harper exclaims as her pivot to address Byron leads her to see Easton rising from the place where she 'killed' that second wolf. "Seriously?" She complains to the universe. She zapped Easton. Harper simply follows Geoff over to Easton, standing beside where he crouches. "Sorry about that, Easy. I can't even ..." She shakes her head slowly as no words follow that initial phrase. If someone can help Easton, it's Geoff. Or at least Harper believes this to be so. She settles her hands to her hips and crosses one foot in front of the other as she watches, brooding as much as anyone sees Harper brood. Which is to say: she's not smiling. The potential for Geoff and Byron both to be 'infected' furrows her brows. Harper is not intentionally ignoring Katherine. It just went from wounded Geoff to post-dead Easton. So she's a trifle distracted.

Shaking his head Easton looks at all the people and finally his head snaps back to Katherine, but maybe not with the reaction she expects. "KK. Fuck, are you okay?" He looks around at the others and coughs, "I mean you all too, but she's new here. You all are used to this shit." He waves off both Harper and Geoff, and attempts to get up. It doesn't go well. His leg isn't attached anymore. "Fuck" He sits on the ground and lets Geoff heal him. He closes his eyes and with a rustle something else appears out of the bush. It's his fake leg. Easton looks at it and shakes his head, "Aw, leg no." It's not in great shape.

He manages to get it on though and at least get up to his feet. He then realizes Harper is feeling guilty and he laughs, "No, none of that shit. That was a solid shot and I probably woulda tore your throat out if I got a chance. Thankfully I made a pretty shitty werewolf." Even with the healing he's not quite steady on his feet.

The other former werewolves are also injured and making their way to their feet. The white werewolf is apparently a tiny blond teenage girl who is just about speak when she blips out of existence, perhaps returning to the real world.

"Nope. Not okay. And the one person I want to talk to right now is upset at me." She wonders if Wayne would pick up if she reached out to him at this point.

It's weird how quickly and easily the admission of...not being okay slips past Katherine's lips when Byron comes over to ask her how she's doing. She's had a rough week and this doesn't make things any easier. "I'm a little scratched up, but I'm fine," she reports to Byron, trying to downplay her emotions by attempting to deliver the information as she's trying to use her lawyer tone. It sounds strange, and only barely takes the edge off her emotions.

When she hears Easton call out to her, she's startled by his level of concern and her heart sinks slightly as she'd hoped not to show this display of emotion in front of him. "I'm fine," she calls out, steading her voice, daring to come a bit closer. She intentionally does not turn her back to Easton, where the claw marks had scratched her sweatshirt up and she got scratched up.

Geoff is patching Easton up and watches the touching reunion between Katherine and his patient. Glancing over to Harper he says dryly "See I rush over to him to patch him up and he shoos me off for her. What would Elvis say if he could see what had happened to our marriage. This is not the man I married." still shaking his head head he then looks to Byron "Are you okay man? Do you need to be patched up, or can you wing it?" Standing up he offers a hand down to Easton in case he'd like to hoist himself up.

As the other 'werewolves' rise in their confusion and fade into the void, Byron is relieved that none of them will suddenly turn now that they are distracted. Yet, Easton was still here, so being the cautious fellow that Byron is, he remains wary in the other man's presence for a time. Still lingering near Katherine, his gaze lowering to assess her injuries and state of mind once more, he murmurs, "I don't know. He sounds more worried than angry if you ask me."

When Geoff asks if Byron needs patching up, the new co-casino owner type person waves a dismissive hand, "It's just a scratch." It's a werewolf scratch, if those things exist, but it's just minor. "And you really shouldn't be using your Talents to heal people at the drop of a hat." He'll make sure to warn. "It gets Their attention." He will then add, "I'm sure Elvis is enjoying a magarita somewhere on the strip."

Harper follows Easton's look to Katherine, really taking her in for the first time. "Hi, ... KK," Harper offers, making an assumption. "I'm Harper. C'mon over." Easton's leg returns to him like a scrappy puppy, and, after a flicker of assessment over to Byron, Harper looks back at Easton. He would have torn her throat out. "You say the sweetest things, Easton."

Some of her more typical demeanor returns and she arches a brow at his estimation of his loup-garou prowess. "Now, now. I'm sure you can do all the werewolf things. Howling. Maiming. Biting. Clawing. Making little baby werewolves. Give yourself some credit." While saying this, Harper warily watches the other transformed 'dead' werewolves wake up. She's calling to the girl, "Sor--" When she blips out. "--ry."

Harper turns a wry smile down to Geoff, lowering a hand to ineffectively tug the hem of the hockey shirt against her bare legs. "He can look," she replies mildly. "It's really more about believing he'll always come back to you. I don't think he's eating anyone else's bratwurst." She pauses. "That I know of." Only when Katherine turns and Harper sees that the woman did get hit, does she stir, circling around Easton over toward the woman and Byron. "You're hurt," she helpfully tells Katherine. "May I see?" Not so much to rubber-neck as to assess damage.

Easton accepts Geoff's hand up and admits with faux contrition, "You're right, I've taken our marriage for granted and become complacent. I'll make it up to you." He chuckles and shoulder bumps Geoff on his way to getting actually steady. Katherine's snap that she is fine, is met with a dubious look and not very convincing, "Okay." He looks to Geoff when he offers Byron a heal and then explains to Katherine, "In case you didn't know healing is a thing. So if you're not, you should .. uh .. this is Geoff and Harper." He changes tactics midstream, "And this is Katherine. Thorne's new lawyer and my ex." He tries to keep his voice as pleasantly neutral as he can.

To Harper's comment about him saying the sweetest things he agrees, "Fuck yea I do." Her comment about Bratwurst causes him to cough a bit and says, "Damn, that sounded .. really dirty." There's just a pause before telling Geoff, "I'm proud." Giving it the seal of approval.

"God I kill for a drink" is one of those thoughts you mean to have with your inside mind voice, but gets vocalized when you're tired and just got turned into a werewolf and then nearly electrocuted to death. Realizing he said it out loud he ammends, "But I'd settle for a cigare-"

Easton doesn't finish his though because something or specifically someone catches his eye. The former black wolf, now reverted to human stands up at an impressive six foot four feet of blond marine goodness. He doesn't seem to notice the crowd of people, some of whom know him.

"Banks?"

Easton asks just as the man starts to dissappear.

Katherine looks to Harper with the request to see her wounds and she stubbornly refuses to turn, until Easton mentions that healing is something she should accept if she's not doing okay. "It's really just a few scratches, I'm fine," she says, both for Harper and Easton's benefit. And Easton's sharp turn, letting the introductions fall, trying as much as he can to be neutral about it as he can, forces Katherine to smile.

Whatever banter he had about needing a drink is met with a glare from Katherine before he amends his statement, or at least starts to. It's the apparition of someone she knows very well that sends her emotional state to a whole other level of disarray. "Tommy?" She doesn't even realise that she's called out for him using her full voice as he starts to disappear, rather than the quiet tone she'd normally reserve for when she's attempting to hide her emotional state.

"It's a small world after all," Harper murmurs slowly. Easton's ex is here. She's also Byron's lawyer. Maybe she'll get a tattoo from Geoff. In Gray Harbor there are a maximum of two degrees of separation at any given time. If Katherine refuses to turn around, the librarian doesn't push it. Harper quells a hint of a grin at Easton's observation about her commentary while dividing her attention between Katherine, Byron, and the husbands on the ground. "Nice to meet you, Katherine. Between Byron and Easton and Geoff, you chose an excellent team for your first vis--" Harper flickers an abrupt, sharp glance from Easton to the tall glass of water he's stopped speaking to stare at. Tommy.

Geoff offers an easy going grin to Katherine, seeming relatively...adjusted for all that just happened and offers out a bloody hand "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Geoff." Glancing about he says "I wish the circumstances could have been a touch more normal." tapping his foot he says "Isn't this normally where we---" and with that he is gone

"Fuck"

Easton says it once without any heat when Banks disappears. His attention goes to Katherine next at the call of 'Tommy' a wince of pain flashing across his face. He looks away and says directly to Geoff as if speaking something deep and meaningful. "Fuck. FUCK." He's so well spoken.

And then he's fading and he just lets out a defeated, "fuck" and is gone.