((Here is what got done via email so far. I will eventually sort out text colours on all of these, but not from my iPad and not tonight...))
As they headed back towards the house, Matt couldn't help but contemplate how different being a werewolf felt. Sure, he wasn't exactly sure how one would go about actually becoming the wolf half, and he felt a little embarrassed about that, but it was really strange how comfortable he felt with Joe and Addie around now. Wolves were social animals, he supposed, and vampires just weren't. What held the clans together was a common enemy which liked to hunt in packs... That and tradition. Vampires loved their tradition.
Of course, a much bigger part of him was wondering about the surprise Joe had mentioned back at the clinic. She seemed pretty excited. In fact, she'd seemed a little excited constantly since he came round in the theatre, and it wasn't just her heart rate. There was a little something about her smell, too, but he couldn't figure out what was special about it.
Rita had discharged him with a phone number, after making him promise to call it if anything went wrong. She seemed strangely anxious about letting him leave, but all of his vitals had been normal and she hadn't been able to stop him.
Something was niggling in the back of his head, and he turned to Joe. "So, is this a good surprise or a... well, a you surprise?" He realised that sounded pretty insulting so he added quickly, "Most of the stuff you do that actually surprises me is a bit... unconventional." That was a pretty huge understatement. He caught Addie's eye and pulled a worried face, but jokingly. Truth be told, he was pretty excited about whatever this surprise might be.
It was only now, looking around him, that he realised he'd been walking along so wrapped up in thought that he hadn't noticed their heading. They weren't on the way back to Faolan's house, that was for sure. "Uhm," he said uncertainly, "this really does not look like the way home..."
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Addie grinned to himself at Matt's question.
"That's an interesting way of categorising a surprise," he said, chuckling.
Joe's response was to give him a sly sideways look, a type one might see on a fox talking to a gingerbread man...
"I'll let you decide for yourself." She finally said and winked at him.
The uncertainty in Matt's voice triggered Joe's playfulness and she said very calmly,
"That's because it isn't." and wouldn't say anything more.
Addie decided to give some input though, "Don't worry, mate. The first inauguration is always a bit daunting." He said matter-of-factly and he bumped Matt's shoulder with his.
The road itself had now become very forlorn and it was getting difficult to even see it. Well, for anyone except a werewolf who 'saw' things differently. They had headed into a thicker part of a forest now and she sky was almost completely obscured by the branches and leaves. A little further off a small waterfall could be heard...
.. And voices, quite a few of them.. Coming from inside a large old-style house. It was mostly covered with vines and trees and looked to have been built into the side of a rocky hill, with the waterfall beside it. It was a double-story building and he bottom windows were all lit and smoke rose from the chimney.
As they headed to the front there were no cars, except for the broken-down one under the canopy beside the house. Hanging above the large, thick oakwood door was a sign...
"Welcome to the "Beer 'n Bones", finest eatin' you'll ever find this side of the country!" Addie proclaimed with his charming grin.
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Matt laughed at Addie's reaction to his Surprise Classification System. "Well, you wait until she surprises you, and see if you don't need a whole new category." Truth be told a lot of Joe's typical behaviour had been filed under his old system before his brain realised it didn't make sense to be surprised by everything; the conditions for entry to the new system were a lot more stringent.
Her response to the question didn't do much to settle his slight apprehension, but he reminded himself that most of the really bad surprises of the past had come from the voice. Maybe all of them. There were a couple of things he still wasn't quite sure about. Still, they probably weren't taking him to his death, but he really hoped there wasn't going to be some weird werewolf rite of passage at the end of this road, because it was going to be embarrassing explaining that he still hadn't figured out how one went wolf.
Then they came across the house. First of all he heard the sound of it, and was really starting to be concerned about the possibility of werewolf initiation ceremonies, but when the building itself came into view he relaxed a bit. It looked pretty friendly.
He grinned at Addie's introduction to the place. Something from inside smelled really good, and what was even better was the realisation that for once it probably wasn't a person's vital fluids. Then he turned the smile to Joe. "This smells great!" he said enthusiastically. "And so far you're still human-shaped and you're not sitting on me... Definitely the good kind of surprise." He stood looking at the place for a few seconds, interested by how it smelled and how people sounded to him now. Then he gestured forward and said brightly, "Shall we, then?"
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The mental image of a wolf-shaped Joe sitting on Matt made Addie burst out in laughter, "She's done that to you before?" he asked between breaths. "Gotta see that for myself sometime."
At Matt's gesture he nodded as he stepped forward to open the door, "Lets. I'm starving." and held it open to Matt, "Newbies first."
Joe stood next to Matt and with a silent smile tilted her head towards the door for him.
What waited inside was the distinct smell of meat, cooked in all stages, including barely singed. To decorate and promote those wonderful smells were spices to tease one's taste buds and the accompanying side dishes, all playing together to call out the hunger in anyone. Even a stuffed person or wolf would get hungry from the smell.
As any good pub would have, there was all manner of beer too which included the home-made brew that was always on special.
The age of the place seemed to have sponged up the aromas of years and years of dishes, drinks and merrymaking and gave it a very homey feeling. In the further corner was a bigger than normal sized fireplace, with some rugs and blankets strewn out before it. In one of the baskets (yes, it was definitely a big dog basket) lay three little pups fast asleep, and any werewolf would know that they weren't dog puppies.
Interestingly, not everyone in the pub/inn were werewolves, but there were some humans too. They seemed to come in all ages and were very at home, although there were one or two who were obviously new to the place.
On another wall, to the left of the fireplace was the way into the kitchen and the now-open doors looked to be well reinforced in case of robbery. Just ahead was the barkeep with stairs running up to the rooms above running behind it.
A very burly man was attending the bar and he greeted Addie with a wave.
"Ahh, is this the new pup?" he grinned, "Bring him over and let's give him a proper welcome!" he said with a raised voice to get over the humdrum of the voices.
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Matt chuckled at Addie's response to his tales of Joe sitting on him. "Oh yeah," he replied, "multiple times." Well, at least twice, and one of them had definitely been her. Probably. Although she hadn't had her memory at the time. "She sure is heavy, too." He hoped she wouldn't take that comment badly, but somehow he doubted Joe to be one of those girls who'd fuss about her weight.
The atmosphere inside the pub surprised him: somehow he hadn't expected anything so... normal, though truth be told he'd never actually been in a real pub before. His parents hadn't liked them and hadn't thought it a good idea to take their young son into one, and since his change... alcohol just hadn't seemed like a good idea for someone whose uninhibited impulses could easily end in murder. That, and he hadn't exactly had the kind of friends who'd hang out at the pub.
The smells of the place were indeed wonderful, and the realisation that it was ok to eat the things he was smelling now was a welcome one. Truth be told, though, the friendly atmosphere set him a little on edge. He'd never made friends easily, and this place seemed like everyone would want to be your friend before they even knew you. Still, he reasoned, Joe was hardly the most forthcoming person when it came to trust and openness with strangers, and she wanted him to enjoy this. He smiled at her, trying to hide his nerves. Maybe this would all be ok. He was pretty sure he wasn't going to get physically harmed, at least. And he was very hungry.
The barman's welcome made him tense right up again, just as he'd managed to relax. He didn't enjoy being called a pup. Also, with a voice that loud, it felt like everyone was staring at him, and his new blood rushed up his neck to his face so readily that he thought he might catch fire. What was this? He'd thought he blushed badly as a vampire, but this was almost painful. He gulped, looking at his shoes and searching for something to say. In the end, after a worried glance at Joe, he went for "Hi..." Then he hesitated before adding, in a tiny voice, "um... I'm Matt." He risked shooting a look at the barman, wondering if he was going to get laughed out of this place. Werewolves were supposed to be confident beings, by and large. He just wished he could be a little less ready for the ground to swallow him whole.
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The bartender's voice did indeed lift a few heads and turned their attention to "the new pup". Most turned back to their own business, be it food, company, drinks or looking darkly mysterious in a shadowed corner. They all had their own comments, some being kept to themselves and others saying something about him looking scrawny or small.
A group somewhere in the middle sniggered under their breath and as Joe heard them, she looked at them with a silent glare. They were a group of four, one being a female and the males looked to be the trouble-maker kind with size to boot.
Joe sensed Matt's uneasiness and when he finally responded to the bartender... in a rather small voice... She realised how strange this must all have been. The redness just confirmed it and she hid a smile - she'd never seen him blush so deeply! Then again, he now had the proper live mechanics, or was it biologics? to do it. She could definitely smell it.
The big wolf noticed it too, and with a hearty laugh he went over to Matt, and Joe, and with a hand on each one's shoulder with himself between them, he squeezed their shoulders as he guided them to a corner with the soft cover seats that ran in a half moon around the centered table.
"Welcome, little Matt! I am Old Moe, or just 'Moe', if ye prefer. Allow me t'give you our customary first meal and get ye feeling right at home at my humble abode. On the house, and I ain't taking no fer an answer, ye hear?" He said with a now not so booming-over-the-croud voice. The tone at the end suggested that he was serious about not declining his offer, though.
Joe, in fact, looked over to Matt and demonstrated with a few nods for Matt to accept.
Addie had followed behind, being somewhat of a local already and once they were seated, sat next to Matt and Joe would sit on Matt's other side.
"So, how would you like yer steaks, pup? And what can I get you other two?" He asked, whipping out a notebook and pen.
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Matt shuffled through the pub trying not to attract any further attention, and especially not to aggravate the group that had laughed at him. Joe would probably jump into a bar-room brawl very readily, but he really didn't want to start one, especially while he was still trying to figure out his own legs. The bartender seemed very friendly, so he focussed on that. "Good to meet you, Moe," he said warmly. "I'm sure a meal here would be fantastic, thank you."
He hoped to be able to just sit down, duck his head and calm down, but no sooner had he sat down than he was being asked to choose a meal. Steak?! Oh right, he ate steak now. It was hard to stop interpreting the word as pointy-stick-incoming-death and think food. He swallowed, wondering why this couldn't be as simple as the vampire diet. 'How would you like your blood?' didn't make much sense as a question, since everyone liked it best the same way: fresh out of someone's throat.
In the end, he settled for responding with, "Um... Very rare?" It seemed the best option, and he figured Joe would probably go more or less the same way, which meant he could blend in with the crowd. He remembered this was a good surprise, not a Joe-flattening-him-as-a-wolf surprise, and felt better. At least there were very definitely worse fates than embarrassment and confusion. He inhaled deeply and glanced at her, and that steadied his nerves. He managed to smile easily then, and added a "Please" to his order.
"So, do you guys come here a lot?" He addressed the question to Addie and Joe, which was a bit tough because they had sat either side of him. He was curious about the werewolf pub; vampires had almost no reason for something like this for food (blood on tap, anyone?) and had only a few drinking establishments, all of them pretty hardcore bars. He'd never been in one. They were the sort of place Mel would enter on business and leave having broken the bones of every person inside. Several had burned down after such visits.
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Matt's good manners certainly won him good points with the big guy, and it was prominent through his even wider grin. As a werewolf it would have been frightening.
"Very rare," Old Moe wrote on the paper, nodding, "Grand choice." He said and looked to the other two for their choices. Joe decided on a "Game Hunter's Leg" (not human meat as one might think, but more like the leg of the game that was hunted, she explained to Matt, just so he didn't have to worry). For Addie, it was a "Roulette Stew" which consisted of a pot of mixed meats, spices and red wine. He also added a house beer pint and Joe said she would be fine with water.
Moe then headed to the kitchen, taking a few drink orders from the tables he passed on the way.
"Well, I've been here more times than I can count.." Addie answered, "Joe... what, about two or three times?" he looked at Joe over his folded hands as he was leaning forward on his elbows.
"Two." she said and leaned on one elbow, looking at Matt. "So what's your first impression?" Joe asked with a soft smile.
A few eyes had been glancing their way, mostly from the rowdy group that she had glared at. For some reason it made her feel uncomfortable, and the rate was bordering on 'very'. Either she was paranoid, or she was sure that they were looking at her... That didn't happen before and as she started to wonder why, the answer happily hit her on the back of her mind with a "duh."
She closed her eyes and then rubbed her temple with some irritation.
This was going to get some used to.. But having Matt there with her made her feel a little better, and hopefully there wasn't going to be some idiot dumb enough to start a fight in Old Moe's pub.
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Matt had a little panic when he heard Joe's order, but calmed down again when he heard her explanation. Right. Of course she wouldn't eat a person. Definitely. He was still very wound up from his embarrassment and it would take him some time to calm down.
The natural conversation was helping to calm his nerves, and he smiled back at Joe. "First impressions... uh, I guess embarrassing?" He chuckled, but hurried to add, "It seems a lovely place though, and the food smells great!" He decided not to mention the rather hostile-seeminggroup across the room.
"Are there many places like this?" He was still thinking about the laughable idea of a vampire pub. Would humans sit so happily amongst his old kind? More likely they'd be kept downstairs, like a sort of sick living wine cellar. Places like that probably did exist... he shuddered.
Just then the door swung open again, and a little man in a shabby brown coat shuffled in. He was human and clutching a tiny package to his chest, but something faint about his smell might have said vampire. It was mostly overpowered by the smell coming off him, which would have been hard to identify, but most people would have said he smelled smelly. Matt didn't notice him, being still across the big room full of mixed smells, but he clocked Matt and Joe immediately and started heading across the room towards them.
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Joe had a funny expression at Matt's answer, but could see where he got it from. Being confronted with a wall of friendly and big voice to draw attention was... Strange.
"Well at least you made it without turning tail." She said, a little amused.
She wasn't sure, and looked over to Addie, who's eyebrows furrowed as he looked up at nothing in particular. "I know of one other in Glasgow, and another at the River Thames... but there are probably more." he concluded.
Just then a woman came around and handed Addie his pint, and a beaker of water with two glasses for Joe and Matt. Addie looked quite happy and took a swig. From his satisfied look, the beer must have been heavenly... The woman grinned and gave him a wink as she turned and dropped off the other drinks.
It didn't take long for the shabby man's smell to travel to the werewolf noses in the room and many of them looked around for the culprit. The rowdy sniggerers caught on that it was the newcomer, and the three males, being the troublemakers that they were glanced at each other. As the man passed them, one of them stuck out his foot to trip the man and another laughed as he mockingly pretended to apologise for his friend's actions. This seemed to amuse the female and her laughter rang in the air. Some of the onlookers laughed or chuckled at the group's joke.
The third member noticed that the man had something with him and aimed to take it, "oh, what's this then? Mind if I have a look?" he grinned.
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Matt poured out two glasses of water and took a sip of his own, contemplating Addie's reply. Honestly vampires were doing themselves a disservice with this anti-wolf thing they had going on. They had to spend time together, build up bigger numbers and share feeding ground mostly because if they didn't the werewolves would wipe them out... and besides, trying to exterminate a species that could replicate by one bite on a member of your own food source was never smart. And the wolves were quite happily going to the pub together... Vampires, he concluded, must generally be pretty dumb not to strive for peace.
His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of the little man falling behind him. He didn't recognise the guy, but he didn't like the look of the people who'd tripped him. Matt stood, made his way over and put out a hand to help the man up. He was human, as well... ok, so he smelled bad, but it was pretty bad form of these guys to knock him down.
Just as he was dusting the guy off and trying to be gentle about it, lest he knock the poor man over again, he heard the woman laugh. He looked up from what he was doing with a dirty look, forgetting to worry about causing trouble. He didn't like to judge people by appearances, but couldn't help noticing that she looked really quite dumb.
Then one of the males tried to get the package the man was holding. It was all Matt could do not to punch the guy in the face, and he struggled to rein himself in. Male werewolf hormones were potent things, sure enough. He definitely felt like he wanted a fight... instead he just gave the guy a level look that said no way was he taking that package.
The little guy tapped Matt nervously on the elbow as the tension in the room grew. "Erm... it's for you," he squeaked, and pressed it into Matt's hand. Matt glanced down, and sure enough it has his name on it. Mel. He could almost swear she'd sent it here on purpose, to cause trouble. He looked around to thank the messenger, and was astonished to find that the little man had already gone. His smell lingered, outlining his shape in the air.
Great. So he was in a pickle by himself. Well, the human wouldn't have been much use anyway...
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Joe also decided to quench her thirst and only then realised how thirsty she actually was. Her body heat felt like it had risen too and she remembered that it was one of the many wonderful side-effects of being properly female. Joy.
Addie and Joe also noticed the newcomer falling and from the looks of things he had been tripped. The guy who had pretended to apologise had noticed her and lifted his head as if he was proud of it, and glad that Joe had seen his act. She gave him a blank, unimpressed stare back. He didn't seem to understand this...
When Matt stood up she didn't stop him, but kept her eyes on him. She saw him help the guy up and looking at the annoying female. Joe couldn't see Matt's expression, but apparently the girl didn't like it. As luck would have it, she responded by getting up and with an attitude she addressed Matt, "What's your deal, huh? You giving me a Look?" then she shoved him.
Her boyfriend also got up and with a sense of bravado, "Don't sweat it, babe. I got this." and stepped in front of her and positioned his hands on his hips in an aggressive stance, "You got a problem with my girl, shrimp?"
His girlfriend seemed pleased with this and gave Matt a spiteful smile as she crossed her arms.
As Joe watched this, she had the urge to get up and wipe that stupid look off her face... but Addie gently held her arm down and quietly shook his head.
"Let him handle this." he said equally quietly. To explain it, he glanced towards the bar where Old Moe was standing and busy with cleaning a glass, seemingly unaware of what was happening.
With a deep, irritated sigh Joe relaxed a bit and glared in the direction of the troublemakers. Her stare looked like it could melt metal.
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Matt decided the best thing he could do in this confrontational situation would be to stay calm and hope it blew over without a fight. He risked a glance at Joe and to his relief saw that she hadn't moved out of her seat. Something about her posture told him that Addie had had a hand in that. She was glaring though, and that wasn't going to go down well if this bunch spotted it, so he quickly looked away from her.
The dumb female seemed to have taken offence at his look, and he wondered if he had been out of line. But her friends had been pushing the human around, and she'd found that funny... It wasn't as though she was completely above reproach. He might not want a fight, but he wasn't about to grovel over this.
"I don't have a problem with 'your girl'," he said steadily, "but I really don't think you guys should be tripping people up. Where's the sense in picking on that guy? You have to show the world you're stronger than him? Big deal - he didn't look like he'd had a hot meal this month, and there's four of you..." He didn't raise the issue of species, since there were humans in earshot and he could be sure if they knew they were surrounded by werewolves. It was pretty clearly implicit anyway.
He checked in his peripheral vision and found that Old Moe was cleaning glasses like he was oblivious. Matt might not be an expert in pubs but he was pretty sure Moe was sharp enough to know exactly what was happening on the other side of his bar. He also had a feeling violence wouldn't be easily tolerated here. Well, if there was a fight, he wouldn't be the one to start it. "I'm sorry if you feel I'm being unreasonable, but he was a friend of a friend, and I won't have him publicly abused like that. Or anyone else for that matter."
