Dirty clothes were quickly dumped down the laundry chute and Nate was quick to get himself ready for dinner. There were a few fears over the potential of weres being exposed, as he knew that weres could face a great deal of trouble if the secret did come out. He looked over to his bookshelf where his collection of werewolf movies was prominent. Some were classics like "American Werewolf in London" and the first "Howling" movie. These were particularly important in both generally painted werewolves as monsters. In the first, they were mindless killers and in the second they were conscious serial killers. That was an image that was clearly counter to what he'd encountered in Moon Lake.
He'd felt his libido rise, but it didn't seem to control him. He'd felt a great deal of strength and power, and he figured he and Alex would go hunting at some point, but he wasn't mindless. He never felt any urge to go out and eat people and all of his mental faculties and morals weren't gone. It had made all of his dreams and fantasies that he'd had about werewolves come true, but he did know that with Moon Lake being something of a "secret" that most people's perceptions on werewolves or other weres would be based off of those werewolf movies. Nate still liked them, but he knew that their inaccurate depictions of weres would be bound to create trouble. That was where whatever happened in Seattle and exposing weres was a scary point, and he figured that was where his parents had been nervous over.
While his parents did let him indulge in his liking of werewolves and even gave him a few of the movies he had as birthday and Christmas gifts, they hadn't necessarily liked werewolves or were-creatures before coming to Moon Lake. At first they had been distrustful of Moon Lake's were law and second guessed moving to town, but then came Yvette Smith's attack on his father and things changed rapidly. While it may have in the short term further strained his parent's marriage, by becoming a werefox, things had to change. His mom became a werecat, and Nate still remembered the first thing his mother had said to him after her first night with Samantha and Frances Twist. At that point, he'd still been a Normal, but in that moment he could see that his Martha had come to see in her own way why Nate had liked weres so much. Then as things progressed, his father's transformation was completed and the Anderson marriage healed quickly. Nate was sure that his father was enjoying being a were very much.
And after the massive changes that had gone on with his parents, they would surely be nervous about being exposed as weres. They'd gained so much to enjoy that being exposed would mean the rapid loss of that, in addition all the sorts of parental worries that Nate figured his parents had always had for him and Eric. That had to have inspired the fears that his parents had had after what had happened in Seattle was revealed to them, and Nate thought of that as he looked to his collection of werewolf movies and then thought of all that Ben had told him about things Moon Lake had done to protect its own secret. It would surely protect Moon Lake still, as Ben had sounded confident and Nate was quite open to trusting his best friend outside of Alex.
"Nate! Eric! Dinner is ready!" came his father's voice from downstairs calling the younger Andersons to dinner.
Nate finished the last bit and came out to find Eric coming out of the bathroom and wiping his hands against each other. Nate caught a faint trace of soap on his brother's hands and figured that Eric was just being neat and tidy.
"I think we're having meatloaf tonight," Nate said to his younger brother.
"Yeah," Eric said nodding, "I can smell it."
"You... you can?" Nate blinked.
He'd seen Eric's hand in Eric's Stage 1 form, but he wasn't quite familiar all the ins and outs about weremers. In fact, despite his interest in were-beasts, Nate had never heard of weremers before Eric had told him that that was what Julie Stovall was.
"Yeah," Eric answered, "weremers... we have many abilities that we'd share with other aquatic weres... even if they aren't all the same species. That includes having a sense of smell like a shark's."
"You're not going to go out sniffing for blood?" Nate teased, remembering Eric commenting to him on how good a shark's sense of smell was that they could smell a drop of blood in the water from some great distance. He couldn't remember what the exact numbers were, "Are you?"
"No," Eric huffed, "I'm just saying that my sense of smell is better than it was..."
"So... how would a shark's nose compare to a wolf's? Or a cat's? Or a fox's?" Nate asked as they reached the stairs.
"Don't no for sure, I'd need to do some checking," Eric answered.
"So... how does being a mer affect your other senses?" Nate wondered as they began to come down the stairs.
"Well... in general, my hearing and eyesight haven't changed much," Eric commented, "I might be able to see a bit better in low light conditions but outside of water... things for me haven't changed as much as they have for you, mom, and dad. In fact, my hearing probably isn't much better than it was before, if at all... outside of water."
"Outside of water... so... inside water..." Nate wondered.
"Things are far better," Eric answered, "I can breathe the water, so I can be submerged and let water completely flood my lungs and respiratory system and thus vocal chords. It'll allow me to talk without releasing a lot of bubbles and sounding weird because my vocal chords are directly vibrating water, not air. My ears are more water tight and can thus understand things when Julie and I talk to each other under water... The fact that sound travels faster through water than through the air might be a reason why my sense of hearing didn't get as sharp as yours, mom's, or dad's did... as the hydroacoustic properties of water didn't require it."
Nate nodded, though a lot of what Eric said went over his head. If it meant he could breathe, talk, and hear well under water, that'd made sense. Eric simply continued as they approached the landing.
"The big thing is also with eyesight," Eric continued, "and how my eyes handle water. Your eyes can function perfectly well under water, but the lens is sensitive and that ANY irritant, be it dirt or a chemical will irritate the eye to the point where you're either closing them or squinting so as to try and limit the irritation to the eye. My lenses are now stronger and in that sense more fish-like, thus allowing me to see without my eyes being irritated. It's like a natural set of goggles."
"That I get, and it sounds pretty cool," Nate said with a shrug as he noticed a figure approaching the front door to the Anderson home through the glass panes in the front of the door.
"It is," Eric agreed as Nate moved forward to open the door to reveal Samantha Twist coming up the way.
"Hello, Mrs. Twist, you're right on time," Nate said politely to her, "Dad just called us down for dinner, so I'd assume your wife is waiting in the dining room."
Samantha chuckled slightly, figuring Nate was a bit uneasy with referring to one of his mother's friends by her name when addressing one of Moon Lake's government members.
"You can call her Frances," Samantha answered, "and me, Samantha."
"Okay," Nate commented and shut the door behind Samantha as she walked in.
Samantha carefully walked forward to observe the new Eric Anderson. He looked a bit more trim and had a good swimmer's build for his size and she could easily pick up the fishy like scent that all weremers had. He wasn't wearing any cologne the way Martin did to mask that scent a bit, which to Samantha's understanding was to remove issues of weres complaining about that fishy smell being like raw fish left out on a table, which to some smelled bad and to others would make them hungry. The biggest thing that stood out were the boy's bright blue eyes.
"Hello," Samantha said with a polite smile, "I've heard that you've found your one true love..."
Samantha watched as Eric's eye's twinkled, indicating that his thoughts turned to Julie.
"Yes," Eric gave an immediate smile, "she's beautiful and smart and there is no one else I'd wish to spend my next four centuries with. I love her dearly and I'll do anything for her."
There was a pause for a moment before Eric finished.
"Including become a merman," Eric finished.
"I will wish you the best with you and Julie," Samantha said to him, "and I promise to do my best to help keep Moon Lake safe."
"Nate said that Ben told him that you have plans already in the mix to deal with things like what happened," Eric commented.
"We do," Samantha smile, "but right now I'm a bit tired from getting things in order. Right now... I'm in the mood for a warm meal and to be with friends."
"I'm all in for a good meal, too," Eric gave a laugh and walked toward the dining room with Samantha following behind him.
They entered to find Nate seated already along with Frances seated quietly while William and Martha were moving about from the kitchen bringing in trays with slices of meatloaf, some mashed potatoes, and even some applesauce. Samantha moved toward the chair that was to Frances's left and noted her wife's eyes following Martha as she headed back into the kitchen.
"You're sure you don't need any help?" Frances asked.
"No, we're good and things should be just about ready," William assured her, "besides... you sat and listened to Martha and me worry all afternoon. This is the least we can do."
"Everyone needs a confidence booster every now and then," Frances commented.
"Maybe, but we're repaying you for giving it to us," said Martha as she returned carrying a bottle of cider.
She'd found that Moon Lake's grocery had a larger section devoted to drinks like cider an water rather than alcoholic beverages like wines and bear, which she understood being the result of weres being more easily affected by alcohol than normal humans, and she did see to making sure that they had plenty of bottled water, sodas, juice, and cider.
"Neither Frances nor I wanted you to lose sleep over what happened," Samantha spoke as she moved to sit beside Frances.
"And for that you have my thanks," Martha smiled, "and I'm glad you could join us for dinner."
Samantha looked down and smelled the warm food on the plate that had been placed before her. In fact the plate had been placed there before she'd even arrived at the Anderson home in expectation of her arrival. The food smelled delicious and thanked Martha for the food before taking her fork and cut into the meatloaf before her. The day's plans may have been weakened thanks to what happened to Seattle, but it did feel good to be with friends, as she and Frances had bonded greatly to Martha in their own way as sister werecats, and she might get a chance for some friendly gossip to see how things were going. And since William had seemed to behave himself since becoming a werefox, she was willing to give him a chance for redemption in her eyes.