"I'm sure there is plenty we need to tell each other," Tom replied slowly, "me going through old childhood wants and likes..."
"Childhood..." Alice said slowly.
"Yeah, most of that was all stuff that I'd followed as a kid," Tom admitted, "I loved Disney's animated Robin Hood movie, and I'll admit that I had a bit of a crush on Maid Marion... but I was still only a kid."
Alice shrunk back and looked down. She was relatively conservatively dressed with only the obvious outline of her breasts indicating their ample size. She'd had plenty of men give her unwanted wolf-whistles when she'd gone about Seattle for that reason and at times it was frustrating for various reasons. One was that werefoxes were by nature rather sexual creatures, even more so than other weres and were often the most open about it. This was furthered by an instinctive knowledge on how pleasure others sexually. Every boy she'd ever dated or gone out with, she could sense precisely where to rub and how hard to rub in order to get the most stimulation out of him. But the people she'd gone out with, particularly in Seattle, were all normal humans. They didn't know she was a were and she knew couldn't just accept their advances because of the fact that doing so would transform them without their knowledge and would risk exposing herself as a were and causing fright. At times, it left her somewhat frustrated sexually and she often had to resort to a rather large vibrator that she kept tucked away in her bedroom.
The other reason was her want for true love and someone she could bond with. She'd seen in her parents growing up, how completely and utterly devoted to each other. It was something that she wanted to feel as well, but so far hadn't felt with regard to anyone she had dated. Many men simply wanted to get in her pants, not bond with her in anyway beyond sex. That wasn't something she wanted and lead to her social life having some hiccups in Seattle as few were willing to go for the more slow paced relationship to let that unbreakable bond of mateship form BEFORE taking the relationship to the physical level or taking the risk of telling the person she was involved with that from time to time she was covered in red orange fur with a white underbelly, black furred gloves on her hands and feet, with a white tip on her long brush-like tail, a vulpine muzzle, and with red slit pupil eyes. And even if her being a werefox wasn't an issue, she wasn't going to just put out because her potential partner was a were. She wanted the same feelings of love that her parents felt, and a part of her was willing to wait centuries to find it.
A part of her thought that she might have found someone like that in Tom Herald and particularly in one who might want to become a were, but his line that that was all childhood fantasy gave her serious doubts on revealing her secret right now.
"And now?" Alice asked nervously.
"Now? As in if were creatures were real and that Ulysses was one?" Tom asked, "I'd post it with proof in a heartbeat."
Alice's eyes bulged, "but... but suppose they're not a threat and want to be left alone?"
"Then why hide?" Tom countered. "As I said... as a kid, I found some of that stuff interesting... but that was all stuff that I followed as a kid and included things that I may not have looked at as closely as I would now... And in all honesty, secrecy isn't something that truly works."
Alice looked up to him, doing her best not to look nervous or even frightened. His tone wasn't aggressive or antagonistic to her, and in fact she doubted he even suspected what she truly was, but his comments did carry the same fear that EVERY were had always had. That exposure would lead to the resumption of old were hunts that were very successful in Medieval Europe.
"I'm sure such creatures would be nervous over normal humans fearing them based on movies and folklore tales," Tom answered, "but in the end, how does that really compare with the lies used to support things like segregation? The stereotype that blacks were nothing but drooling monsters with no self control was used as a justification for segregation, even though none of that was true."
"I'd imagine a were is in a slightly different category than African Americans," Alice commented, "they can be seen as clearly human and thus normal... a were cannot... if they existed."
"Maybe not the exact category, but it'd still be the same principle," Tom answered, "and while such creatures, if real, might have every personal reason to fear being exposed for what negative consequences there could be... hiding would only make it worse. Take this case with Lionel Ulysses... I can't really say what he was, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't a normal human. However, that's about all that I truly know and anything more than that I can only speculate on. And speculation isn't something that works out well in every case, because it can open the entire argument up to the wrong conclusions."
Alice followed him carefully with her eyes.
"We have all our negative stories of weres being blood thirsty monsters," Tom continued, "now suppose they're real, but aren't what our old stories tell us. But then something happens that exposes them without warning and without expectation. Which way do you think people are going to respond to it in such a scenario? Based on old folklore which they do know or the truth which they don't know?"
"Folklore," Alice said slowly.
"And that is the problem of hiding," Tom replied, "if you're part of a secret... and people find out the secret exists, they're not going to respond well to the secret simply because they don't know."
"But if the secret has lasted for a long time... coming out now and even explaining things might not fully change things," Alice pointed out, "it'd be a secret that would need to keep perpetuating itself..."
"And it'd only work so long as such a secret remains a secret, and if these things were real... they won't control that," Tom replied, "things might not be easy for them if the secret comes out at first... but once in the open, the truth can come out and in the end the truth will always set you free. If were beasts ARE real and aren't like what old folklore and movies depict them... that truth will come out and lead to them being tolerated and even loved. It may not be easy, but neither were similar situation to our theoretical conversation here that happened in real life."
Alice only blinked.
"This thing with Ulysses is weird and the truth needs to be told, as it would make sense," Tom continued, "and that is what I'll push for... If I find more than that... my duty as a journalist is to tell the truth and see that people accept the truth and go from there."
"Would you fight FOR weres if they were real?" Alice asked, "and weren't like in the movies?"
"In a heartbeat," Tom answered, "but not for secrecy..."
"For the truth will set you free," Alice said simply with her voice falling off at the end.