The evening for William and Martha had proved to be calm and quiet. A definite improvement over all the drama that they'd been through since moving to Moon Lake. Learning that were-beasts were real and that the town's population was mostly made up of weres of some kind was a surprise, but the biggest issue had been drama related Yvette Smith's obsession with William, leading to his becoming a werefox and the domino effect of consequences that followed. This included Martha becoming a werecat, Jenny becoming a werefox and the perceived threat that her family posed. The two Anderson parents had assured Jenny that they would stand in as "substitute parents" if she ever needed it.
And all that drama now seemed to be over and the married couple could enjoy some peace. Both had adapted well to being weres and had come to love it. Both seemed to even wonder why they resisted being weres initially in the first place. William's bond to Martha as a werefox had lead to the full healing in their marriage and Martha's embracing of her sexuality being bi made her feel complete. And now with Halloween they were free to be there for what they'd often had a fair amount of fun doing, handing out candy and seeing what costumes kids dressed up in, as it played to some sense of curiosity on their part and perhaps even their own wistful memories of when Nate and Eric were young and went trick or treating with them in the past. The one thing that would be a bit different from past Halloweens for them was the responsibilities that they had with regard to the Skulk's plans for Halloween.
"So... you're going outside?" Martha asked in the living room with the television, and showing a movie that fit the Halloween theme fairly well, though Martha had the volume down.
William nodded his vulpine muzzle as he organized a set of notecards that he'd been organized since they returned home from dropping Eric and Julie off at the dance. Much of them were the notes that related what was planned and what was to be done during the Skulk's meeting that he and Martha had attended the night before. This included things that were to be obvious. Houses that were to be giving out candy were to have a porch light on so that trick or treaters could see which houses were giving out candy. Houses that did NOT have their porch lights on weren't giving out candy and trick or treaters were not to bother them, or waste time if it happened that all the residents were out of the house for whatever reason.
There was also the means to monitor any "independent" actions that were apart from the Skulk's official pranks for the night. If someone had ideas for "fun" that was fine, but they couldn't impede the trick or treaters. They couldn't do physical harm and they couldn't take any sort of game to the point where emotional/psychological harm was done, and that was the main thing that the Skulk members were to monitor for. If someone tried to get around those rules, they were to intercede to put a stop to it and call the police if absolutely necessary. Though from what William remembered from the meeting, that usually wasn't a major problem for Moon Lake on Halloween night.
"Yes, as per what our responsibilities are," William nodded, "Keep an eye on things and help trick or treaters get to the right houses... make sure no one goes beyond the rules as Wyres gave with regard to how things outside the Skulk's plans are to be handled. And that will go until the normal trick or treating time starts to wind down... as houses start to run out of candy and so on. I don't think you'll be required to come out until that point when the official games begin."
Martha slowly nodded at the reference to the various pranks that the Skulk decided to use officially. She was still a bit surprised that her idea on switching things around gained as much momentum as it did, as she was new to Moon Lake and was only an "honorary" member in the Skulk. Her membership was only on the condition that William was a werefox. As such, she didn't expect her idea to have much weight, but they seemed to like it and thus the idea went well. In that Martha understood the plan, though a part of her wished that William didn't have to go out to suit these plans, as it would push back when they could talk about the costumes the kids and particularly the costumes that young weres dressed in, but life was what it was, and she knew that by the end of the evening, they'd surely have time to talk... among other things.
"I'm sure," Martha gave a small smile, "just be safe. Even with all the drama seemingly over, it's not impossible that something odd could happen..."
"I don't think that there will be too much in the way of difficulty," William gave a small smile before moving to the front door, "Julian and Diane generally said that they don't have too much trouble with trick or treating. The dance is an occasional issue when lovers apparently go out behind the High School to have a good time... but that I think is more typical were behavior..."
Martha's green cat eyes followed William's movements. Even in his clothes, he made for a very dashing fox. His tail was fluffy and Martha could easily see that his build on par with any male model. His muscles were well sculpted and not too large in size and that made for a very nice frame. Her inner thoughts held that he looked even better with his clothes off, but then that was her own were-libido thinking on the various things to be desired. In knowing that, though, she did nod in understand. Nate and Alex might end up back there. In pure theory, so could Eric and Julie, but Martha privately figured that they'd more likely prefer sneaking across town to the lake or returning to the Stovall's and their pool if they were to get into anything of that nature. The mother in Martha hoped that her sons wouldn't go rushing into that sort of thing, but the were in Martha also seemed to accept the possibility. Sometimes it surprised her, sometimes it didn't.
With that, William blew his wife a kiss and went out the door. He found the night air surprisingly warm and comfortable, though in his were form, his fur did provide some means of insolation. The big thing is that there were already trick or treaters moving about the streets, indicating that they were getting started. He checked and made sure that the porch light for the Anderson home was on and the walked down to the sidewalk to assume his post. The Wood Street Den leaders Julian and Diane Wyre weren't close by, but William could see one or two other members of the Den at a couple of points nearby. They walked quietly along the sidewalk and stopping to interact with trick or treaters as needed.
With that, William slowly made his way along his side of the sidewalk to do the same. His assigned section of Wood Street wasn't that large, but it was enough to give him plenty of opportunities to say hello and interact with other members of the town, and especially those that weren't werefoxes. Many were parents with children, and William couldn't help but admire the cuteness that many costumes went for. Many of the real little kids dressed up as characters from various cartoons, and Disney seemed to be just as popular in Moon Lake as it was everywhere else. He saw a few Star Wars characters and things like that. There were a few soldiers, policemen, and superheroes, complete with everything that made the kid look the part. It wasn't until they got to older kids that "scary" came into play when ghouls, skeletons, vampires, and so on came into play. Though, none of these costumes depicted weres.
"Of course... most people here ARE weres and know that they aren't the monsters of legend and Hollywood," William though as went about his task, "they aren't inherently scary to the people of Moon Lake... and from what everyone's told me, even the Moon Lake normals know that..."
Still, it was a fairly cute scene, and William enjoyed being able see what little weres dressed up as for Halloween, even if they weren't old enough to transform yet. And in some cases, lead to some interesting interactions. After one part of his patrol, William turned to head back the other way and made it a few steps before he felt a hand catch him by his tail and give it a soft tug. He gave a startled yip in surprise and turned to find a wererat mother pulling a six year old back to her side.
"Jerome!" the mother scolded, "How many times have your father and I told you that you DON'T grab someone's tail?"
"I just wanna' ask a question," the youngster protested, which only lead the mother to shake her head and turn to William.
"I'm sorry, sir," the mother spoke, "I... I don't think my son meant anything by it..."
"It's fine," William assured her, and looked down to the youngster, "though, if you wished to say "hi" that was all you needed to do."
The young boy was quiet for a moment and didn't say anything. He looked over to his mother, who had a small frown on her face, but wasn't too angry.
"If you wished to ask him a question, Jerome, now is your chance," the mother said to her son.
The boy swallowed the lump in his throat and then asked, "where is your costume?"
"Other than my fursona... I'm not wearing one," William answered, "Besides... my family moved here to Moon Lake. In that... before I moved here, were-beasts weren't anything more than stories of fiction. So... it's not as though being a dashing werefox isn't a costume... Don't you think?"
Jerome looked up to his mother who eventually spoke for him, "There is nothing wrong with just being in your were form. There are a fair number of weres that just do that for Halloween, anyway. Now, come along, Jerome."
A fair number of the interactions that William had that night went along those lines, and he hoped Martha's evening went just as well...
+++++++++++++++++++++
For Martha, things also did go well, and much like William, she was greatly amused by the costumes that the young weres dressed up as. And while weres might not have qualified as "scary" to Moon Lake children, even those that were normals, being able to see their choice in costumes was more than enough to satisfy her curiosity. In this, Martha was more than eager to answer the door when the doorbell rang and deliver some candy to all those that had arrived in costume and had their trick or treat bag. That sort of satisfaction kept a warm smile on her brown furred feline muzzle and a happy twitch in her tail.
In between answering the door for trick or treaters, she settled for a boxed TV dinner and settled for watching some TV. It wasn't much, but it allowed for the best use of her time while answering the door for trick or treaters and with the knowledge that she'd need to go out when the bowl of candy that they had was emptied. The movie that was on wasn't great, though it did play to the sort of horror themes that went along with Halloween. Martha had left it on at first while she was microwaving her dinner, but eventually began flipping through channels, as she was never much of a horror movie fan, and even with her transformation into a werecat, that didn't mean she suddenly liked the werewolf movies that Nate loved. Eventually she came across a channel that was halfway through a Charlie Brown Halloween special and settled on that.
And when Martha did answer the door for trick or treaters, she often managed to give a complement to each group on how their costume looked, and often got a small thank you from them. One was a small collection of boys and girls, actually all Normals, being escorted by a lone werecat, who's were-form was based on the Russian Blue.
"Babysitting?" Martha asked to the werecat escort.
"Yeah," she answered, "a couple of them are my younger brothers and the rest are their friends from school."
Martha didn't quite know how to go from there. The werecat looked like she was in her mid twenties and all the boys were not only normals but no older that nine years old.
"My mom was on sixteen when she had me," the werecat spoke to explain the unasked question, "she and her boyfriend got frisky and weren't careful, and nine months later, I arrived. And while my dad remained loyal to her and they did get married when she turned eighteen... both sets of grandparents turned on them over my mom being a teen mom and my dad "shaming his family." They raised me without the full support they needed and deserved and pretty much endured being shunned..."
"That's awful!" Martha blurted.
"Yes, yes, it was," the werecat spoke, "but they managed and eventually came here when I turned fifteen to get away from all that and start over. At the time... my brothers were still nursing, so... I was really the only one who could be the family were... and since I'd found that I was bi, I figured I had to be a werecat."
"You didn't HAVE to," Martha commented, thinking on Nate. The revelation that her oldest son was gay was a surprise, but neither she nor William had had a problem with it.
"I know now... but in many ways... I LIKE being feline, don't you?" the werecat asked.
"I love it," Martha smiled back, "So... do you go to the college... or?"
"Actually a massage school in Seattle," the werecat answered, "we weres may be able to heal from a lot rather easily, but that doesn't mean we don't feel stress. Once I get the license my plan is to set aside a small shop to help everyone relax from the stresses of the day. People will like that... at times it makes me wish I choose to be a werefox. They seem to know were to go to make things quite pleasurable by instinct..."
"I know," Martha nodded, "I've been enjoying that since my husband became a werefox."
She heard a series of groans from the boys around their big sister/babysitter.
"Come on, Jenna," said one of them, who was dressed up as an Imperial Stormtrooper, "we have a mission to harvest candy for the Sweets Laser!"
Martha could not help but chuckle at the comment and the creativity that went into it.
"Your parents are doing fine, now, I hope?" Martha asked the werecat, Jenna.
"Yeah... became werelions, too once my mom wasn't nursing anymore," Jenna answered, "but they are happy and going strong. This place is a place for new beginnings."
"It certainly is," Martha commented, thinking on how her own family had come to Moon Lake seeking a new start, "Well... I think I've delayed your mission for candy long enough..."
"It's okay," Jenna smiled and slowly moved to usher her charges away, "this group could stand to learn some patience every now and then."