Tad nodded as his mother gave her opinion on what he had told her about the meeting that he and Amy had gone to at City Hall. He noted that his mother was still in her werecat form with her long black fur sort of "poofed" at the point where it met the collar of her pajama top and that the pajama pants that went with it were pulled down a little to allow for her tail. However, this wasn't something that he was too worried over, as he'd seen both his parents in their fursonas before and at present she was still inside, which was allowed. It would only be if they went out that Jen would have to return to human form. The big thing for the moment was the summary on the meeting and Tom Herald's proposal that weres reveal themselves to the general public, and that was bigger than whether or not his mother was in her feline form or not.
The thing though that Tad had the most surprise at was that his mother seemed rather calm with the whole thing. Many of the people that had been to the meeting had been opposed to Tom Herald's proposal on general principle, and even those that did seem more open to the idea were seemingly hesitant about getting into the entire situation. It gave some sense that many would be of the mindset to try and protect their own privacy and secrets, for whatever reason. And as he grew up, he'd gotten that sort of lesson from both his parents, that he needed to be attentive and extremely careful when it came to transforming, as people wouldn't understand. Yet, as he'd summarized the meeting and what Tom Herald had said, his mother seemed quite calm with it.
"You've taken this a lot better than I thought you would," Tad said slowly.
"Oh... I'm still worried and would even argue that it might be too soon for that sort of thing," Jen spoke calmly, "but... I would still say that Lionel Ulysses' arrest in Seattle was a terribly close call and that it is not beyond the realm of possibility that something like that could happen again. It'd be a good reason to be ahead of things in order to prevent an accident from having that same sort of effect..."
"But..." Tad let his answer fall off toward the end as looked to his mother.
"But the biggest fear will always be as to how ready humanity is ready for the revelation that weres are real," Jen answered, "Some people might respond well... and given some people's taste in art and movies... I'm sure there would be plenty of people who would quite willingly jump at the chance to be a were. But that doesn't mean that everyone is going to do that or that those that do are going to be in positions where they could truly effect change. So... yes, things are very different from where they were in 1960s, but that doesn't mean we should pretend that racism has died or gone away. The Civil Rights Act didn't suddenly make KKK members love African Americans. They in fact still hated them with a passion. The only thing that has really kept them quiet has been the fact that if they do too much in the way of open demonstrations, they risk criminal charges for any crime committed or civil suits that would hit their wallets hard. That doesn't mean that their opinions change. Which means... if humanity isn't ready right now... they're not going to be and it'd be very likely that were society world wide would be set back to conditions that has lead to why places like Moon Lake was formed in the first place."
"Right... but I think Mr. Herald worded his retort to that sort of thing is how do we know when humanity is ready?" Tad asked, "I mean... if no one reveals the existence of weres, it's not like they're going to suddenly reveal that they knew all along and are welcoming weres into the world."
Jen slowly nodded, though her tail twitched a bit nervously behind and beside her on the couch, "and it'd be a good point to consider... but that doesn't mean old worries will just go away. We may be at a point where it has to happen, but that doesn't mean it will be something that isn't feared."
"What is?" came Claire's voice from the doorway to the kitchen. She was her human form at present and wore a relatively modest blue night gown, though it had a small V-neck just below Claire's neck and the bottom part of the skirt only came a little ways past the top of her thighs.
"Weres coming into the open," Jen answered slowly as Claire's eyes widened at that.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And Jen and Claire weren't the only ones learning about what had happened at the Moon Lake City Council Meeting. The meeting had been important and there had plenty of reporters that were there. Moon Lake's local paper provided some coverage, though it was somewhat limited, particularly in the sense that there were occasions where normals travelling through Moon Lake or staying in Moon Lake as tourists for some reason. It increased the chances of discovery if the paper reported on everything, but there were other means of reporting on what had happened.
The main means was through the college's radio station. It was an FM station that carried the benefit of the geography around Moon Lake and the fact that the station's frequency wasn't heavily advertised. College students might know of the station, as would some of those that came into Moon Lake to work. However the station's frequency wasn't on a strong broadcast strength, which meant that it couldn't reach beyond the mountains that surrounded Moon Lake with any degree of strength. It was a way for the city to provide emergency alerts for things like a Were Alert in case a rogue were's actions had proven so threatening that drastic action was needed. And as such, the station had taken the risk of broadcasting information that might otherwise risk exposure, as it was the only way to relay that sort of information in a way that would be practical.
And it was to that station that woke Ryan Connor up from a fairly restful sleep. It was a little be later than needed, but for the moment it was before his shift for the day. Normally his shifts with the Moon Lake PD would alternate between day and night shifts at varying hours, however, after the battle with Dymixious Drake put a few Moon Lake officers in the hospital and having to heal from some major wounds, he'd found himself steadily on the day shift and pulling longer hours, ten AM to ten PM, and that was assuming nothing wild happened.
"Good morning, Moon Lake residents," Ryan heard the radio play the look Moon Lake station, "last night was a City Council meeting that has promised major changes for our community, both here and around the world. After the argument of a Tom Herald, a werefox working for the Seattle news media, has convinced the City Council to begin looking into revealing our secret to the world. For the moment the process won't be much more than discussion on what to say, but it will mean that big changes are on the horizon."
If Ryan had still been asleep before, he was definitely awake after hearing that. It was a shock and a surprise to the young werewolf officer in Moon Lake. He'd been told various old stories of humans with little real knowledge of weres, and what they did know limited only to the rare rogue that broke the law treating every were as though they were mindless beasts, servants of Satan, or simple psychopaths with no self control, taking things in their responses to a point eradicating as many weres as could be found for that reason. The fear of humanity was always there, though so was also the fear of rogue weres, largely because of the risk of exposure that they posed.
"This must be the result what happened in Seattle," Ryan thought, remembering what had happened down on the docks during the ambush and arrest of Lionel Ulysses and the removal of the Rat Pack that went with him. Lionel had clearly transformed in reflex to being shot, usually something that a were with low levels of self discipline and control did when injured, usually because it was the only way they could accelerate their own healing rate in the case of major wounds. And a low level drug dealer like Lionel would be at risk for that sort of thing, and the released body camera footage was enough to put everyone on edge, that weres would be exposed as a result and exposed in a bad light. The only thing that Ryan figured the report meant was that since Lionel Ulysses' arrest didn't lead to outright exposure, they were trying to be proactive and see to it that nothing like what had happened with Lionel Ulysses could cause a scare like that... which would mean exposure.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"That crazy newspaper writer is a were!?" Gustavus Amehr shouted, half in disgust and half in surprise.
He and his partner, Quentin Fives, remembered investigating and running interference in the wake of Lionel Ulysses being arrested by the team put together by the FBI and included both Seattle and Moon Lake officers. It was during that investigation when they noticed how close Tom Herald was to the truth and how hard he was digging. It was they who then took the steps needed make sure that the costume explanation was believed and put the Seattle newspaperman off of the trail. The main purpose was to then make sure Lionel Ulysses died of the "wounds" suffered in the battle, though in the end they'd been beaten by Dymixious Drake. The hunt for Dymixious had then brought the two agents of the Luna Brotherhood to Moon Lake.
In many ways the Brotherhood respected the Drake family for their desire to make sure that rogue weres weren't running loose, as they were the greatest threat to the were secret, and outside of places like Moon Lake, that danger was even bigger. However, they also tended to find the Drake family to be proverbial loose cannons and they'd often found themselves having to discreetly bury cases that might reveal more concrete proof into the Drake's activities. And had they not been busy trying to keep Tom Herald from exposing them outright and making sure the police and FBI's explanation for Lionel Ulysses tail was the most believable, they probably would have had to do more to keep the hunt for Lionel Ulysses from escalating as fast as it did, as well as finally putting the loose cannon out of action.
But in the end, there were a series of tough circumstances that lead the FBI and Seattle PD drawing some bead on Dymixious that were purely by chance. At this both Gustavus and Quintus knew that Dymixious wouldn't be able to escape the investigation and would be tracked down one way or another. It was something that further reinforced their opinion of the man's specific methods, and why they'd volunteered to help put Dymixious Drake down. And the Luna Brotherhood had been extremely good at that sort of thing for years, in managing to avoid detection or making the death of the rogue be detectable in some way, and many times in ways that demonstrated a great deal more authority and ability than what an old nobleman could accomplish with his own personal fortune.
"He wasn't when he started digging into Lionel Ulysses," Quintus commented in answer as he looked across the hotel room where they'd been staying, largely to make sure that things quieted down after Dymixious's battle with the Moon Lake PD, "though it would appear that he ran into a were somewhere afterword... while we had to shift gears to Dymixious Drake."
"And he's still wanting to expose weres!" Gustavus growled, "AS a were!"
"It could be more than just exposure," Quintus spoke calmly, "perhaps he honestly feels he could make things better for all of us."
"But humanity is still too fractured and divisive, no matter what some may tell you," Gustavus sighed as she looked down, "the world isn't safe for weres now. The number of calls and discreet actions the Brotherhood has to take to keep rogue weres out of the spotlight and maintain our various political alliances to make sure that things stay quiet prove that."
Gustavus paused and looked to his hands for a moment and then looked up to his partner.
"No matter how much we wish things to be better," Gustavus spoke, "we both know that that coming out now... it would likely mean years of struggle and even harder work for us... with no guarantee of acceptance."
"Perhaps," Quintus said slowly, "but then... we can't be sure on the future and neither do we know precisely on Mr. Herald's intentions."
"Then perhaps then we should find out on the latter," Gustavus answered with narrowed eyes.