The night had progressed relatively quietly for Tom as he settled into his sleep beside his fiancé, Alice. Though quiet was a relatively relative word. As apparently even with all the excitement and debate that his idea regarding the ultimate revealing of the were secret to the world had brought, there appeared to be a fair amount of activity that Tom overheard from inside the Stevens home. It wasn't so loud that he couldn't sleep, but his ears had been sharp enough to pick various pleasure filled howls, growls, bellows, and other related noises. It was something that even got a part of him going, wanting to please Alice as much as he could, as he did love her and a big part of why he was pushing the plan that he had was to make the world better for her. She wouldn't have to hide who she was and could be in whichever form she preferred.
But he also knew that the idea to come into the open was not super popular, or at least wouldn't be. And that would be understandable, that even if most of the people in Moon Lake accepted his argument as being necessary, that wouldn't be quite the same as truly supporting it. The incident with Gustavus Amehr and Quintus Fives only reflected that to Tom. That people who had depended on secrecy and had seemed to think it working for so long wouldn't want to see that world end. It was a natural reaction that, to a great extent, Tom expected. As such, Tom remained quietly cuddled up to Alice and holding her close, just in case someone did pull something. As the morning alarm went off, a part of Tom was even happy to remain by Alice's side to wait out until all his personal business with the Moon Lake City Council to put in place the plan for the big reveal and what would be said in it. From there, whatever threats that Amehr and Fives had would be too late.
But that wasn't possible. Alice still had her costume/party apparel store in Seattle and he had his work for the "Seattle Times." Neither could really just stop As a small business owner, Alice had to keep her shop open and do well enough to keep her business running. And while Tom considered himself a good investigative reporter, the big reveal wasn't his presently assigned story. The "Seattle Time's" online page might be where the big reveal to the world would be made, but it wasn't something that was assigned to him. At present his assignment was to cover some state wide issues on potential crime threats and issues in the state, as there had been a string of violent and high profile actions in the past few weeks, between Lionel Ulysses, the Gamboni Crime Family, and Dymixious Drake, there had seemed to be a lot of stuff going on that his editor felt was worrisome. Which had then lead to Tom getting an assignment to talk with various law enforcement agencies around the state and what data they had with regard to the supposed "crime wave," if there even was one. The "big reveal" was something that would have to be on the back burner.
"Ungh," Tom grunted and shut off the alarm as he sat up in bed. It was fairly early, and actually far earlier than he would normally get up, but he also knew he had a longer commute than he normally did. "Early mornings are the worst..."
"Thus why moved to Seattle... Moon Lake didn't have the demand for a costume/party shop, but Seattle did," Alice commented, "but it's not an impossible commute."
Tom nodded and stood up, stretching as he did so. The drive from Seattle to Moon Lake wasn't too bad. There were some roads that had reduced speed signs on them, and a good many twisted and turned around mountains, but it was a fairly beautiful drive with forest in places that allowed for very good views. That made it feel tolerable, and despite his complaint on early mornings, Tom still felt fairly energized and recovered. It was something he'd noted that after becoming a were, he'd found it easier to recover energy. It was like he didn't need as much sleep as he did before. That was something that would be necessary given the tasks that lay ahead
"Do you want the shower first, or should I?" Tom asked.
He turned to see Alice pulling on a soft bathrobe. She tied the belt so that it wouldn't fall open to reveal everything, but he could still see a good portion of her generous cleavage and upper chest. She gave him a small smile before she answered.
"I'll focus on getting breakfast first," Alice spoke, "I won't have as much to put on to be ready for my job. You can get ready."
Tom slowly nodded as the two then moved to get ready...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The morning went fairly quietly, though Tom found that in the course of showering, shaving, and getting ready for the morning, he'd woken up Harold Stevens, Alice's father. He found the wereraccoon in human form and sipping coffee while Alice was finishing up preparing a plate of eggs with fried ham. Tom also hear a soft "ka-chuck" as a small toaster popped up two slices. Tom hesitantly came forward as he finished fashioning the last of his buttons.
"I'm sorry if we woke you," Tom said to Harold politely.
"It's okay..." Harold shrugged it off while lifting up his mug, with the image of a raccoon with a pumpkin rind on its head on the side of the mug, "to some extent I half expected this, when you said you weren't going to back out of your work..."
"It's not like I have much choice," Tom spoke, "I can't just take time off from the story that I've been assigned to... and I'll admit that some of my suspicions on what happened with Lionel Ulysses might have lead to a reveal in a way that wouldn't do well..."
Harold slowly nodded and stood up and patted Tom on the shoulder. There were some things where he would always be a protective father when it came to Alice and her happiness, particularly when Lucy also let him know that she was happy when Alice was happy. And Harold had long learned that when Lucy was happy, he was happy. And as one of Moon Lake's city council, he'd also had his own private concerns regarding Tom's plans for the "big reveal," but Tom had a good point and Harold had to admit privately that he had no real convenient answer that would answer Tom's points. The world might not be "ready" to learn about weres, but it might still happen anyway, regardless of whether or not the world was ready. The biggest thing, and the thing that really earned Harold's respect was that Tom had put Alice's safety first after Amehr and Fives threatened him.
For Alice was Harold's baby girl and her safety would always be precious. As a wereraccoon, he couldn't fully say on how a werefox's bond worked in the way that his wife and daughter could, but he was certain it was working with Tom. The reveal might be an important thing, and something that might not be avoidable, but it would still be something contested. It would be something that would be pushed back on by those that didn't want it to happen, which apparently counted this Amehr and Fives. And if those threats were genuine, Harold needed the assurance that he would keep Alice as safe as he could, and bringing her home to Moon Lake while the whole issue played out was the thing that confirmed that to him. As such, Harold felt he could trust Tom, regardless of how long it would take to get to the planed reveal of were society.
"Yes... but as you've found things out, you've been quite responsible," Harold gave a fatherly smile to Tom and retrieved a orange mug from the cupboard and poured some coffee into it. When he finished he turned and handed the mug to Tom. "There have been some occasional threats on revealing weres to the world in the past... mostly by those either insane or jealous over something, or using the threat as some form of blackmail... And from the stories I've heard on these, the actions ultimately included the one trying to flee when whatever scheme he had failed."
"I take it that these guys didn't honestly intend to carry out the threat?" Tom wondered, figuring there were probably a fair share of very old cold cases in Washington State that might have dealt with these issues, at least of the potential were came from outside Moon Lake. Inside Moon Lake, the records would probably be more accurate and kept locked away where in pure theory no one would bother to look in such a small town.
"The old stories tend to hint that they never truly wanted to," Harold answered, "and those that did want to come out into the open... they... they were more like the hippies of the 60s and so on. High on love they embraced the idea as the "right thing to do," but often were never able to either put together a plan on how to do it or a rationalization on why to do it because they wanted to."
"I'd imagine that things were different back in the 60s," Tom quipped.
"Only with regard to the technology, and that's where your argument has strengths that the old ones lacked," Harold admitted, "we may not think the world is ready... but it may found out regardless."
"That's at the core of WHY I have my idea," Tom answered, "the real plan may still take some time. Between my work and when your main meetings for your city council are scheduled."
"Some of them may need to get some alerts on what your work schedule is," Harold commented, "if you can... email me your present schedule for the police departments you need to interview and we'll try to work the planning meetings around them. Make sure you have a good plan and a good way of explaining things."
"I intend to... and I'll get you my schedule once I get into the paper," Tom assured Harold.
"And all of that also reflects how good of a man you are," Harold smiled, "You've thought things through and have thought about Alice's safety rather than just pushing your idea..."
"Convincing people will do better than forcing it on people," Tom answered, "in this... I can understand Amehr and Fives being upset, but at the same time, I couldn't just give them the room to threaten her."
Harold nodded as Alice began to approach the table carrying plates of food. Both men sniffed at the eggs and ham and moved to take seats at the table. Alice smiled at that and set about preparing things.
"So... when do you plan to head out?" Harold asked after a moment.
"Fairly soon," Alice answered, "I'll still need to get dressed... even with the Skulk providing help, I'll need to get my car, and they'll need to where my shop is and so on."
"A path of many steps," Tom quipped, "the only thing we can't know now is just how many steps it will take."