"Well..." Connor began slowly, looking down between the book and Ryan, "I was really wanting to make sure that things would be friendly... that IF it were asked... you'd do it."
"If it were asked... of course, yes," Ryan answered with a small frown, "but remember... I am a born werewildcat. In that, it will be expected that I would have some interest in other men. In this, if a man asks and is fully aware on what will happen to him, I will have some interest."
Ryan gave a rather heavy sigh at that, as Connor really didn't answer his question. Part of it made him wonder if Connor was conflicted over something or had been trying to hide something. Some of that could be understandable, as he'd seen enough reports on the news to know that while same sex couples and marriages were being more openly accepted legally, things hadn't necessarily changed that much culturally. States that tended to be more conservative tended to tolerate it, but more because they had to and not because they actually supported it. And some "neutral" states may have passed laws that did legalize gay marriage, but had been fiercely contested. This would make it that it could be possible that Connor was afraid of being shamed or shunned by someone.
However, that actually conflicted with what Ryan had heard from Tad regarding the Ross family's welcome to Moon Lake and even what Connor had said about his family's welcome to Moon Lake. The Ross family had accepted the were secret and even seemed to be supportive of it without too much in the way of difficulty and virtually no signs of rejection. While Ryan really wasn't involved in the work that people like Samantha Twist did in welcoming new residents to Moon Lake, he'd seen enough new people move to town to know that more often than not, nervousness and fear were often present at first. He remembered Eric Anderson being rather tentative and nervous when his family first arrived and he really didn't seem to open up until after he became a weremer. He remembered seeing a red haired teen looking semi lost, both in terms of where to go in the halls and what to do, before the Halloween dance before befriending a group that included at least one member of the student council, and she'd also since become a were. But from what Ryan had been told, the Ross family didn't seem to have that period of questioning or anything else. That'd then mean that logically, Connor's parents shouldn't be the sort to toss their only son out because he might be gay or bi.
"But Tad didn't... and we've been best friends for quite awhile," Connor countered.
"Tad is also a werewolf and completely straight," Ryan pointed out, "during his first week here... he'd talk to me about how awesome Amy Howler is. I'm sure he'd still be your friend, but it's pretty clear to me that he's straight and thus... it's not that he wouldn't want you to be a werewolf. Every were group on some level wants new arrivals to join THEIR were-species. But that Tad just wouldn't have the sorts of desires that make him interested in you, sexually speaking."
"But he said his mom's a werecat," Connor countered.
Ryan nodded and accepted that, "True. But that doesn't necessarily mean that her sexuality would carry over to him. That's one of the hard things that relates to both werecats for females and werewildcats for males. When a werecat has children... the were-species will depend on the gender. Females will be werecats, and as werecats will inherit all the conditions that go along WITH that were-species. Males will then match the were-species of their sire, which then means that issues with sexuality will be more in line with the occurrence of homosexuality or bisexuality in humans in general. Thus Tad became a werewolf and just so happened to be straight. And the same works with werewildcats. My dad is a bisexual werewildcat, and the part of him that is also interested in women drew him to my mom, a werewolf... but he will sill enjoy male company and at his pride meetings will engage in more than heavy petting with some of the other men in his pride. And since I am male... I take after my sire as a werewildcat, though unlike my dad, I'm completely homosexual. I've known that for years... and it's perfectly fine for me."
Connor was silent for a moment but didn't say anything. That let Ryan continue for a moment.
"And it's also something that is perfectly fine in Moon Lake as well," Ryan continued, "Gay marriage was legal here in Moon Lake with the town's founding... or at least when the first werecats and werewildcats moved in. Which means... if you are gay... the town won't reject you. And from what you've said about your family and their accepting the were secret, the mandatory were law, and all that... I wouldn't think they'd just reject you either."
"I'm just wanting to make sure," Connor spoke, not really wanting to talk that much about himself at the moment. There were things that he was curious about with regard to weres and there were plenty of things that were interesting, but for the moment he wanted to get all the factual information he needed first. It would only be after that that he would try to wrestle with issues that were private. "And make sure any choice is the right one... Some of it might not even come down to sexuality."
"So... you might want to become a werewildcat even if you are straight?" Ryan sat down next to Connor.
This had him a bit puzzled as while Connor seemed to be dodging or guarding against Ryan's main question, there was still the possibility of still becoming a werewildcat. That was possible and Ryan thought there might have been some cases where things like that happened, but Ryan was also pretty sure they were rare and came with some rather unique circumstances. Either the human in question was really a fan of the animal in question and didn't ultimately care about their sexuality or the transformation was the result of an accident at best or a rogue at worst, and as far as Ryan knew, it was actually the former that was the most common. A human woman and a werecat "playfighting" and the human ends up with a scratch. A human man engages in some roughhousing leading a werewildcat to chase him for something and ends up getting accidentally clawed as well. Ryan knew that was all possible.
"Maybe," Connor answered Ryan, "I mean we didn't see them all that much in Virginia... but we knew that Bobcats did come into town and might well fight with any stray House Cat that was left outdoors. I think a neighbor had a pet Siamese that a Bobcat killed... but we never saw it... it could well have been that the pet Siamese ran into a feral House Cat and the feral House Cat killed it for some reason."
"So... it's all curiosity on your part?" Ryan surmised.
"Yes," Connor nodded.
"And you will recognize that if you decide to become a werewildcat... you will be either gay or bi at the end of it, if you aren't already?" Ryan asked carefully, hoping that might get some clarification from Connor.
"Yeah... I can accept that," Connor spoke, "especially if a werewildcat looks good as a Bobcat..."
Ryan couldn't quite get full confirmation on the answer, but it at least gave him the recognition that Connor knew what the consequences for his sexuality would be if he was presently straight and became a werewildcat. As such he let that go and decided to start the research into weres there, since that seemed to be the group that Connor stated his curiosity in.
"Okay... to start with, not every werewildcat will be a Bobcat," Ryan spoke.
"Of course, you're Ryan," Connor gave a joke, making Ryan groan. The Bobcat got its name for its short tail, not the name Robert.
"Funny," Ryan gave a sarcastic comment to that, and was then more serious, "werewildcats are a pretty broad group in what our fursonas are based off of. Werewolves like Tad an Amy generally get their fursonas from one species, the Grey Wolf. There might be some Red Wolves and Ethiopian Wolves among their numbers... but I've never heard Amy ever mention any like that. Werewildcats, however, have their fursonas based on the small cats that are roughly comparable to the House Cat in size. Some may be smaller and some may even be a bit larger than House Cats, but they won't be by the same degree that say... Cheetahs, Mountain Lions, and the Big Cats are when compared to House Cats."
"So how many wildcats could a werewildcat turn into?" Connor asked curiously.
"Technically each can only can turn into one," Ryan clarified, "but any werewildcat might have their fursona based on the European Wildcat, African Wildcat, Jungle Cat, Blackfooted Cat, Sand Cat, Chinese Mountain Cat, Eurasian Lynx, Iberian Lynx, Canadian Lynx, Bobcat, Pallas's Cat, Ocelot, Oncilla, Pampas Cat, Kokdod, Margay, Geoffroy's Cat, Andean Mountain Cat, Southern Tiger Cat, Pantanal Cat,
Caracal, African Golden Cat, Serval, Asian Golden Cat, Bay Cat, Marbled Cat, Leopard Cat, Iriomote Cat which could be considered a sub-species of Leopard Cat, Sunda Leopard Cat, Flatheaded Cat, Rusty Spotted Cat, Fishing Cat, and Jaguarundi."
"That's an awful lot of cats," Connor said slowly.
"Yes," Ryan nodded, "and werecats, weredogs, werecattle, and werehorses can have a lot of variations based on the breed. Like a Pug versus a Poodle... a Thoroughbred versus a Clydesdale, a Holstein versus an Angus... or a Siamese versus a Persian. Werefoxes may have some varying species and color phases if based on the Red Fox... weretigers with subspecies and so on."
"So would there be any way of knowing for sure what I'd actually become?" Connor wondered.
"Not with one hundred percent certainty," Ryan answered, "that sort of thing is something about the were-virus that no one in Moon Lake has figured out. I could say what most werewildcats have for their fursonas in Moon Lake, but that would really only be playing to certain percentages, and there percentages can be wrong."
"Wouldn't that make it more supernatural?" Connor wondered.
"Perhaps... but a lot of weres that have studied the sciences would disagree and would argue they just don't have enough data to give an answer, yet," Ryan shrugged.
"Oh..." Connor managed to blink.