Whitney was helpful for the advice that Simon had given them, both regarding some of the personal futures for herself and her daughters but also some of the "warnings" on what would happen once Cupple was defeated. Defeating Cupple, or at least removing the sorcery that he had used to enslave two people and turning one of them into a Slug Woman that started things regarding the Chapman family, was the main goal, but it would make sense to be ready for "what happens next." In some ways, it was a reminder of everything that had happened immediately after her husband died. They really didn't have a plan for that, and Whitney had had to do a lot to handle what came after her husband's death, which she could now also attribute to Cupple.
Now, they faced a daunting task in finding a way to convince the police that Edward Cupple was responsible for the fire that killed her husband, enslaved one woman and a Slug Woman, and then engaging in a plan that forcibly turned the Chapman family and the human woman he'd enslaved into Slug People. A task the Chapmans found was slow going just for the information on ways to counter Cupple's magic, which would make defeating him hard and for the moment would render anything that would come after defeating Cupple even harder to achieve. At the easiest level, the Chapmans could just integrate into the existing Slug Person colony, and Simon seemed welcoming on that front, but Whitney couldn't just abandon the home she and her husband had bought and raised Jeff, Lucy, Grace, and Zoe in. There were too many good memories there, and that left them with the initial problem of defeating Cupple.
They had a plan on getting information and help, and the latest attempts had gotten some progress in that regard, but they'd have to wait a little bit longer for that. Which left them time for the moment, which it appeared that Simon was offering his own advice and help on what to do with the "what to do next question" and Whitney was thankful for it. Signing papers and those sorts of things wouldn't be easy, and to some degree, Whitney knew it would be frustrating, but she'd generally known enough about the general treatment of Slug People over the centuries that it was to be expected. It was ultimately better to learn about that know while watching Simon cook than find out about just after Cupple's defeat, whenever that might be. And the smells from the cooking food that reached her sensory stalks above her upper lip did leave her mouthwatering.
"Dinner shouldn't be too far away, now," Simon announced as he checked a timer and then his oven again.
"That's good," Zoe spoke with her stomach gurgling shortly after, "it's been a long day."
"I would imagine you've had a rough couple of days, given all that you've told me," Simon answered as he turned back to his guests.
"That is true," Grace nodded.
"Though the start was more surprising than anything else," Whitney corrected her youngest daughter's comment, "none of us expected that Jenny and Megan wanted to transform us and were unprepared for it... thus when I started to transform, no one was ready, and I was too lost to everything that came with the transformation to resist the sort of mental hold and mindless lust that Megan and Jenny were under..."
Whitney only relaxed when she felt Grace's hand on her shoulder and then the tip of Zoe's tail overlapping her own. It gave her a mental reminder that her children, thankfully, were not enslaved by what Megan and Jenny did, possibly because they didn't transform as fast as she did. That lead to them being able to free her in the morning, even if it then accelerated Zoe and Lucy's transformations. In some ways it also played to a sense of forgiveness that Whitney felt her children had for her, and she was glad for that.
"We'll be fine, mom," Zoe urged, "this friend of Simon's... or someone from the churches we visited will have some information on how to stop Cupple and from there, Jeff or Lucy will surely come up with a plan on how to deal with him... like the final boss from a video game."
Whitney managed a small smile at that and then blinked at the sound of a timer going off. That drew her attention across the counter to where Simon was and watched him slide across the kitchen and collecting plates from various cabinets and bringing them toward a serving area on the counter. He set out four simple plates and then set them out in a line before then turning back to the oven. Whitney watched as he collected a set of fuzzy mittens that looked like they had a plastic liner inside them. From there, Simon then produced the cooking pan and set near the plates, but on some plastic liner that would be able to handle the pan's heat. The chicken in the pan looked thoroughly cooked with a golden-brown color. Some areas around the edges looked a bit darker, but they didn't look burnt.
"Dealing with wizards is not like a video game," Simon spoke in warning, "and any sort of planning would be complicated. And right now, we don't have the information on hand on how to defeat and counter this wizard, and that's even assuming there will be a way to prove to the police and the law of Cupple's threat."
"Yeah... I know," Zoe sighed, "it was just the best analogy that I had..."
"In the meantime... we are thankful for the help and shelter you've given us," Whitney spoke, "it has been enlightening."
"And hopefully it'll be accompanied by a fine meal," Simon accepted that, "it won't be fancy... but it should be filling."
"That'll be fine," Whitney spoke while Zoe and Grace nodded while Simon moved to collect some potatoes from another drawer to move them back into microwave in order to bake them, "it's letting us... letting me learn things."
"Yes, the colony leadership thing can be a tough position," Simon nodded as he placed the potatoes in the microwave, "but in some ways it can also be fairly easy as well..."
"But how would it work?" Whitney asked, "aside from the regulations with the town and humanity?"
"Colony government will often vary on the colony and the time," Simon answered, "once our people were first freed from the role of being living familiars to witches and wizards, our communities were largely left to govern themselves... outside of the obvious points where we'd have to abide by the human laws and rules of the country we were in."
"Obviously," Grace noted looking to her mother with one eye and looking to the microwave as it continued to count down toward when the potatoes would be done cooking. Simon was also getting things like knives and forks out as well.
"The older colonies often had someone picked as a lord mayor or duke some other rank by either wizard that put an end to the scheme or by the Church looking for some expedient solution," Simon continued, "and some of those actually continue to this day, in some places. Though, with the decline of monarchy in the first half of the twentieth century, other terms tended to replace them... or the method of choosing the leader for the colony changed. Many of those that didn't fully change the manner in which the colony was governed, became essentially presidential "republics." The colony leader was elected but would have little check on his or her power until the next election."
"Sounds a lot like dictatorships... or the potential for it," Whitney said with some obvious distaste.
"From a very simplistic point of view, yes," Simon nodded, "not all were "dictatorships," but they were born out of areas that often had a strong monarchy or some sense of needing "order from chaos." Thus, that stronger leadership was perceived needed, and those that avoided dictatorships managed to retain fairly frequent elections. And these kinds of Slug Person Colony governments... have actually grown rarer over time... outside of colonies that are small."
"And what kind of colony governments are more popular?" Zoe asked curiously.
"In many ways, the most popular governments for colonies, and particularly large ones have been to try and copy how most city governments are managed," Simon answered as he turned to hear the microwave timer beep, "a city council and a mayor and so on. Though, when this is all over, your colony may not need that."
"It wouldn't?" Whitney blinked as Simon placed the steaming potatoes onto the plates and soon added the cooked chicken to them.
"For right now, it'd just be your family," Simon answered, "it'd essentially run like a family. It'd only be as your colony grows... with successive generations, and when your children take WILLING mates that may change. Until then... your colony would run just as your family did and leaving things up to you."