Gareth Hendrix and the Bunker Bigfoot [TriCube Tales Solo][Actual Play], Part 2

CW: Drug abuse and child abuse. 

Gareth smells the marijuana smoke before he sees Lina [1] on his back porch. Knows she got it from Kametra Lane, her best friend from Bunker and whose mom runs the Bigly Pigly barbecue pit that Lina works at. Kametra...the human with wild hair and bright eyes and angry fists and more wolf spirit than Gareth. In fact, Gareth would not be surprised to find there was wolf somewhere in Kametra's past, a wolf or some other were- marrying into the family. 

The Lanes have good weed, at least according Lina. who gets it on family discount. 

What Gareth does not understand is why Lina smokes it, having to constantly puff to maintain even the base level of a high. The same wolf-blood that heals up broken bones and regrows skin cleanses the bodies of THC and alcohol fast enough to make it an act of futility. Back in sixth grade, scrawny Gareth and fat Tommy were dared to jump off the roof of the old Paper Lane log mill. Tommy merely rolled an ankle but Gareth's leg snapped loud enough the older kids that had dared them scattered. Nate Callum got as far as the back lot before puking his guts out. Gareth's leg had reknit so fast he barely registered any pain, had to pretend to cry and call out so Barlow could be called and "rush Gareth off to the hospital." He wore a cast for 4 weeks. Even Nate signed it. Underneath, his leg did not even show a scar. [2]

That was one of the few times Barlow had been openly proud of him. "Look at how strong his healing is. Bet my boy can even heal silver, he's something special!" Only that was not quite true. Gareth could shrug off silver better than most but a jagged line on the back of his arm shows when he tried cutting himself with a silvered blade during a rowdy self-dare four years back. Compared to that broken leg, that knife hurt. 

Lina offers him the joint almost as soon as he sits down beside her. He takes it because it is easier that way, knowing he won't even feel a buzz. His dad only maintains his sporadic drunken wildings by blending corn whiskey with a sprig of wolfsbane. The classic Maron brew. Now made by Ms. Macy in smaller batches cause only Barlow drinks much of it and she mostly sips it from time to time. Potent and dangerous. 

Ms. Macy wants her granddaughter to take the Maron mantle when Gareth finally throws off this "phase" and is ready to become Big Bad Gareth. The two presumptive leaders of the pack, waiting for their time to take the rein. Only best he can  probably do is Mid-sized Lanky Wolf and Lina's only two claims to magic are her pulled pork sandwiches and her ability to burn any building down no matter how wet the timber might be. 

Without even looking at her he can picture Lina better than his own reflection. Shorter than him by a fair chunk, but stockier. Dark skin to his pale. Outweighs him by twenty pounds despite only coming up to his chest. As a wolf, she absolutely dominates him. He is a scrawny and runty, living up to his Kai Yote pack name. She is massive. Only Barlow is larger and Lina still has growing to do. Her dark skin contrasted to her bright silver hair. The Maron mark. Ms. Macy is an old woman, now, the hair seeming more natural, but Gareth knows she was the same at this age. 

Kids thought it was cool as they grew up together near Bunker. "You look like STORM!" Humans surprisingly ok with it. Unlike all the weird questions he got about why his hair, cut as short as he could manage it with silvered shears, changed phases. Luckily folks did not put two and two together and realize it just happened to match the shape of the moon overhead. 

Before there was a pack, there were the Hendrixes and the Marons running together. The Big Bad Wolf and his Silver Wolf best friend time and time again. Lina's great granddad Ricky Maron passed on his legacy to a daughter who acted as a partner to Gareth's granddad, Jeb Hendrix. Her common law husband (a photo still on Ms. Macy's wall shows a short little blues player named Sammy) let their kid, Jacob, keep the Maron name. 

Maybe he respected tradition. Maybe they had a talk. One Sammy could not win. Sweet old Ms. Macy has such big claws, after all. Rumors say she ran wild herself back in the day. Maybe other charms Gareth would rather not contemplate.

Jacob Maron, a terror the old folks say was more fox than wolf. Jacob and Barlow cut loose for years, the kind of friends that most do not get. Soul mates. Brothers. Even had their kids - Gareth and Lina entering stage left - so very close together. Said it was destiny. Jacob Maron's death during the Troubles was a blow to the whole pack but Ms. Macy stayed by Barlow, Maron to two generations, and the two decided it was time to retire and move north.

Not that the pack got very far. 

Sammy died less than a year later. That picture has an obit from the Bunker funeral home taped beside it. Short on details. Either heart attack or heart break at the loss of his new family and his beautiful hellion son. Ms. Macy had to stay strong for everyone. 

Lost in thought he almost fails to move back in time as Lina's claws rake down near his face. Any other wolf would have been struck. She is real fast, he just happens to be faster. 

"Lina, what the fuck..." and she is bringing a beer bottle down with her left to smash him in the head. Ironically a lesser threat than her claws. He grabs her arm and she tries pounce on him with her teeth aiming for his neck but faster than he or she can think he is standing over her and his eyes the glowing red of the Hendrix wolf as he holds her neck and right arm. His claws growing. Teeth bared. 

Gareth's wolf might be half the size of his dad's but the teeth are bigger, giving his wolf form the appearance of a terrible grin. [3]

Wolf claws cut like silver. Lina cannot heal as fast as Gareth - Marons tend to have other gifts - so cutting her now would leave questions Gareth does not want to answer even if others would not ask them out loud. All the same, showing weakness is a mistake that Gareth can feel in his bones. Not that she shows any fear. Lina loves to win but losing to a Hendrix is just the pack way. [4]

This another step in the old dance between the two of them. Born two days apart during a January snow storm twenty-one years ago, the last pair of pups for the pack raised somewhere between best friends and deep rivals. Both losing parents at a young age. Gareth just the one and Lina both of hers. Love and competition moving in together and keeping home. Lina more a Hendrix than Gareth ever has been and Gareth more a Maron. A power struggle unfathomable in previous generations, but now so close to the surface. A threat and a solution at the same time.

Her silver eyes glint back at his red embers and in a laugh that is half a growl she concedes. Reaches up with her hand and gently pats the white hair on his left arm as if to say "no harm, no foul." A bit at contrast with her actual words. "There's my angry Gareth. Always were a killer hiding out like a pussycat."

Softens her face to add, "I like your moon hair like this, by the way, half an half." As if deadly fights between werewolves were just friends hanging and doing stupid shit. Which is true in this case. Backyard wrestling for the Universal Monsters set. 

He knows that Barlow and Ms. Macy would love it if Lina and Gareth brought the two old families together yet again in a clear partnership. A unifying act the Pack might need. Playing off each other like Barlow plays off Ms. Macy. Toughening each other up. Taking care of each other. A line that Gareth has been afraid to cross because as runty a wolf as he is, he can feel some vast bestial thing in himself and he fears Lina might be the key to unlock it. 

"Just a few teeth. Just a few claws. What's a few murders between friends?" Even if she did not really want that. 

Lina wants a tougher friend. Barlow clearly wants a tougher son. Ms. Macy...well, she probably also wants Barlow to have a tougher son. 

The way Upton Everard, the gossipy old wolf who lives in the back of the park, says it, once Ms. Macy caught those who killed her son, she spent two days keeping them just barely alive on meat hooks, carving Jacob's name in their skin over and over. Gareth did not ask how she kept them alive. Imagines some vile wolf blood concoction cooked up between her and his dad. 

It was Barlow that told her she was going too far and the pack was terrified of the fight that could have happened right then and there. 

But no one tells a Hendrix what to do, not even another Hendrix, so Barlow won that fight. This is also why everyone kept their mouth shut while Gareth ran with Stacy for four years. Well, not shut, but they sure as shit did not say anything critical where either Barlow or Gareth (or Lina) could hear. Would not be the first time the pack brought in a human mate, Gareth thinking back to that photo of Sammy and imagining Stacy's right there for some future generation to ponder at. 

As Gareth is pulling away from Lina she grabs his hand and quickly presses his claws against her neck hard enough to break the skin. Gareth snatches his hand back, now human, finger nails covered in blood which he stupidly, instinctively places in his mouth, tasting her blood, feeling the edge of a hunger he tries to keep to to his dreams. She also licks at her own blood before leaping fully over the porch railing and trotting off into the woods, laughing. No longer a growl, this is her human side full and true. 

Her and Kametra are likely to get together later and smash windows out of some old building or steal stop signs or some other rowdiness, who knows how she'll explain these new deep gashes on her neck. 

For now she will wear those neck scars with pride. Pride for her oldest friend. Pride for the proof that the Kai Yotes can still fight like the old days. Pride the Hendrix name still means something. Even if Maron was the one who shed the blood.

Gareth once asked Ms. Macy why he had "moon hair." Why did his hair shift colors with the phase of the moon? And Ms. Macy had replied, "You get it from your mama." People at the Kai Yote don't talk about Gareth's mama. Ever. Less than they call him by his name and they never call him by his name except by accident or third person. 

He has a vague idea her name was Lucinda or Lucida or Lucretia (Ms. Macy let the words "Ms. Lucy" escape her lips, once, just once, when Barlow was not around and then admittedly winced like Gareth might slap her). 

He found a photo when he was twelve, maybe the only photo of his mom still in Barlow's possession. It showed a tall woman, lanky like Gareth, long hair the color of Gareth's during a new moon. She was dressed like an old hippy. Except nah, not quite, dressed like a witch more like it. Strange stick figures dangling in the back of whatever home the Hendrixes had down in Mobile. A cigarette dangling from her mouth she is turning to a younger Barlow sitting next to her, a baby in his arms. What dangers of second hand smoke to a child that can regrow an arm, maybe even an arm cut by silver?

Barlow is staring down, not at her, but at the table in front of her. Her right hand on a crossbow and even in the older photo with bad color correction to make up for the dim inside lighting Gareth could see the tip of the bolt in it was silvered. Was his mom a hunter? Or was this a prize taken from a hunter? He tried to ask his dad and that was the only time Barlow had truly struck him in anger. Barlow smashed his boy. Broke Gareth's jaw and knocked out teeth. The bigger man's eyes so red they looked like rubies. 

At least Barlow just used his fists, and not his claws, because by the time Gareth woke up from that all his teeth were back, his jaw perfectly fused and whole. Had Barlow known Gareth could heal the wounds or was he trying to scar Gareth like "Ms. Lucy" had scarred Barlow? 

Gareth never saw that photo again and a surprisingly contrite Barlow went out and bought Gareth the super nice camera that he had long wanted. Well, bought or stole it, no more questions were asked by the curious pup that week. 

Did his mom also die during the Troubles? Gareth and Lina were just one-year-old when that happened and have no recollection. The pack does not talk about it. More than that, the pack beats and punches and fights rather than talk about it. Not just forbidden but forbidden on the threat of death, pretty much. And if that weird witchy woman with the silver crossbow bolt died, who killed her? 

A couple years later, Gareth had a nightmare of that woman in the photo torn to pieces and the person flinging those chunks out into the sea was Barlow himself. Methodically. Angrily. Gareth did not ask Ms. Macy about that. He'd be afraid to find out he got his dreams from his mama, too, and afraid what that answer might mean. [5] 

-- Mechanical Notes --

1. Lina is a Brawny Tradesperson (cook, works at the Lanes' barbecue restaurant) with combat skills and who is ruthless.
2. "How much pain did Gareth really feel?" Four of Clubs. Practically none. 
3. Scene type --> Queen of Hearts. Relationship but with effort(2). 6 of Clubs. Standard Agile. Gareth absolutely dominates this fight and loses no resolve. 
4. "How well can Lina heal compared to your average werewolf?" 4 of Spades. So significantly worse. She makes up for it by full ferocity, though. 
5. This scene was complicated, so let's get to "that scene" in a fuller description below.

-- Doug's Notes and THAT scene --

I wanted to have a scene with Lina who will be likely the second most important character in this story: either Gareth's chief ally or chief enemy. The idea of a werewolf trying to get high to fit in with the rowdy town kids came to me when trying to work some details on Gareth so he wasn't simply the sad little asexual werewolf. He has better sight and better hearing/smell than the others, and he also can heal up even otherwise fatal wounds. It is implied that most of that comes from his dad. I kind of free typed it so I'll consider it canon. Anyhow, he knew he could shrug off a fall from the bridge earlier so I like the idea of someone who grows up around pot and meth and booze but really cannot partake because his body sheds the chemicals too fast. 

I pulled 2 cards to figure out exactly what the relationship between Lina and Gareth was early on and what I got was 6 of hearts and a 5 of spades. So...a bit of love, a bit of conflict. Not really a majority of either. They aren't pining for each other and they aren't...exactly...slashing each other. Having free typed, essentially, Macy Maron into existence along with the notion that Lina was "silver haired" I decided to play off that and built up the reason why Ms. Macy is everyone's grandma. Because that's what the Marons do: they take care of the pack while the Hendrix leads. 

I've left the Trouble fairly open. A lot of the pack died and it was traumatic enough they wanted to settle down. People are missing children, missing parents, missing friends, now. Hiding out while the Pack leader fumes and takes  his frustration hammering nails and busting concrete to pay bills. Hanging out for years.

All of this came up with me wanting to do a second scene. Something to find out a little bit more. A scene that involved a Jack of Hearts (a positive shift for Gareth's self growth) and a Hard Brawny effort 3 challenge. The only person that made sense to be a proper opponent for Gareth was his own dad. 

From the get go, I had the idea that his weird shifting hair color would be related to his mom and I asked, "Was Gareth's mom human" and got... Ace into Joker (so Major Shift) with the shift being both positive and negative for Gareth. And then a 10 of spades so "Yes, but..." with a roll on the image oracle giving me 4,4 = the hand casting a spell. 

Mrs. Hendrix was a witch. Not only that, but a witch who was a hunter but had a kid with a wolf. Why? I don't know. Might need more flashbacks to figure it out. I am not sure if Gareth's dream was a mystical vision or more a metaphor, but I think it is true enough that the point still stands. Barlow and "Ms. Lucy" had some major clash. 

I am taking the positive side of this major shift scene in that that some of her witchy gift is passed down to Gareth. Whatever sort of Hendrix he is, he is not quite the new Big Bad Wolf, he's something else. 

The bit with Barlow beating Gareth into a pulp was because the dice were not kind to Gareth. Straight losses and a near fumble over three rounds. It was not meant to be so one sided but so it goes. I do not want the story to focus on childhood abuse, even in a world of werewolves in an economically stagnated town, so this is likely a one off but also something of a preview of a potential show down between Gareth and Barlow. The fact that his prized camera, the camera he used to take award-winning photographs, is entangled in that scene of abuse is actually kind of upsetting to me but I do appreciate it. The diamond card I pulled to get a sense of how they overcome the scene (as in, an object/transaction of pretty decent value) did some work. 

Whether Gareth ends up leading the pack, destroying the pack, or running away from it: I think there are reasons for any of those. 

Doug's Note, July 22nd Edition: After finishing the whole series I came back specifically to this one and excised completely any overtly sexual flirtation between Lina and Gareth. Feel free to note there might be some under the surface. I won't tell you how to read it. 

There was one paragraph that was dumb in retrospect with Lina's "moon hair" comment being much more horny and Gareth's position over her triggering some...commentary. It was a hold over from some of the original tropes I was playing at when trying to transition this from a "retired werewolves in a dumb comedy heist" to something else. 

The very initial Gareth was not asexual and there was going to be the bog standard trope of "will he run with the human girl or the wolf girl" but almost immediately, like...5 minutes in with writing...I channeled some of my teenage doubts about my own sexuality and queerness into the character. Therapy and self-discovery through solo roleplay! Look...there are a lot of those stories out there, already, if you want sexy werewolf love triangles. 

The overt foreplay still remaining in the original take on this scene ended up contrasting every other session I wrote. A couple of paragraphs were just cut (something I did not do anywhere else, warts and all, when I went back and through and edited some grammar and glitches), a couple were decently rewritten. A couple were added but sticking to the prompts and the oracles in play. 

Their feeling is friendship, kinship, a kind of soul mate partnership that repeats and echoes throughout the family line. There definitely love there and some of their scenes clearly show a quasi-romantic attachment they leave unexplored (Gareth is Ace, not Aro, and Lina is...well, Lina). Gareth has had his head stuck up his ass since high school and let the relationship lapse along with all his relationships to the trailer park but had he hung with Lina they would have had a lot of good times. Ironically, by not feeding into her "wolf" ways he kind of also kept her from going wilder. As said, she is sort of a key to unlocking something in him. Something that had a chance to grow into his "final form" in the last session.