A Farm Somewhere in Maryland, Monday Afternoon

[firstofitskind]

Liam's days tended to have a certain rhythm to them, especially Mondays, with that weekly therapy appointment off-island, and his and Verity's tradition of doing something sweaty and physical (no, not like that) afterward.

Usually though that just meant going for a run around the island or hitting up a mainland gym for a sparring session. All that flew out the proverbial window when Liam stepped back into the lobby of the therapist's office to find Verity waiting for him (as usual) with a tense expression on her face (not so usual).

Turns out there had been a string of mysterious livestock deaths at a farm in the Maryland countryside, and from the descriptions it sounded a lot like werewolves. So a quick pit stop back to the island to top up the weapons they had on-hand with those that would be most useful against lycanthropes, and then a portal dropping them just outside the farm in question.

"So, if not werewolves, what else could it be?" Liam asked, as they approached the barn, weapons ready.

[ooc: nfb for distance, and for the wife.]

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[arboreal_priestess]

The bigger sheep hit the dirt, tumbling forward and tearing up the ground in a shallow trench that went about ten feet before it slid to a stop. "So talk," she said, taking a potshot at Liam's lamb. "Reloading!"

[firstofitskind]

"It's the smell," he ground out, aiming another shot at the lamb, the bleat-growl that it was making in protest getting cut off abruptly.

... At least it took fewer bullets than the larger sheep?

[arboreal_priestess]

"The smell?" Verity asked, stepping forward with her gun at the ready, a new magazine firmly in place. "Reload," she added, nodding at him.

[firstofitskind]

He nodded, reloading his own weapon as he did so. "Reminds me of Wildemount."

[arboreal_priestess]

"When you were with Beau," Verity said softly, drawing a bead on another growling sheep.

[firstofitskind]

Another nod. "Lorenzo. The one who was in charge of the group that kidnapped Fjord and the others. He had very particular... tastes." A beat, and another shot at a growling sheep. "I'm talking human babies. Roasted." Bile rose in his throat at the memory, and he swallowed, forcing it down and focusing on the matter at hand.

That there were cryptid species out there that preyed on humans and other sapient species for food was not new to him, of course, but for most of them, it was a natural part of their diet (even if, like in the case of the ghouls, the switch to active predation was somewhat new). But Lorenzo... he'd done it because it amused him.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Jesus!" Verity yelped, her shot going wide.

First time she'd missed a shot in...a ridiculously long time.

[firstofitskind]

“Yeah,” Liam said flatly, mouth a grim line as he fired off a shot of his own.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Please tell me you've been talking about this with your therapist," Verity said, shaking her whole body before turning her attention back to the werewolf.

[firstofitskind]

“Among eight hundred other things, yeah,” Liam said. A slight exaggeration, sure, but Wildemount had been kind of a lot.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Is that the guy who you...?" Verity didn't want to say it.

[firstofitskind]

“No,” Liam said quickly. “That was the guy he worked for. But I remember being in meetings? And he’d be eating. And the smell would fill the whole goddamn room.”

Liam, being Liam, had tried to dismiss his reaction to those memories as overblown and irrational, at least at first. And then he’d shifted the blame to himself; it was his fault that he even had those memories now, right?

His therapist had stood for exactly none of that, and in fact had been the one to remind him that he had the right to ask for a warning about cooking meat around him if he needed it.

[arboreal_priestess]

Bless his therapist.

"That explains the vegetarianism," Verity murmured. "With everything bringing back the smell of - that."

She was not going to cook meat in their house. Nope nope nope.

[firstofitskind]

“Yeah,” Liam said again, only this time it felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity nudged him. "I won't cook meat in the house," she promised, shuddering. "Not after that."

[firstofitskind]

And this would normally be the part where he’d reach over for a hug, but, well. Werewolves.

“Thank you,” he said fervently. “It’s hopefully not forever,” he added, although the grisly scene in front of them was uhhhh, not helping with that.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity was also hoping not forever, but missing meat wasn't at all on the same level.

"It'll take as long as it takes," she said firmly. "And it can be for forever if it needs to be."

[firstofitskind]

Honestly, Liam kind of missed it too- at least until that sense-memory kicked in and he was right back to noping the fuck out.

"But restaurants should be okay, I think?" there was enough other stimuli that he figured the scent wouldn't be overwhelming. Or at least, he hoped. "Maybe we could work our way up to takeout?" Not that he'd be eating anything meat-based anytime soon himself, of course.

[arboreal_priestess]

"We'll worry about it when we need to worry about it," Verity said firmly. "There are enough restaurants on the island and in Baltimore that if I'm really craving a burger, i can just go get one."

[firstofitskind]

"Well, sure, I guess," Liam said. Still, there was a reason he'd gone with 'warn me first' and not 'don't do it at all'. "But it's your house too."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Sure," Verity said. "But I also get to weigh how much a small inconvenience to me stacks up against something that majorly bothers you."

[firstofitskind]

"Well, when you put it like that, it sounds all reasonable," Liam grumbled.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Fancy that," Verity said, waggling her eyebrows at him before shooting the head off - literally - of a sheep that had sunk its rapidly descending fangs into another member of the flock. "I'm the reasonable one in this relationship."

[firstofitskind]

"Somewhere in New York, Dominic just burst out laughing, and he's not quite sure why," Liam said dryly, cocking his head and readying his weapon as he listened for the now all-too-familiar telltale signs of an emerging werewolf now that the latest one was down. There was nothing but panicked bleating for a few seconds, just long enough to let Liam think maybe they had a handle on this, finally, and then-

Nope. There it was. Liam swung around, cutting off the creature's enraged howl with a couple shots to the head.

[arboreal_priestess]

Getting the creatures before they finished transforming seemed to be the key.

"We should probably figure out cleanup," Verity said. "Leaving a whole herd of sheep out here seems like a bad idea on all counts."