Coyote in a Werewolf World

"Hey, you've reached Mercy, leave a message."

Mercy woke up with a ridiculously bad hangover after a night out drinking with her two college roommates. She groaned as she rolled over in bed and got a blast of sunlight right in the face. She'd never drunk so much in her life.

She gently rubbed at her face, trying to remember just how they'd made it back to their dorm room. And then she got a flash of memory from the night before.

"Oh yeah," she said, giggling as she took another sip of whatever this deliciously fruity drink was. "I can totally talk to ghosts. Some of them don't talk much or at all, but I can always see them and sometimes they talk to me."

Her friends looked at her skeptically. "Come on, Mercy," Amber said. "Seriously? You talk to ghosts?"

Mercy nodded. "Uh huh. Seriously. And hey, did I ever tell you guys how I was raised with werewolves? Way up north, so they could go about their business without having to worry too much about regular humans."

Both of the other girls laughed now. "You are sooooo drunk!"

Her eyes went wide in horror at the memory. It was one thing to talk about that stuff back in Fandom, but here... Loose lips could get people killed. Not just her, but anyone she might talk to who believed her and started making a fuss. Hopefully, they'd really thought she was just drunk off her skull and making up crazy things.

She sat up and dropped back down to the bed again as her head threatened to explode. She was never drinking again. Besides the pain, she just couldn't risk giving away any secrets.

[Open if anyone wants to call or anything.]

I've been fairly sporadic lately and may become more - or maybe not. My dad's having open heart surgery Monday to replace a defective aortic valve. Which is stressful enough - even though he's in fabulous shape for someone even 20 years younger than he is and has no heart disease at all, which is also amazing for a male his age. However, on top of this, my mom fell on the ice and broke her arm in three places (as well as dislocating her shoulder, which can't be put back as it could damage the breaks further).

Which means that neither of them will be able to drive for up to three months. And both will need a great deal of help around the house. So, my sister and I, as the only ones nearby, will be needed quite a bit. And, of course, work is nuts as well.

However, I expect that once Dad has made it through surgery and is back home (hopefully by next weekend if all goes well), I'll be better. Right now, even though I honestly believe he'll be fine and will come through this with flying colors, I'm still a bit panicky and scared and worried and everything else and consequently have no brain and am barely managing work, home, and presenting a very calm front to the family who are counting on me for that.

Anyway... if I do something dumb or forget to do basic stuff for a bit, that's why. Sorry in advance.

Mercy was sitting on her bed, googling remote control cars and making notes about size and battery length. She'd fired off an email to Charles with a couple of questions and had been surprised at the speed with which he'd replied. This whole project definitely was doable.


[Door and post open. Expecting a borrower, but anyone is welcome.]

Mercy was packing her stuff. Not happily, but she was packing it.

Which largely meant scooping up piles of clothes and stuff and cramming it into bags and suitcases. All while in the stupid uniform that itched and made her wish she could just shift into a coyote and disappear into the woods.

She liked rooming with Billie. She liked being up on the 5th floor.

But the stupid visitors were making all sorts of stupid changes and since she actually liked it here and didn't want the school shut down, she'd go along with it.

For now.

When she got to her new room she dumped all of her stuff on the bed furthest from the door and on the floor surrounding it. Then she opened the window wide and stood staring out it glumly. Coyotes may be adaptable creatures, but nothing said they had to be happy about adapting.


[OOC: Door(s) and post open and welcome for anyone to tag in particularly the old and new roommates.]

The trip back was giving Mercy a lot of time to think.

Christmas at home hadn't gone exactly the way she'd thought it would.

Her two stepsisters - yeah, she still wasn't used to even thinking about having sisters, step or otherwise - had been truly excited to see her and to show her how the spare bedroom she'd stayed in for the few months she'd lived with them had been made over into what the littlest one, Nan, referred to as 'a real bedroom just for you!' Nan had practically dragged her down the hallway in her excitement, talking a mile a minute, while Ruthie had more quietly pointed out some of the things she'd thought Mercy would particularly like. It had been pretty much exactly to Mercy's taste, she thought maybe Bran had told her mom about her bedroom back home - well, back in Aspen Creek.

They'd had a bunch of Mercy's favorites as part of the Christmas dinner and everyone had clearly made a huge effort to pick out gifts that they thought she'd really like. Enough so that it made her feel a little guilty about how little thought she'd put into the things she'd gotten them - even if everyone had seemed pretty happy with them. They'd included her in everything they did, going out of their way to make sure she didn't feel left out, until by the end of the evening she'd had to escape into her room, just to get a little space and try and straighten things out in her head.

( Cut for flashback to Christmas night )

Mercy shifted a little in her seat, thinking about everything that had happened. It didn't change what had gone before, but it sure looked like the future could be a little easier. She closed her eyes, resting her chin on her hand with a small smile, and let the bus take her to where the portal back to Fandom would be waiting.


[ooc: NFI, NFB due to distance, ooc welcome.]

And suddenly there was a coyote running hell bent for leather towards the school, leaving clothes flying in its wake. After about 30 feet or so, the coyote slowed, turned to examine its surroundings, then howled in delight. After a moment of wild dashing around like a young pup, it calmed itself, collected the clothes carefully in its mouth and trotted off over behind a clump of bushes.

Completely coincidentally, and obviously in no way related to this, a short time later Mercy made her way out from behind the self same bushes, smiling up at the stars and the huge moon as she headed towards the school.


[OOC: Open for anyone who might be looking for Mercy or who might want to come see what all the howling is about.]

Mercy sat in her room with black curtains and black bedspread and black desk and oh, black pretty much everything, and spent the day learning "Carol of the Bells".

Until it was note perfect.

For all the parts on the sheet music Jono had given her.

Sorry Billy.

And sorry to anyone else who might be close enough to hear the song sung ad nauseum.


[OOC: Closed door, wide open post! For the roommate, if he chooses, and anyone else around. Feel free to come see what all the noise is about.]

Once she'd dealt with the pesky following machine baby thing, Mercy had gone back to the room where she'd woken up. Everything here was so big and confusing. There was definitely a better way to handle this.

Which was why in no time at all she was only a small lump of coyote pup, slithering backwards out of a pile of clothes.

She scratched her ear to get rid of the last tingles from the change, shook herself, and got ready to head off to explore all the exciting places and smells in this place.


[Mostly establishy, but open should the roommate want to notice her or someone be stopping by.]

Mercy woke up slowly feeling rather... odd. Her tank and shorts were way too tight and, everything just felt wrong.

She reached up to rub at her face and the hand that touched it was definitely not her own. She yelped and sat straight up in bed, trying to orient herself. But things only got worse from there. She was - her breasts were gone and there were... things she definitely should not have.

She jumped out of bed to look in the mirror. Oh heavens, definitely not her body. She was... she was a guy!

"HOLY FREAKING STONE OF A PEACH!"



[ooc: Open to roommate or anyone who might hear her yelling and come to see.]

After class Mercy had limped her way back to the cabins and stretched out on her stomach on her bed. She was wearing the loosest pair of boxers she could find and had turned herself around so that at least her head was facing out in case someone came by.

At the moment she was unhappily paging through one of the few books she'd brought to the cabins with her and wishing she had more to choose from. Though in her current mood she wasn't sure any book would really appeal to her.

[ooc: Post is open for anyone in the cabin, but also for anyone who may have heard on the radio that she was shot and wanted to come by to see her.]

[ooc the second: That Caroline visited is okay for broadcast, but please no mention of Mercy's coyote side, thanks!]