"Okay. Do you need help cooking or setting the table or anything?"

"No, you're a guest. We have it covered. Try distracting Isaac by telling him about your world, he'll probably start telling you about secret werewolf business."

Hee.

"All right." And where might Isaac be found?

Isaac is upstairs, apparently trying to walk on a thin layer of water in the bathtub.

"How's that working out for you?"

"I guess I wasn't thinking deeply enough."

He steps out, drying off.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing in particular, really. Just wanted to talk. You know, guest to impromptu guest."

"I'm not really impromptu. Scott mostly decided I had to stay here since I didn't have anywhere else to go, and I thought it would be nice, so now I just live here."

"Guess that sort of thing must run in the family. It's really generous of them. Back home if you didn't have anywhere else you could always stay at a temple. Ellayania's pretty good about making sure her followers are taken care of."

"We have some public places like that, but you can't just look at a place and know for sure."

"That seems like something that should be fixed. I will add it to the list." She nods firmly.

"Some churches can offer that, and there are homeless shelters. You should check out what we have to find out how we're doing so far."

"So it sounds like there's not a systematic solution, and one thing gods are really good at is systematic solutions."

"You'd know better than I would, but makes sense. What do people do if they're not acolytes?"

She shrugs. "People things? Pretty ordinary people things, as far as I can tell. They work, they cook, they play politics, they make art, they raise children. They don't become werewolves, that's just a you guys thing."

"I figured. Did you have time for any of that?"

"I mean, if I'd wanted to I could've. But acolyting is more interesting and Ellayania's fun to work for and maybe at some future point I will change my mind but for now I'm happy."

"I wouldn't be in school anymore if I could sell my services as a werewolf, but we're secret." 

"What can werewolves do? I've read some folktales about them but they're not very coherent."

"Enhanced senses, superhuman strength, speed, we can take away pain, and all of that is when we're in human form. If we do the transformation, same stuff but better."

"Sounds like a pretty good deal. I'm guessing there's a downside?"

"Violent urges, especially with the full moon. Worth it, for me."

"How violent and how urgent are we talking here?"

"You think about killing most of your problems before anything else, and when you're not using an anchor to control your emotions, it's hard not to transform and attack something."

"Oh. Huh. Don't think I'd trade that for acolyting. How much are werewolves like regular wolfs, the stories talked a lot about packs?"