29 Jan 2018
Two days before the full moon
8pm, Monday
Hopworts, London

Oscar Truemane

Oscar Truemane had a unique pallor about him when he arrived to meet Adrestia Gamp at Hopworts Brewing, which had become for many werewolves in London a popular haunt. It wasn't exactly a pub, but it was a place where people gathered whether they wanted a craft beer or not. Oscar, though, usually did and the bartender saw his wave and drew his favorite - it was on its way, levitating over heads to meet him at the table.

The table tent was advertising the latest book club read and a Werewolf Alliance flier was loose next to it. A week earlier, the W.A. had organized a sit-in at the Ministry and despite best efforts to keep it non-violent, someone crazy welcome witch had made it violent anyway. Unfortunately or not, she'd been the only one seriously injuried, though noone seemed to know exactly why.[1]

"Hello, hello," Oscar greeted Adrestia with typical cheer. He'd caught the red ale and sipped at it quickly to prevent spillage. "Savvina got called in to work, won't make it."

Savvina and Oscar had become chums in the last few years, and the Werewolf Alliance had brought them closer to Adrestia as well. Oscar considered her 'reformed' now that she no longer worked at the Werewolf Wing. So close to the full moon, they'd all be feeling the strain. Even pretty Adrestia looked a bit tired to Oscar.

"Alright, Gamp? And how am I, you ask? Grand and lovely. Finally hexed it and bought that car."

Oscar had been talking about it for weeks, how he was in the market for a flying automobile from Monty Pepper. Oscar was mental for all things mechanical or magical, always tinkering with something or another.

1.	22 Jan 2018 - Rock Steady, Baby

"I'm just peachy," Tia replied without much enthusiasm as she smiled in greeting. "Nice to see you in good spirits."

She was taking her time over a tankard of chocolate stout, which had seemed a good idea when she was ordering it - but she wasn't so sure now. If she she was being real, stout wasn't a good idea before a full moon. At least not for Adrestia personally. Alcohol in general exacerbated her symptoms the day-of so she could expect a proper migraine.

"What model did you end up getting?" she asked, curiousity overtaking misery. "I heard someone nearly drove into a stork the other day. Didn't even know there were storks about, this time of year."

Her interest in automobiles was nowhere near as passionate as Oscar's but Tia liked learning new things. She thought the whole overlap of magic and mechanical stuff was novel.

Oscar Truemane

Adrestia's blank-stare smile that she did was grim and delightful. He went on to describe the car he'd bought, imported, he told her, hatchback, he said. The color, the engine, the enchantments that the quick minds at Blue Silver had placed on it. Oscar had lingered around their wick for ages, nerding out about the details of this car or that. Now the thing was safely in his cousin's garage in Ottery St. Catchpole.

Halfway through apologizing for going on too long, he put his hand to his chest and grunted. He looked to be in considerable pain for just a few moments. He recovered and shook his head. He ought to explain, so he did.

"I gave my allotment to Ulysses," he said, referring to the Ministry of Magic's Wolfsbane that was distributed to registered werewolves. Ulysses was a mutual acquaintance, unregistered. "This other stuff has gone off, I think."

He said it too cheerfully. He'd done this kind of thing before. After years of living unregistered and having to scrounge, it only seemed right to pay it forward now that he'd been caught up and tagged.

Oscar was such a nerd for cars and she loved it. People were so authentic when they were nerding out and she allowed his gushing to build an image of his car in her mind's eye - trying to picture the wizard in it was an altogether great time.

Her smile softened, turned worried: if it were a non-werewolf, she might have made a quip about heartburn or overexcitement.

But a werewolf knows a werewolf, and they were close enough to the full moon for her to assume it was turning related. Tia had never tried any kind of underground Wolfsbane, she'd been registered from day one.

"Oh, is it like... is it the same as the Gamp one?" she wrinkled her nose, thoughtful. "Or do you have to take it the same number of days as the old stuff? I didn't even know Wolfsbane could go off."

Maybe the underground brewers made theirs way ahead of time, or brewed a surplus that got carried over to the next month. Adrestia thought Oscar was brave to help Ulyssess - she wasn't sure if she would do the same in his shoes.

Oscar Truemane

"No one is supposed to have the Gamp one," Oscar said, with a warning finger. "They say they have the Gamp one, they might think they have the Gamp one, but no one has the Gamp one. But I got mine from Mush, so it's probably the real thing."

Mush was the alias of a brewer Oscar had known from ages ago in the Lapin circles. Her Wolfsbane was always reliable and when she said she had the Gamp recipe, Oscar believed her.

"It's Mush!" he laughed, then put a polite hand over his mouth. "What could go wrong."