Bad Moon Season One

Episode One: Bad Moon Rising	Episode Two: Bonfire	Episode Three: Urges
Episode Four: Quarry	Episode Five: Stalk

Episode Six: Unity

Session Thirteen: 1/21/2015

Jarod Jalo

Oakley Gellert

Sandy Roberts

Carmen Anderson

Olivia Saenz

Transition to the End of Term

• Various rumors circulate about Aedia Randall's disappearance, among them that she may have left Astoria for Europe or entered rehab. Orlando Guerra's disappearance is woven into these rumors as well.
• Jace Evans tries to visit Davis Monk in the hospital, but he finds that he is unable to enter Davis's room with his new condition. As he leaves, he runs into the always inconveniently present Gideon Monk. Though he makes a loose attempt to play the departure off, both men know what's really going on, but their stoic masculinity prevents them from addressing the real issues.
• Jace has dinner with Dean Tessa Edmonton, and she clarifies that there will be no legal action against Jace or Thomas Michael Craig for the theft of her car. Jace agrees to tell Thomas of this if it ever becomes a non-awkward subject. It hasn't yet.
• Stella Jalo continues to finalize plans for the ATO charity event for the victims of the Bonfire Party attack. While destressing by hanging out with Dane Ryerman, she mentions things she may have seen while on mushrooms, and he suggests that she go on a vision quest of sorts to deal with her recent struggles. In the midst of all this, Stella's hottie son Jarod Jalo arrives in town for a visit.
• Dr. Elaine Litchfield, Warner Pelt, and Stella all weaponize over the course of the next few weeks.
• Elaine finds that Pouty Mouth Victor Sutherland has recommended her to participate in the dig at the Bonfire site, where she meets Oakley Gellert, a native man who reveals he is aware of both her and Victor's supernatural conditions. Because he might go on to point out Elaine's insanity, she doesn't press the conversation.
• Henry Mulgrew starts his competitive wrestling season, and oft neglected Danny Marin is distant. It's like his contract wasn't renewed or something.
• Warner has been hanging out with a new social group, namely a wolf pack searching for a new den for the upcoming spring. Warner doesn't have a real estate license, so they wander in the cold for now.
• Thomas, meanwhile, is recovering from his recent horrors only to be plagued by endless nightmares about death. Witchy!
• What's left of the established Astoria pack convinces the administration that Aedia has indeed left for rehab, and Orlando has fled due to allegations of inappropriate conduct toward students, Aedia among the possible targets.
• Reese Tavis continues in his limbo with the Astoria pack, most of whom outwardly shun him. Stella asks him what he wants, and he confesses the idea of answering is foreign to him. Somehow, though, it results in him saying that he may once have been thrown down a cliff, and Stella agrees she might be the one to do it.
• Somewhere in his weretraining obstacle course, Jace asks Vanya Simonson whether he's supposed to accept Elaine as a pack member. Vanya says that morrigans like Elaine usually just eat the dead a pack leaves behind. Jace asks whether this is connected to Dark Stalker Morrigan in some way, then he immediately demands that Vanya not tell Henry that he made a video game reference for fear that Henry would jizz in his pants if he knew. Vanya, thankfully, is ignorant.
• Thomas has been spending plenty of time at Kaffe dealing with his tragedy. While wallowing in misery, Thomas finds himself waiting in line behind a girl who is obviously distraught. She rushes outside in tears and almost gets run over in traffic (Nationwide is on your side), but Thomas saves her. The girl turns out to be Sandy Roberts, and she is confused by her near suicide as she wanders off into the night.
• Jace is approached on campus by a woman who identifies herself as Carmen Anderson, a nurse at the Cartwright Recuperative Center. A mysterious "someone" has been moved there by his family, but Carmen has agreed to get word to the outside world, in this case, Jace, of a burner phone. Figuring it's Davis, Jace tries the number with no response and exhibits an awkward attraction to the woman.
• In other love interest news, Warner is out in the woods when he hears a scream. He finds that his new wolf friends are considering eating a nubile young woman named Olivia Saenz. Because this is a feast he may wish to keep to himself, he drives the wolves away. Olivia explains that she is a journalism student attempting to write a story about how the local wolves are innocent in the Bonfire attack. She offers to buy Warner's photos of the local wolves to run with her story, but Warner doesn't go for the kill.
• Henry is hanging out with Renee McDonnall when Jerome Tate happens upon them. Even knowing that Henry is oddly one of the biggest flamers on campus, Jerome's wolf (revealed later to be called "Stupid") goes on the attack. Clearly, the various wolves do not have opportunities to consult behind the scenes or else Stupid may not have ended up with his head being bashed against the inside of Henry's wolf nullification tub. Just like Stella's wolf did. Renee even contributes by stabbing Jerome with one of the many syringes that have become ubiquitous of late.
• Jerome is pretty embarrassed when he wakes up.
• Nina Cosgrove informs Elaine that she has an appointment booked with a "Phillip Wentworth." Phillip turns out to be none other than complete douchebag Gideon Monk, who reveals that he has a copy of Elaine's highly controversial unpublished thesis. He can't really read it, but some parts are highlighted in what seems an important way, so maybe he gets that, at least. He offers Elaine a job with Monk Inc., but the interview is interrupted by . . .
• Even bigger douchebag (what's bigger than "complete?") Volk Yuriev. Gideon basically pisses himself and flees, while Volk has real talk with Elaine. Volk claims that the entire Astoria clusterfuck is the result of an agreement between the Monks and the Oregon weres (weregons? weregonians?) to keep werewolves out of Astoria. As long as that agreement is kept, the Monks won't murder all werewolves everywhere. Also, Elaine's ancient werearm seems to be important to everyone. Volk mentions that he would like to have a morrigan of his own because no doubt the trail of corpses in his wake could use some cleaning up.
• Elaine plays all of this shifty (and let's face it, no one knows what her crows are thinking, so they could just possess anyone at anytime to assert their view), and she promises to consider betraying the Astoria pack while she runs to tell them everything. Well, almost everything, since she doesn't tell the Astoria pack of the other offers she has on the table.
• PACK MEETING! And guess what, everyone that's ever been involved with the Astoria pack business is there for once. Except for Danny. Elaine brings her ancient arm to the meeting, only to be accused of eating the rest of the corpse by Jace. Henry seems disturbed that this is a real possibility. Which it is. Various werewolves try to poke the arm, but Elaine gets all weird about that, even after having slept with the arm for years now. Werebuddy, the pillow for you and me!
• The plans come down to two points: rescue/recruit Davis for help vs. get high on mushrooms. I'm not even joking. Jace believes that Davis might know things that can help them, but he admits that having slept with Davis might increase Monk hostility toward the pack. Jace ends up calling Davis and finally getting in touch, and Davis reveals that he doesn't know much about his family's history (he's as good as Reese on this point), but he might want to get busted out of his confined care. Jace tells him the pack will do so if he asks, even if that means douchetastic Gideon will try to murder Jace.
• On the other side of the plan, Stella gets high because her wolf is revealed to have led her to the two loci of werepower in the area. Most of the pack, minus Jace and Henry, convene at the old oak tree. There, Stella connects with a spirit snake that teaches her how to draw power from the tree. She passes this lore to others present, including a bewildered Thomas. The tree also features a wolf den as a basement apartment, which Warner decides to rent out to his new wolf pack.
• When the pack returns to the House of Falling Waters, they are greeted by the stench of Jenry's mating musk. It turns out Jace was less concerned with studying for finals and more concerned with banging other werewolves. And Henry just doesn't get laid on his own. When Vanya greets the news with a nonchalant comment about pack bonding, both Warner and Elaine perk up, considering whether to suggest their own exercises in the area.

Session Fourteen: 2/04/2015

Saturday, November 17th. The ATO Charity Fair

• Stella Jalo and Henry Mulgrew busy themselves in the morning setting up a fair in the University of Astoria's main quad as part of ATO's charity event. Stella overhears some ATbro's gossiping about Kaleb Jackson and some bikers, and she's reminded of the conversation she overheard earlier in the semester.
• Stella's investigations are hindered when her son Jarod Jalo reattaches the umbilical cord for the day. She does manage to give the cord enough slack to intercept Kaleb as he's nervously hanging around a truck ready to be unloaded without Jarod noticing immediately. Kaleb is aggressive in trying to block Stella's access to the truck, invoking Buster the Wolf's rage, but Stella easily sends him away on a leash to join her son.
• Sensing that he just avoided more than a tongue lashing, Kaleb backs off, and Stella discovers two sketchy, biker-looking dudes by the truck who are particularly interested in a couple of boxes on the truck. Kaleb lamely introduces them as Bill and Ted, clearly feeling menaced by both Stella and the bikers. The bikers gruffly step off with their boxes in tow, but when Stella follows them, Jarod shows up on the scene to stop her, recognizing the danger the two bikers represent.
• Stella acquiesces and instead hauls Kaleb back to her office. He confesses to being entrapped by the biker gang to bring cocaine on campus and promises never to do it again. Drug kingpin Stella reminds Kaleb that if he wants drugs, he can only go through her to get them and lets him go.
• The fair starts that afternoon, and Warner Pelt is on hand taking photos when he finds himself the prey. Olivia Saenz snaps a shot as Warner finds her in his lens. As young girls are always guilelessly wont to do, Olivia ropes Warner into trying his hand at some festival games for her. Olivia manages to find the one booth at the fair with a stuffed wolf prize, which the boy scout effortlessly wins.
• Jace Evans shows up to the fair exclusively to demonstrate that this is beneath him to the privileged few who spot him. Among those is Dean Tessa Edmonton, who sidles up to Jace to inquire about his friend Davis Monk. She reveals that Davis's grandmother has been by her office to acquire withdrawal papers for her grandson. Jace confuses her when he tells the dean he will take care of the situation.
• Thomas Michael Craig, meanwhile, is avoiding the crowds entirely and has Kaffe almost to himself for once. This only intensifies the creep factor when Thomas receives a text from departed Teresa Cantu asking why he isn't "here." Ignoring specters rarely works, which is proven by the subsequent texts "I'm so scared," and, "It's so cold here." Thomas decides that caffeine really isn't enough to deal with this, and, piling on the irrationalities of this scene, seeks out Jace for help.
• Thomas catches up to Jace at the fair, and Jace is apparently over dramatic reactions to supernatural revelations because he accepts Thomas's story with a simple, "That's fucked up." However, he confirms that there are no recent texts from Teresa on Thomas's phone. Thomas for a moment glances Teresa in the crowd and begins to feel overwhelming anxiety from the crowds around him. Sensing Thomas's growing agitation, Jace takes him back to the dorms for a joint, but he suggests they meet up with Vanya Simonson later to run all this by her.
• Dr. Elaine Litchfield is doing penance for her role in staging the Bonfire Party at the fair when she's joined by Avery Wendley. It's not really his fault that he doesn't quite get that she breaks up with him for vaguely defined reasons grounded in New British archness. Surely this will never come up again.
• Elaine runs into Stella and Jarod and steals Stella away to confess that she's just broken up with Avery because she's afraid of what her crows could do to him. Nothing could read more as sublimated sexual anxiety, which classically leads to delusion and hallucinations involving all manner of symbolism. Like birds. Just saying.
• Henry, a college student with no training, has all this time been operating a carnival ride that slingshots students into the air. At an event commemorating the tragic accident of the Bonfire Party. Apparently ATO's Latin motto translates to: "Safety be damned."
• Renee McDonnall and Jerome Tate find Henry, and Jerome unwisely gets onto the ride. Henry smells blood on Renee, and he traps Jerome in the slingshot until he wrings a confession from Renee that Jerome suffers from nightmares and clawed her waking up from one. In a bit of fan service, the duration and intensity of the slingshot increases throughout the scene until Jerome is being hurled around hard enough to start losing his clothes. Henry eventually lets him off and figures that was punishment enough. Curiously, there's no line for the ride waiting to take Jerome's place.
• The fun comes to a halt when Stella spots Volk Yuriev at the edge of the quad. She activates the tracking app on her phone as she stalks up to him, which does not go unnoticed. Although Stella's rage is on the rise, Volk reveals that he's there with a peace offer of sorts. As far as he's concerned, the two packs are even, with his totally reasonable and equitable policy of murdering three of the Astoria pack for every one of his losses. He's pulling out of Astoria, but he extends one final invitation to Stella to join his pack.
• Stella refuses the offer with contempt and also confronts Volk with the knowledge that Elaine shared with her following Volk's approach to her. Somewhere, in a cold, dark place, the murder flutters with anger, and a thousand beady eyes look toward Stella. Tensions rise when Henry joins the conversation and affirms that Stella isn't going with Volk. Volk questions if Henry speaks for Stella, which she doesn't deny, clearly raising Volk's ire.
• Nevertheless, Volk tells the duo that Alice killed Aedia Randall against his wishes. He was content to merely leave her beaten down. When Stella needles Volk over his inability to control his pack, Volk attacks Henry, and the situation rapidly devolves into a brawl. Volk and Henry wolf out while Stella goes feral, and Henry's attempts to wrestle Volk down just result in Volk almost fatally wounding Henry. Volk subdues Buster the Wolf with an alpha roar.
• All of this happens on the fringe of the ATO fair, and students are soon crowding around the fight. This includes Warner and Olivia, who manages to snap some photos of the brawl. As Warner applies first aid to a badly wounded Henry, a furious Desmond Lancanster arrives at the scene and sees no way of preventing a trip to the hospital. Henry is taken away in an ambulance, and his wounds are already healing as they reach the hospital, much to the consternation of the EMTs.
• Jarod whisks Stella back to the ATO house and demands an explanation for what just happened. Stella reveals that she dated the wrong guy, a man who has been stalking her since. Jarod insists on calling Det. Devin Matthews to tell him about Volk.
• Warner takes a very confused Olivia out for dinner after the fair and decides to take the direct approach to explain what she saw. He flashes his wolf eyes at her and tells her that werewolves are real. Olivia resists believing him, but she also sees the evidence in her photos. She tells Warner that she needs to think over all this, and Warner tells her to visit Elaine to get some protection for herself. The murder's attention is drawn away from Stella. Olivia leaves and neglects to take her stuffed wolf with her.
• Word gets around to the rest of the pack about the brawl, and nearly everyone arrives at the hospital to figure out how to cover for Henry, who is already drawing the doctors' suspicion. Henry has locked himself in his bathroom to hide his continuing regeneration. Elaine suggests dosing him with silver and stabbing him to reopen his healing wounds. Desmond is surely delighted to carry out this sentence on Henry, and he and Elaine join Henry in the bathroom for the stabbing. To add an element of veracity that no one in the hospital or Astoria's police force will question, Desmond claims that Henry tried to bite him, reopening his wounds in the struggle. This easily sells the story.
• Stella files a police report against Volk on her son's insistence.
• Elaine leaves a message for Volk that the Astoria pack's actions do not reflect her own views.
• While the pack is gathered at the hospital, Jace reveals his concerns that the Monks are preparing to move Davis out of Astoria. He calls Davis on the burner phone, and Davis confirms that he has no idea his family is planning on withdrawing him from school. He's reluctant to agree when Jace offers to break him out of Cartwright Recuperative Clinic, voicing concerns that this will put Jace in the Monks' crosshairs. However, Jace tells him of the day's events and that the Astoria pack is expecting to be attacked by the Monks anyway now that Volk has left the scene. When Jace asks for Davis's help in keeping the pack from being slaughtered, Davis finally agrees to join them. The pack prepares to bust Davis out of Cartwright.