Chapter Two - Moonlight Falls

The Best Laid Plans O'Mice and Men

Chapter Two - "Moonlight Falls"

Moonlight Falls was an eerie place, even during the daylight hours. It wasn't a hive of activity; in fact, the streets and parks were deserted as there were few recreation places for the residents to even bother going to. On top of that, the only activities were at the supernatural hang-outs and those were for werewolves and vampires, though none of them had run into any yet. It wasn't for the sake of not trying. It was just that if there were any supernaturals around, they didn't make themselves known during daylight hours, which meant that they would have to start playing at night if they were going to discover anything about the occult.

As it was Phil returned home about the same time as the other two men did. It was clear what Phil had been doing as they could smell him from a block away, either that or the storm of fruitflies hanging around him, because they thought that they could get some more nourishment from the noxious miasma floating around his head.

As they were all getting kind of hungry, they decided that it would be better to grab a bite to eat, but they told Phil, "You stink, take a shower!". Four O-6s and a flag-rank officer telling him to go clean himself off was not a suggestion to an O-5. It was a direct order, so Commander Phil Burrows went and got himself cleaned off, as directed before proceeding to the fridge to get himself some sustenance. His superiors didn't want to end up revisiting their own breakfast, after all.

During the course of the day, Kimber and Meg had been doing some reading of Book One of the cooking skill, and they managed to finish reading the books, so they felt able enough to do some cooking tomorrow with some of the items that Tosh and Harm had brought home. Of course, the men would have to get rid of the toads at the grocery store tomorrow or go to the elixir shop themselves in order to divest themselves of the slimy amphibians.

Tosh and Harm discussed the events of the day so far and tried to figure out what they needed to do in order to stay on top of things. It wouldn't do to have the occult know anything about them or find a way to corral the officers in their abode. They needed to be on their guard more than anything. If they were unsuccessful, they could potentially lose their lives or even worse. "I think there's such a thing as a cure serum" Harm indicated to Tosh.

"Then, we need to get those whenever they're in stock in the elixir shop. It doesn't matter the cost. If you get bitten by a vampire or maimed by any occult, the cure elixir is the only thing that's going to save you from becoming one of them." Tosh replied grimly. "That and if we find any silver, we figure out how to smelt them down into bullets because if we don't, the weres will take us out."

After dinner, Phil, having eaten, went out to get the insects that he'd managed to collect during his adventures in the dumpster over to the science center and recoup some money for his efforts. There had to be some pay-off for spending most of the day up to his shoulders, upside down in rotting goop. Yeah, there was, although the scientists belly-ached about paying out for common insects, they still paid out and Phil was able to get some cheese so that they could potentially have either mac n' cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches. Either one was fine, to Phil. He didn't have the exotic palate of the vice-admiral and his superior officers who had the income to be able to afford to go eat out.

With 22 years of service, Tosh was making over §14,900 a month as a vice-admiral which came out to a pretty good chunk of change, considering that most of the population didn't earn nearly that much. But then again, the trade-off was putting your life on the line for your country. Every serviceman who dons a uniform, in essence, writes a blank check to their country payable up to and including his life, in the line of service, so having served for as long as he'd had, the pay was commensurate with his military experience. Phil, on the other hand, as a O-5, was only making just a little over §6500/month.

When Phil stopped at the grocery store, he ran into an occult with wings. When he was done his grocery shopping, he engaged her in conversation. He figured to himself Fairies are supposed to be the good guys, right?. Yeah, guess he's never run into an evil fairy before. If he had, he'd be singing a different tune. Well, Marigold Maldano was more than interested in talking to him...in fact so much so that she started spewing hearts and harps. She knew instantly that she was talking to a human, but he intrigued her.

It probably wasn't too wise for Phil to get that enthralled by a fairy, however, he figured, to heck with torpedoes, full steam ahead and turned on his charm. Who says insanity isn't good for anything? Of course, Pappy Wolff just happened by...and well, you know just how keen their noses are. Pappy Wolff was clearly in werewolf form and snarled as he walked past Phil, his nose crinkling, "Take another bath, you stink!!!"

Phil decided the better course of action was to get out of there before anything happened. Despite his insanity, he still had enough common sense to know that if he fought the werewolf, he'd come out on the losing end and possibly even taking a cursed bite. So he took his leave of Ms. Maldano and headed home.

Meg on the other hand, knew exactly what she was doing. She was planning to get her hooks into Tosh as soon as possible as she knew that Kimber was probably planning to make a move. After all, she'd seen them make googly-eyes at each other. And that was a warning signal if Meg was reading it correctly. Yeah, she was going to outmaneuver that female naval aviator and snag her man. Plus the fact that like Harm, he came with gold wings and lots of gold rings on his sleeves (those big admiral's stripes on Tosh's uniform had to count for twice the number of four-stripes that Harm had). So she snuck into Tosh's room...and smirked at him, "Just came in for a bit of conversation. It's a bit boring sitting in the dark in my room." Dang the Navy for not allowing them to buy themselves some lights for their bedrooms. Well at least it was Phil up to his neck in nauseating rotting foodstuffs and not her. If he found some lights in the dumpster, at least they'd be able to fix it up and use it.

In any case, since there were no chairs in the room either, she decided to curl up on the bed beside Tosh and have their conversation there. Half of Tosh's mind was going a mile a minute trying to keep abreast of what she was talking about as well as making sure that he stayed on the right side of the UCMJ. Could this technically be considered as contravening Article 133? I mean, she's a JAG right, she should know the ins and outs of the Uniform Code of Military Justice...and I don't want to step on the wrong side of the fraternization rule.

While the other half was going, Gosh, she's pretty... Yeah...stop right there...or you're going to end up with a Conduct Unbecoming an Officer charge. Besides, she's your subordinate at this point in time. Start thinking with your other head instead of the one males usually think with.

Author looks in the mirror... "uh...wait a minute".