like the moon moves the tides [agent carter werewolf au]
part v. ears back
Please, Jack says to her, just get on this flight with me.
And Peggy can’t. He’s asking her, and she can’t – she doesn’t even feel bad about it, because she knows it’s the right decision. But there’s a part of her that’s more instinctive than anything else, tugging at her gut, pulling an answering howl at her throat, and it’s harder than she expects to refuse him.
He’ll show her a trumped-up file, his scent angry and miserable. JUNE 1944 – M. CARTER – a lot of redacted nonsense, and Peggy will tell him as much.
“You're willing to believe any phlegm Vernon coughs up because you're worried that I would betray your trust,” Peggy says. She stares at Jack, trying to will him to understand her. “I wouldn't.”
Jack looks at her, eyes wide, and there’s a moment – a moment where she thinks she’s done it, that she’s gotten through to him.
Then he says, “This is your choice, not mine.” He sounds like he’s choking on the words.
“Jack,” Peggy says, voice full of pity for her lost, foolish packmate, “You don't need to cut corners to get ahead. You're better than that.”
She leaves briskly, without looking back.
: :
“What's happened and what's true are two different things,” Vernon tells Jack, when Jack questions the validity of Carter’s file. “This is an official document. That means it's true, regardless of what happened.” He pauses, frowning at Jack. “Do I really need to be telling you this?”
Jack feels sick.
“No, sir,” he says. “I understand that.”
Vernon sends him out of the room to take his phone call, but Jack can pretty much hear through walls if he concentrates, now. He takes the coordinates down on the pad of paper on some agent’s desk out in the bullpen – the coordinates – the –
Peggy’s there, her scent throwin’ off scared-angry-dominant-scaredscaredscared. Jack feels all of him turn towards her, like he could just curl up in her lap and she’d let him.
Peggy’s there. It’s gonna be alright.
He only thinks it for a second before his real brain catches up with him and he gets a grip on himself. But the feeling lingers.
“What is the last thing that you remember?” she asks him, and Jack tells her and Sousa about Vernon and the woman on the phone with the voice like a South Pacific sunrise.
“Whitney,” Carter says to Sousa at that description. Neither of them trust Jack, which shouldn’t hurt, but does anyway. He tries to play it off as a joke, but Carter’s eyes go serious and dark.
“If I were helping them, I'd be on my way there. But I'm here with you,” Jack says to them.
Carter and Sousa exchange a look. Then, Carter steps forward – right in front of Sousa! – and butts her nose up under Jack’s chin. He feels the air get knocked out of him like she had socked him in the stomach with a baseball bat.
“You’re with us,” she says against Jack’s throat, sounding way too satisfied with herself.
Jack blinks at her when she steps away. Then he blinks at Sousa, who looks like he’s fighting a grin.
“Let’s go,” Sousa says, and racks the shotgun.
(Later, Peggy will call Jack a good man, her scent warm and happy and inviting. Jack won’t understand it, okay? He won’t – he won’t understand, how out of anyone in the entire world, this fucking person will say that about him, and mean it. She’s not stupid. He’s not sure how he’s managed to fool her, and he’s afraid that someday he’s not gonna be able to anymore.)
part vi. cry/howl
There’s a wolf in Jack Thompson’s hospital bed.
Mr. Thompson is fully in human form, looking thin and white and still very unconscious under the sheets. He’s hooked up to a saline drip; in addition to changing his bandages, Violet has orders to give him another blood transfusion. They’re trying to flush out all the poison that the silver bullet leaked into him.
When Violet taps on the open door’s frame, the wolf looks up, a slight snarl on her face. Violet gives a low, answering whine, a safe-good-nonaggression kind of whine. There’s a rustle, and Peggy jumps off of Mr. Thompson’s bed, slinking forward to greet Violet in a pile of shaggy gray limbs.
“Hiya, Peg,” Violet says. “I need to clean him up and give ‘im some juice. You’re welcome to stay while I do it.” Generally speaking, human adult patients were protected by confidentiality agreements, which is why she kicked Daniel out of all of Mr. Thompson’s surgeries. However, exceptions were made for wolfpacks, and Peggy is about as much a packmate for Mr. Thompson as Violet was for any of her family.
Peggy whuffs and withdraws into the corner of the room to watch Violet, unblinking, as she does what she needs to do. Mr. Thompson’s bullet wound isn’t too severe, honestly. Silver bullets aren’t especially effective in terms of being good for shooting people dead, but they are deadly when the bloodrot sets in. If he had been found even twenty minutes later, things would have been different. There’s still streaky red lines coming from the wound, but they’re fading. He’s getting better.
Violet tells Peggy that. She whuffs again and finally shifts, crouched on the hospital floor naked as the day she was born. Violet politely looks away as Peggy redresses into the neat pantsuit that is folded up on the chair next to Mr. Thompson’s bed.
“Thank you, Violet,” Peggy says. She sounds – and looks – tired. There are purple shadows under her eyes and her voice is hoarse.
Working on a hunch, Violet asks, “When was the last time you’ve eaten?” When Peggy looks away, she hums. “That’s what I thought. Let’s head down to the cafeteria. They’ve got a killer full moon breakfast platter.”
“Someone has to look after him,” Peggy says, tone dismissive. But while Violet may not be naturally as dominant as Peggy likes to make herself out to be, she frankly isn’t submissive, either.
“Agent Roberts was on her way in,” Violet says. “And Daniel will be along in about an hour, when my shift ends. We’ve got nurses all along this floor. He’ll be alright for a few minutes while you eat something.”
Still, Peggy hesitates. Her gaze keeps being drawn over to Mr. Thompson. Violet looks at him, too.
Daniel complains about him quite a bit. From what Violet’s heard, Chief Jack Thompson is a braggart and a jerk and a liar and an arrogant bastard to boot. But you don’t pick pack, not exactly.
She makes a decision. “I’m Daniel’s pack, as far as a wolf can be pack with a man, and you’re his pack, too,” Violet says. “And Mr. Thompson is your pack. That makes us, I don’t know, pack-in-laws.”
Peggy blinks at her. “Yes?”
“I can have some of my cousins come on in, when you can’t be here,” Violet offers. “Not to snuggle with him or nothin’, I imagine that wouldn’t end well, but to sit with Daniel or Agent Roberts. If you’d like.”
Peggy stares at her for a long time. Then, in a queer kind of voice, she says, “That would be appreciated. Thank you.”
“Of course,” Violet says, and means it. Then she holds out a freshly washed hand. “Alright, we’re going to the cafeteria now. They got an option that has bacon, ham and sausages. It’ll blow your mind, Peg, I mean it.”
Peggy takes her hand, neatly manicured red nails scratching Violet’s palm. “Of course, darling,” she says, and smiles for the first time in what’s gotta be days.
ACNH Headcanons: general stuff (not story-related)
Some of these may be slightly dark
- Megan and Judy are sisters who are less than a year apart (age-wise) making Judy the youngest snooty. Megan (like Maggie from the Simpsons) proved from an extremely young age that she had a high IQ and liked to read and study but her parents were more interested in fashion to the point where they gave up on Megan and decided to have a second child who actually liked fashion and all that boring stuff. The rare times they buy something for Megan it's pink and white (Judy's favourite colours) and has something to do with fashion/makeup/spa etc, annoying Megan. In-universe, Judy is more popular than Megan, getting more love than her from everyone (not just their parents) and her lack of love and attention growing up has been the lead cause of Megan's extremely low self-esteem, even by normal (personality) villager standards (beaten only by Coco). Megan and Judy's parents are so upper-class that they call Megan's friends her 'slaves'. Megan is, unfortunately, the only one in the family (not extended tho) who realises slavery is wrong and values her friends for their company and what makes them unique rather than for people to carry her luggage. Judy is also the only villager who Megan is willing to fight without feeling bad immediately afterwards. Ursala is Megan and Judy's cousin who used to act like Judy and her parents but discovered the joy of actually having friends. Megan has a long list of rules given to her by her parents (e.g. no reading books after 6pm and lights out before 8pm) that Judy doesn't have to follow. In short, their parents are mean and unlikeable and Judy is just a discount version of them. Oh, also, Judy thinks she's a queen and doesn't believe in the Magna Carter
- Bug-Offs and Fishing Tourneys are global phenomena and Nat, Chip, Flick and C.J. aren't the only hosts as a bunch more chameleons host the Bug-Off and a bunch more beavers host the Fishing Tourney. This is also why K.K. Slider never visits on those days: because he's busy somewhere else celebrating and (as his concerts usually begin when these events finish) wouldn't be able to make it in time
- Bob is horny. All other lazies are too innocent to understand what horny means
- Sherb has the same interests as other lazies but with a bigger focus on sleeping and a smaller focus on food and bugs
- Audie and Dom have basically swapped half of their personalities
- The previous point but with Raymond and Cyd
- It is a well-known fact (in-universe) that if two (or more) big sisters fight the argument will likely cause pain (both physically and mentally) for everyone around them and themselves and may not end until one of them kills the other. This is mainly caused by one stating that they are the only one in a group comprised of at least two big sisters claims they are the only one qualified to lead the group. Big sisters are VERY competitive when it comes to leadership. If two big sisters are in a relationship together, it may end up being a competition to see who can top the other. Phoebe is the most top big sister
- Leif has a crush on Kicks
- Kicks is poor
- Violet and Harry grew up together and made the switch from peppy/jock to snooty/cranky at around the same time. They are also younger than most snooties/crankies, only older than Judy, Cyd, the snooty and cranky ACNH 2.0 newcomers and Francine (with those guys' ages probably in that order with Judy as the youngest)
- Fang is a lone wolf (pun not intended) but often ends up leading the crankies and snooties as he's one of the few that doesn't fight for the role. Freya is his second-in-command and she takes care of the snooties while he takes care of the crankies
- Reneigh, Azalea and Frett are watered-down versions of their respective personalities
- Phoebe, Julian and Drago grew up together
- Kid Cat, Agent S and Big Top also grew up together and then one day discovered Rocket's potential and let her join the group
- Roald and Puddles grew up together and even gave each other their photos from Wild World when Puddles left. They also briefly knew Coco but thought she was a regular gyroid. The only villager who ever payed any attention to Coco was Marina. This lack of attention (as well as her existence) caused Coco's extremely low self-esteem
- Ankha and Vic (possibly among others, I'd say the most likely candidates here are Coco and Lucky, maybe also Quetzal and Leigh but probably not actually idk) were cryogenically frozen by a time-traveling Redd in their respective periods of time (Ancient Egypt and the Viking era). Ankha was a Pharaoh at the time of her freezing and Vic was about to pillage the British
- The normal ACNH 2.0 newcomer has the highest self-esteem of any normal villager
- Petri created Cephalobot
- Quinn often has to give the rest of the ACNH 2.0 newcomers a ride
- Tom Nook has a harem with his coworker/employee Isabelle, his childhood friend Sable, his friend Blathers and his rival Redd
- Zell has a crush on Vic but Vic just finds Zell's flirting annoying. Zell also has a crush on Agnes and Shari and they used to have a crush on him but no longer care, instead they have a crush on Ankha (as well as each other)
- The only villagers who care more about Megan than Judy are Roald, Puddles, Al, Audie, Sherb and anyone else who's lived on the same island as Megan. Megan and Audie always take the same side in arguments (unless they started it but that's pretty rare) and Sherb prefers to take Megan's side as well
- As well as K.K. Slider, Agnes and Shari (and probs other big sisters) love Avril Lavigne, P!nk and a singer called Lights
Probably missed lots but I can always update this if I find enough other stuff to update this with
