A Flurry of Feathers and Wings

Cause I feel like exploring them more.

Transference
Nearly wrote "Trans-fur-ence"; go me for holding back! Anywho, the passing of werewolf...curse, for lack of anything better, is from the traditional biting. It takes more that just a bite though, usually some drool or blood needs to seep into the wound as well. How this spreads exactly isn't known, but it does only occur during full moons, so being bitten by a werewolf at any other time won't turn you. Just hope the bite is non-fatal.

Transformation
This is painful as hell. You feel the bones slowly changing shape, growing, muscles forming to adher to a more canine form, you're pretty miserible for the next minutes. For the most part a werewolf is just a huge wolf; no anthromorphism yet. When one learns to actually control the transformation, things get a tad easier; you can speed the change to happen quickly, which is even more painful but it doesn't linger, and after decades you learn to deal with the pain by this point. You can also, once control is learned, take on the more traditional "wolf-man" form, running on two legs and needing a full body waxing. More subtle things involve changing just your eyes or nose, to gain the affects of the canine form without needing to go full wolf; the first time Red tries the nose thing, she gets the effect she wants, but doesn't realize she actually tranformed her nose to that of a dog.

Full Moon
The full moon is the bane of a werewolf. It's the only time a transformation is uncontrolled (though it can be sped up), and general aggressiveness is exteremly high during these times as well. Why it only happens as night is a nagging question, but the current theory is that during the day the dominant energies from the sun cancel the effects from the moon. Why then will they still transform if the night is cloudy, or not in view of the moon is just the curse fucking with you, I guess.

New Moon
New moons don't do shit. It doesn't reverse anything, it doesn't return the normal mindset of the one turned, it's just a phase of the moon where no light is reflected.

As A Wolf
As a "normal" werewolf, you're roughly the size of a Honda Valkyrie motorcycle (things be huge). You only tranform during the full moon. Not much of your personality is still there, and you run on basic instincts; sometimes underlying feelings can surface, but don't count on it. Once returned to human form, you may have what feels like a massive hangover, but given enough time to sober up, you will remember anything and everything you did as a wolf. Good luck in confession with that.

As A Human
After being bitten, most humans experience a massive change in personality. Aggressiveness, amorality, and apathy come to the forefront in large doses. This is especially true the closer to the full moon you are. Not common, but also not rare, is being turned and retaining your original persona. The aforementioned traits still become dominant as the full moon apporches, but at least you can feel bad about it and try to refrain from lashing out. Most become very carefree with their lives, doing what they want and living in the fast lane, being a law unto themselves because they know they'll be at the top of the pile come the next full moon. Waking up naked is always embarrassing.

Extra Abilities
It takes decades to even begin to try, but after being a werewolf for so long, you can start to control the tranformations. You will be defeated time and time again, but eventually one can learn to change forms even when it's not a full moon, and even beyond that only change the part of your body that you specifically want, be it nose for better smelling, eyes for different vision, or muscles for running. There is no inate way to tell a werewolf apart from a crowd, or how close you are to someone who is one, so you can only going on what you know the basic traits in personality to be, as well as knowing what kind of timeline you need.

Science Says "Wha?"
Werewolves are near immortal. They can die, quite easily, but unless they are specifically killed, they can live for some time. The best guess is that during the transformation, the generation and regeneration of cells from human to wolf to human somehow "recharges" them, or is like shedding the old skin for the refreshed underneigh. How the body generates the energy and mass to grow the muscle and fur is still a mind screw, though after transforming you will experience a massive hunger. Assuming you didn't eat as a wolf, in which case just hope it wasn't a biped. The specifics of the personality change are unknown as well, because why would that change just by being bitten?

Weaknesses
Bullets, of any kind, will kill a werewolf; they will not, however, change back into human form after death, that's just stupid. Silver as well won't do jack; gold, however, is a bitch, and most werewolves find they are now allergic to the metal after being turned. Huh... There are no symbols or signs that can ward off a werewolf, but I don't think there ever were.


There's probably a lot more I'm forgetting, but these seem like they're the broad strokes. I keep feeling like I need them do more, or be able to do more, but then I remember they're goddamn werewolves and what else do I need from them? Memory and identity come in to play as well, as human memory can only go back so far, and Red wonders if she is anything like what she was back before being turned.

I also don't know how, or if, I will work in the Little Red Riding Hood tale itself into the narrative. It seems like something that would be mentioned in most stories, but if mine is a re-telling of the original fairy tale itself why would it be self referrenced? Eh, then again, this is centuries later, those Grimm plagiarists might've been able to come out with a decent story in that time. Not that Red's gonna see a dime. Fucking writers.

This was an idea I've been letting stew for a few weeks. In high school, one of my creative writing teacher's few good ideas was to have us write new versions of fairy tales. My messed up story became The Three Little Pimps (yeah, it was a good as it sounds), but I liked the idea.

I never understood why every version of Red Riding Hood had the Big Bad Wolf as the bad guy. Well, yeah, I do, but that's not what I'm going for. They were always two separate characters. So I had the idea to combine them. So yeah. Werewolves.

I thought it took the old story and twisted it a bit. And I can't remember ever seeing the idea done before, so I'm trying to work the kinks out.

There's a possibility for vampires but at the moment: a) I'm trying not to steer too close to Twilight territory, and b) I'm not sure how they'd work yet, into the story. I have a vague idea of how vampires would exist in that world, and it goes counter to most "they're undead" narratives, but how to get (one of) them and Riding Hood together is still up in air.

As for the subject title...I ran the story title past a good friend, who's been my idea filter for years, and her first comment back was the title reminded her of a porno. And then the imagery got into my head. It burned. But for the moment I can't think of anything better, so for now it stays.

DEAR GOD THERE IT IS AGAIN AAAAAHHHHH.