2018.08.21 - Werewolf War Council II

*The werewolves gather again at Jacob's house, preparing to head into the woods in search of the mysterious "reflection" at the center of the Weird. They puzzle together more information as they plan their search.*

September 2015

La Push, Black Residence

Billy Black is out of the house, off visiting Charlie Swan, which has given Jacob the chance to have everyone over while the house is empty. (All he had to do was endure one mild lecture about how he shouldn't be ignoring his friend, Bella, who really wanted to hang out with him. Sigh. It wouldn't even be so bad, since Bella isn't a problem in his life anymore, except for the fact that, y'know, pressing council of war and all that!) So, Jacob's put out a few snacks (notably, mostly healthy fare since he's been trying to be more considerate of Billy's well-being lately--until today he didn't even know kale chips existed). There's cold water in the fridge, and--well, if people really want it, Jake can always make tea, but... somehow this doesn't feel like a tea-sipping occasion.

As the others begin to arrive, Jacob answers the door with a welcoming grin and ushers them each inside. "Man," he remarks cheerfully, "it's like I'm seeing you all again for the first time. Kinda weird, huh?" Seth in particular, of course, will get a big hug in greeting. Packmates and all.

Sly shows up along with Seth, and he's wearing a pair of Seth's jeans and a red shirt of his. It's more color than Sly's worn since--well, at least since before the Weird, anyway. It also makes him seem a little younger than normal, lacking his street-smart edge, but he seems way more relaxed than he's been lately... not that anyone who's seen him lately is really around. He's got so much to tell his friends back in Seattle about all this! Keeping close to Seth as they arrive, Sly lets his hand brush the other teen's occasionally, and if hand-holding ensues, so be it! Sly is *not* shy, but if Seth resist, he won't press. Different people have different comfort levels, after all, and it's not like they're on a date. This is serious business and all that!

Seth grins as he steps inside with Sly, pausing to hug Jacob back tightly. "Yeah, it's totally like that. It was weird just calling people, even." He steps aside, to let others in, and as their hands come in contact he takes hold of Sly's hand, and glances to him with a smile before looking back to the other arrivals.

The sound of a jeep rumbling up can be heard, and then there's the approach of two people. One seems to be speaking a bit more than the other, who doesn't say much in return. Then, once they get up to the door, it becomes clear why: one is Derek Hale, silent and fairly stoic at most times, and the other is Stiles Stilinski, who presumably drove them there since it's his jeep.

Derek nods once and steps in, walking to join the others in general vicinity, but still standing apart from them.

La Push, all roads seemed to be leading there lately. If they were right, somewhere out in the forests of the Olympic National Park, was whatever had done this to all of them. Stripped them of their memories and replaced them with false ones. Different lives, distorted and weird, that some of them were only just waking up from. It wasn't enough to just be awake though, they wanted answers. Which is why Scott McCall was on his way to La Push. It all started with Jake Black, he was the whistle blower. Without him maybe they would never have questioned the dream, much less woke up from it. Seth Clearwater had told him that Jake was waking up too now. Clearly Seth had as well. Stiles, and Derek too, and Scott was really happy about that. Now they were all going to meet to discuss the next step in figuring this out. Scott glanced at the forest again and there was that slight sense of dread. Just a walk in the woods McCall, no big deal.

At Jacob's house Scott parked his bike next to Stile's jeep and approached the door, noticing that others had already arrived ahead of him. There was Seth Clearwater with someone Scott didn't know. Wait, no that was Jason's son wasn't it? Scott was almost sure it was now that he considered it. It almost looked like they were ready to hold hands, nope they were holding hands. It made Scott wish Liam was there with him, though he well knew the reasons he couldn't be. He also considered others that wouldn't be here. Scott intended to text the highlights of all of this to Alice Cullen so they could coordinate with the vampire family as well. They were a part of this too after all, and that was one of the things that bugged Scott.

He and his friends from Beacon Hills had only just recently located to Forks, and not even all of them *were* here yet. So who had attacked them and the Quileutes and the Cullens alike? Who had an axe to grind against all of them when they had very little shared history? Maybe they would figure that out today. As Jake comes to the door Scott smiles. "Hey Jake, good to see you again. I mean like, really see you." They knew each other as well as any two teenaged werewolves that walked through a magic tree to assist in a werewolf civil war would know one another. Scott liked Jake though, he was genuine and that was something he appreciated. Inside he nods hello to the others and moves to stand beside Derek Hale, nudging his best friend Stiles in the shoulder as he takes up the position. This was pretty much Derek and Jake's show now, as they were the alphas here. Very different alphas to be sure, but still the alphas. Scott vaguelly recalled there being at least one more among the Quileutes, but he had never met him so he wasn't sure. Maybe Jake would mention that in passing, those that weren't here with them yet.

Stiles doesn't let Derek stand entirely apart. Standing as a kind of link between Derek and the others, Stiles makes it a point to try to keep anyone from being cut out of the "circle," so to speak, and when Scott falls into step with him and Derek, Stiles flashes his friend a big grin. He's feeling oddly protective of Derek, in a weird way, since all of this came out--maybe because of the whole vigilante thing and what he went through over that, or maybe because, deep down, Stiles realizes that of all of them, Derek has had to lose the most by coming here. Regardless, Stiles is clearly ready to show his support for both his best friend, the werewolf, and their adoptive alpha.

Jake greets Derek with a polite nod, managing to convey through body language a special class of respect for his fellow alpha wolf. Scott gets a grin and a clap on the shoulder, and he tosses Stiles a bag of those kale chips. "Relax, guys, settle in," He gestures around at seats, then goes to lean against the counter, folding his arms across his chest. "Bring that bike by again sometime, Scott," he says with a nod toward the outside. "I'd love to get a look at it when we're not, y'know, trying to save our towns from evil and everything." Then, to business. Taking a more sober tone, he says, "Okay, so we all seem to be 'back,' which raises a big question: What's causing this, and what do we do to stop it? Now that we're all together, I'd really love to hear what everyone thinks."

Sly's grin widens when Seth holds his hand. He makes it a point to sit very close to Seth, so they're shoulder-to-shoulder and touching, as he settles in to listen to the others speak. At this point in the conversation, he mostly nods along, figuring the werewolves and locals will have more to add, but he does contribute, quietly, "We've got to find my dad, too. Once he's got his mind clear, he might know some stuff that we could use to help. I might know some friends in Seattle that can help us, too." Then it's back to being quiet and listening, visibly happy to be among friends again.

Seth seems quite happy, sitting that close to Sly, but he grows serious as the conversation starts. He nods in agreement, and then says, "I don't know if it was an attack, though. After they wiped our memories, they could've, and killed us and we couldn't have fought back. It's more like... Whoever it was wanted to keep us busy. So we didn't get involved in something. Or maybe it was some kind of way of trying to protect Forks and La Push from the supernatural, making anything supernatural coming around forget it all."

As he walks in, Derek nods in return to Jacob and settles into his position that seems to be bridged well between groups by Stiles. The gruff, imposing alpha starts to fold his arms on his chest--a typical idle pose--but pauses and sniffs softly. He narrows his eyes and sniffs again, slowly gravitating towards Stiles and the bag he was just thrown. What *are* those? He's never had whatever they are, but they smell good even through the packaging.

The points about the potential culprits do receive attention, however, and Derek nods once at Seth saying what he does. It's true. Whoever did this wanted to keep them busy. "They might not have been *able* to kill us," he points out himself. "This could have been a blanket effect. Because they weren't up to a direct confrontation."

Sure this was Washington state and they lived in Forks now. But Beacon Hills California REPRESENT! Of course Scott McCall was standing by the Beacon Hills alpha. While simultaneously standing by all of his friends as well. Thats just the Scott McCall way. He smiles back at Stiles before turning his attention to their host Jake. The man of the hour so to speak, as he was the one who basically pushed this snowball over the edge of the mountain. Like any good snowball rolling downhill it had gotten bigger than any one of them alone. But there was no denying that somehow Jake started it. So it made sense they would all gather here now. We meet again, at the turn of the tide. A great storm is coming, but the tide has turned. Scott heard that in some movie Stiles had on once. It was a really cool line, but a really long movie. That was one of his take aways from that movie marathon. "Alright Jake, I'll do that." If there was ever a time things weren't trying to murder them. Summer maybe? In Scott's experience monsters and evil usually had a summer break too in which nothing major really happened. It was always the school months when evil reigned. It was the damn teachers, why wouldn't people listen? Miss Victoria would be next, Scott wouldn't be remotely shocked. Summer was a long time off unfortunately.

Scott listened as the others in the room spoke, his eyebrows drawn together in what passes for both his confused and thinking look. In this case, potentially both. "What I really don't understand is, who gains making an enemy of all of us? Whatever reason they did this, someone would have to expect we weren't going to take it well. For that matter, Jake how *did* you pull this off? You were the first one to start waking everyone up." He considers a moment more. "We don't have any enemies in common do we? We just got here after all." There had been that Romania thing with Jason's family, but well. Jason had a tendency for 'final' solutions. Scott didn't think there was anyone left there to be an enemy. Truth be told Scott wouldn't have reminded forgetting that nightmare fuel moment. "How many of your pack brothers are still unconcious Jake? I mean it is good we've woke up. But how many haven't?" He nods at Sly, one question answered, Jason was still missing. Scott wasn't sure what to really make of that. But they had Derek still, and Jake. So it wasn't like they didn't have a few GOATs, lacrosse lingo, to fall back on. To Derek's thought he adds after a moment. "Or they just thought we were beneath them. Not worth a direct confrontation." That was going to cost someone.

Stiles opens the bag of kale chips, sniffs at it, and takes one to sample. When Derek shows interest, he offers the bag to the alpha, too. Chewing, he decides--hey, not bad! Crunchy and a little sweet. But mostly he's listening, taking it all in, and nodding at appropriate times. The discussion leads him to frown some, and he can't help but say, "Maybe it's not about whether they *could* fight us, but about what they wanted. If all they wanted was for us to be out of their way, then Weirding the whole down was way easier than having a big throw-down over it." He gestures in the air, almost like he were drawing on some nonexistent white board, and says, "Okay, we know *something* happened in Beacon Hills, something involving a big magic *thing*, so we had to go here. From everything I've seen, there's a good chance that it *followed* us here--or maybe we followed it. Either way, maybe we fought it before, so this time it just decided to take away our whole reason *to* fight."

"Most of the pack is out," Jake explains. "Seth's... kind of a special case, since he's in *my* pack, but most of the others... we'd actually need to get through to Sam, and I'm not sure how well that'll go. Sam's really... stubborn." He grimaces, reaching up to rub the back of his head some. "I think we might be better off looking for whatever the source of this is. As for enemies, it doesn't make sense. Who'd come after us like this? It seems like something those Volturi jerks would pull, but I doubt they'd have been able to catch the Cullens by surprise, even if they did. Alice would have known from a long way off." He frowns. There's something about Alice's visions that might be important, here, but he can't quite place it. After a moment, he continues, "But how I pulled it off? No idea, man. It started with these dreams. There was a voice... like a voice I knew, but I couldn't place... and it just started telling me things should be different."

Looking thoughtful, Sly says, "It didn't feel protective, though. It felt... wrong. Like it was screwing with us. Whoever it was, they'd have to understand some *serious* magic. This thing works on all of you, plus the Cullens, *plus* me. We're all way different. Besides, it's lasted a long time, so it's probably got to be focused somewhere. Spells don't last indefinitely, from what I know, without *some* kind of focus. It could be an enchantment or... maybe an artifact." Something about that rings a bell in his mind, and he frowns thoughtfully. Had he come here to *look* for such an artifact? He tugs out his phone and frowns down at it. There's someone he should call who might know, but who? He starts to tap idly through the contacts list, gently squeezing Seth's hand as he does so.

Seth nods to Derek, and says, "Yeah, that's possible. I mean, we're all really tough to kill." He looks to Scott, and then to Stiles, blinking, "You came here because of something in Beacon Hills? I don't remember you even coming to town yet." Then, to Jacob, he says, curious, "Do you remember who it was now?"

Derek's attention returns to the bag of those strange green chips. When Stiles opens the bag and eats one, he watches, as if half-expecting them to do something unexpected and surprising. Once they are offered to him, Derek reaches out and surprisingly gingerly takes a single one with his thumb and first finger, bringing it up to sniff closer to his nose. Then he crunches it all in one go and slowly nods his head, licking his lips afterwards and taking another before Stiles can take the bag away. These meet with his approval.

"Who are the Volturi?" Derek asks, direct and to the point as always. He crunches the second chip and chews it, swallowing before he follows this question with a sure statement. "Between the two of us, we can persuade Sam." He doesn't know the guy, but it's basic math: two or more will be more persuasive than one with his heels dug in. Derek isn't the type to take no for an answer, when it counts.

Scott McCall considers what Stiles had to say and nods thoughtfully. That actually made a lot of sense, not that Scott was all that suprised. Stiles had a knack for figuring out things like that. "Ok, so even with our memories back we don't really have even a list of suspects to try and narrow down. Just some possible motivations. So looks like we start searching the woods like Derek said. Maybe we find who or what did this out there." He nods to the alpha, smiling. "Ok, or maybe what they used for a focus too." Magic, that was wayyyy outside anything Scott understood, but he was willing to take Sly's word on it. As Jacob tells them the state of the other pack Scott nods. "So most of the pack is still out of it, and Jason is still missing. That sucks. But we can help them all at once if we figure this out." He nods to Derek though, he had a point. Maybe they could get Sam to come around. Not that Scott knew who he even was. Confused puppy look. "So, you have no idea who was telling you this? That is sort of creepy man." Were they still getting played somehow? That thought worried Scott. "Maybe we should try and figure out the source too, if they knew that they might know more." Like just who did it.

Stiles nods thoughtfully and chimes in, "I was saying this to Derek earlier, when we went through his files--it's like the mountain ash. The magic is in what we do with it, but the ash itself is the focus of the power. We need to figure out where the power is, and... break the circle, or whatever." Most of this is out of Stiles' depth, but he can recognize a pattern, and there are finally some good ones forming that he can see. He nods along with Scott's point about the mysterious source, though. "But how can we track it down? None of us is, like, a dream...omancer... or anything."

Jacob scrubs a hand over his face. "I'd normally agree with you, Derek, but you don't know Sam. He's... he's strong because he's a rock, but he's also about as easy to convince as one. Once we stop this thing, he'll back us up, but trying to get him to reconsider his whole reality is... probably not gonna happen." He grimaces, thinking of other problematic issues concerning his former packmates, but... that will keep for another time. "And the Volturi, they're... basically the vampire government. AKA, assholes who want to get in everyone's business and screw you over for their own benefit." Looking from Scott to Seth, Jake visibly concentrates, rubbing his forehead, and says, "They spoke... French? I think it was French. The voice was... feminine. Kind of... grandmothery. She called Jason '*Mon beau prince*,' I think? I feel like I know her, but I can't quite remember it all."

At the French phrase, Sly half jumps up and almost lands in Seth's lap before regaining his balance. Fortunately, as he was holding on to Seth, this isn't hard to do, but he's visibly excited. "She called him **mon beau prince**? Then... it had to be Elizabet! Um, Elizabet Angelle. She was... an old friend of Dad's. And she... died, not too long ago, in the thing with his psycho father." No, thank you, Sly will *not* refer to *him* as his grandfather. Nope. Not happening. "So... maybe Jacob was, uh... being haunted? By a friendly ghost?"

Seth jumps a tiny bit, startled, as Sly jumps to his feet. But, he listens, and then grins, "Maybe, yeah! A spirit, probably. Which makes sense. I mean, they wouldn't be affected by any kind of spell, right?"

"I don't know Sam," Derek repeats, nodding and folding his arms over his chest. "I also don't care. I don't want to take any chances. If we can bolster our numbers, then we should do it." As for the Volturi...that's way out of his expertise and beyond his proverbial pay grade. He figures the actual vampires can handle the Volturi, when and if they even become relevant. They're not a part of this though, apparently, so he won't have to worry about finding out how to take them out.

The bag is still open. The kale chips still tempt him. Derek slowly eases into a light frown and, gradually, leans closer to Stiles. It's almost unnoticeable, but it's there. He hasn't eaten that much today. The whole crisis addressed by this meeting had to take priority, and as a vigilante himself, Derek obviously has the dedication needed to focus on the essentials.

It doesn't do much to satisfy the desire for *fun* in food, though. Not when you're eating just what you need and concentrating only on the necessary nutrients to keep the body going in minimal time and effort.

Derek pauses for a second, thinking about this whole thing. Are the kale chips more appealing because they're around Stiles? Is his scent mingling with them? That would be weird, he imagines. He definitely doesn't want to eat Stiles. But does Stiles make them more *fun*? Is it an association-by-scent thing? Because Stiles is fun, thus foods Stiles has right next to him are fun?

The alpha becomes lost in thought, staring at Stiles and the bag of chips and only barely blinking.

Scott McCall shrugs to Stiles and looks a little helpless. "Ouija board is out. I've seen enough movies, they never help." Yep that smacked of magic. Which was among the plethora of things Scott knew nothing about. Evil vampire governments was on that list too, and the concept of the vampires of the world hgaving their own government was frankly terrifying. So he wasn't considering that right now unless he had to. He looked back and forth between Jacob and Sly and stared. Come to Forks they said. Small town life they said. Less murders and magic trees they said. Vampire governements, memory spells wiping entire towns minds, and grandmotherly french shosts haunting werewolf teens. This place was cracked! Whatever happened to just a simple damn knnima! Though the winged ones were horrifying he had to admit. "So...a ghost. A ghost is telling you-" he just stops there and shakes his head. "I guess we trust the ghost then?" Would a ghost be affected? Scott had no idea. "She has never actually appeared to you, maybe because she is weirded out too, but only so she can't appear directly? or she did and you forgot?" Like the conversations he kept having with Mason. They would forget them and have them again in some fashion. Scott glances at Derek and confused puppys at him. He was really fascinated with those chips. It was the chips, had to be. What was in those things, now Scott was curious himself.

Stiles turns and blinks a little at Derek, offering him the whole bag of kale chips, since Stiles himself is too lost in thought to really remember to munch on them. "Ghosts are outside my experience, too," he sighs. "And you never, *ever* use a Ouija board. That way lies the path of demonic summonings and possessions, and *trust me*, nobody wants to be possessed by a demon. There's basically nothing worse that can happen." He frowns some at Derek. "I dunno if more is better or not, though. If this Sam guy gives us trouble, it could slow everything down. Maybe we should stick to people we know we can depend on." The truth is, Stiles is slow to trust other alphas. Blame Peter Hale for that one. As for the current alpha in proximity to him, if Stiles notices the special attention, it sure doesn't show.

"Elizabet," Jacob repeats slowly, then nods. "Yeah, yeah! That's who's been in my dreams. She's been telling me how things are supposed to be, and... hell, I don't know how this spell thing works, but why *would* they have it target ghosts, even if they could? Ghosts aren't exactly something we usually talk to. Speaking to the dead or whatever, that's... definitely not a talent you'd find in a typical werewolf pack." He looks slowly between each of the others. "I think we should get over to the Cullens, go get Liam, and all of us head out to the woods. We need to find Jason, and we need to find whatever the 'focus' for this spell thing is. Maybe, if Elizabet can tell us anything, she'll get us a message along the way." Idly, without even really thinking, he picks up another little bag of kale chips and tosses them Derek's way. They're not the store-bought kind, either. They're homemade from the local farmers' market, making them bother way cheaper and a lot higher quality at the same time.

Perhaps fittingly, it's on that note when the faint shimmer appears in the air. It resembles a woman, physically indistinct, at once pale and thin with age but as though the full beauty of her youth were somehow hovering just out of the corner of one's eye. The shape is merely a smudge, a suggestion of light, but somehow it conveys all that. There's also a distinct twinkle around the eyes. When she speaks, the voice begins sounding thin, faded, yet ends in a richer, more vibrant sound, almost as if death itself had done nothing but reveal the true essence of the woman now appearing before them. She says only one sentence, but it's clear as a bell: "*Cherchez la rÃ©flexion dans les arbres...* You must seek the reflection in the trees..." Then, without further comment or explanation, the apparition is gone.

Jacob is left blinking in surprise. "Uh. So... that, then." He looks to the others, clearly a bit weirded out by the experience, before cracking a bit of a grin. "Ghost allies," he says, chuckling some. "Already this feels right somehow. Weird, meet weird."

Sly settles back down beside Seth, collecting himself some, just in time for the *ghost* to appear before them. "Whoa," he murmurs, eyes widening, and leans forward with interest. Turning back to face Seth once she's gone, Sly says, "That... was *way* cool. You guys really don't do things halfway around here, do you?" He beams brightly and reaches for a bag of nuts from the bowl of snacks on the table. "Seriously, I've missed this place. Hauntings only make it even cooler." Of course, he and Seth have, by all indications, found other ways that things are cooler, but that's their own business. (At least until his Dad finds out, at which point the noise complaints about wolves howling in the woods might make it a bit more of a public affair. Possibly. Best not to think about that right now.)

Seth, too, grins as the ghost appears, not actually saying anything but apparently finding it just as cool as Sly does. Then, though, he goes a bit thoughtful, and says, "What do you think she means?" Then, he adds, "In the old stories, ghosts aren't that weird."

Derek accepts the bag of kale chips and holds it as if he doesn't quite know what to do with it now that it's been given to him. And then Jacob tosses him another one! So the alpha stands a bit awkwardly in place, holding his two bags of kale chips.

He's not sure if it's as fun as grabbing them from the bag Stiles was holding.

Of course, once Scott shows some interest, Derek tosses him one of the bags to try. The unopened one, since the other one might scatter crumbs of delicious kale all over the Black family floor. And it's only seconds after that when the apparition manifests and speaks. But what does that mean? Derek's brow lowers in thought. Of course, he can understand what she said. But it takes him a few seconds to think that everyone else might not.

"Look for the reflection in the trees," Derek offers, partially in answer to Seth and partially in the interest of clarifying on general terms for everyone.

Stiles gets a sidelong *look*, though not for any particular reason.

Scott McCall nods meaningfully to Stiles, like he said. He has seen those movies and the take away there was simple. Friends don't let friends play with ouija boards. Because you won't have those friends for long. They'll be monster kibble, or worse. As for Sam, well that seemed to be between the two alphas in the room to work out. So Scott doesn't even pretend like he is going to wade inbetween them on that. "So, basically a ghost that knew Jason told you stuff about us and it was all the truth. So I guess we are trusting your ghost. That sounds like a good next mov-" He just stops speaking.

Scott stares wide eyed at the ghost. It was one thing to hear about it, another to SEE it. He has seen monsters, and seen bodies torn in half, and seen things that would turn your hair *white*. He had seen *TEACHERS*. But before this day, he had not seen a ghost before. You just never really get used to it. Or Scott didn't seem to. Seeing some new wild and wooly bit of the supernatural world he was now a part of. Maybe once he got to Derek's age it wouldn't surprise him anymore. He honestly did not suspect Derek would flinch if Jason arrived now in full nightmare werewolf shape weilding Excalibur, riding a friggin T-Rex, with the ghost they just saw riding side saddle behind him playing the Superman theme music on flaming bagpipes. He would just scowl faintly and eat kale chips. He envied Derek that, the resolve more so than the kale chips.

In a slightly hollow voice he says a moment later. "That was nice of her to translate. I took spanish as my language. So I guess we search the woods and look for a relection." It wasn't a question since the ghost just said go do that. Yeah, ok so that just happened. They just got directions from a ghost friend of the missing werewolf lord. Scott was going pitch his life as a tv series. He just needed a good name to really get to the heart of the show. It would come to him, and when it did. Dark Shadows eat your friggin heart out. Scott notices everyone else is taking it pretty well though so he just takes a moment to chill. And gets hit with a bag of kale chips in the head, before catching them on the rebound.

Kanima.

Scott really missed Kanima.

Ghosts should really surprise Stiles. Ghosts should freak him out, or at least raise a bunch of questions about mortality and the afterlife and cosmic matters of god(s) and all that kind of thing. Instead, all this does is make him stare a moment, then grin, and then let out an odd little cackle, half under his breath. Turning to playfully punch Derek in the arm (clearly without thinking it through, since he hurts his hand a little), he pauses after to declare, "Ow!" Shaking out the pain a bit, he then exclaims, "Dude! We've got *Force ghosts* on our side. That's like the best sign *ever* that we're gonna win this thing. I mean, sure, our Yoda was French or whatever, but so what? Yoda could be a nice old French lady!" Cheerfully, he reaches over to raid Derek's kale chip bag, beaming around at all the others as if it were Christmas, not the occasion of a cryptic haunting and mysterious antagonist robbing everyone of their memories.

Selena had been out on a run. A run that had turned into something... *more*... something free... something *amazing*. Something that just felt *right*. That is... until she woke up to find herself in the middle of the woods somewhere naked in the rain... *again*. She'd wondered along until she found clothes somewhere... open house... open car... a minor B&E for a good cause is ok, right? Especially when it saves you from public indecency charges. She gets her bearings when she walks across the Black property. She's been here before! She hurries up to the door and knocks, standing there in a too-large ICP t-shirt and cargo shorts held up with one hand and muddy bare feet. Yeah, the Blacks are gonna be happy about this! Maybe she can catch a ride!

At the knock on the door, Jacob crosses over to answer it. It's a startlingly mundane act after such a brush with the supernatural, but--well, hey, that's their lives, right? As he opens the door and spots Selena there, Jake blinks and says, "Whoa, hey! You better come in. It's cold out there." Not that he shows any sign of feeling it, dressed in a tank top and cargo shorts. But he reaches to usher Selena inside, saying, "Look, you should grab a shower. I'll find you some sweats to wear or something, okay? We've just been... talking about the Weird. Maybe we can catch you up when you get back." The others each get meaningful looks. Maybe Selena's joined them just now for a reason. It's as though everything seems to be coming together.

Sly turns to watch Jacob answer the door, one eyebrow raised, and doesn't interrupt their host as he immediately offers the wet and mostly nude girl a shower and some fresh clothes. Turning to Seth, he murmurs, "Do lots of you guys' friends show up wet and naked without warning? That's weird, but Jacob didn't even act surprised. I mean, I don't think my dad would have really reacted much, either, but it's weird watching my dad's boyfriend take some mostly naked muddy girl to the shower." A beat, and he snickers, adding, "But it's weird watching my dad's boyfriend do anything, considering he's barely older than me." Well, relatively speaking. No sense bringing the time spent in FaÃ«rie into it. That just complicates matters.

Seth waves to Elena, as she's let in the door. He looks back to Sly, and grins, saying very softly, "Actually, yeah. Mostly in the packs, though." Then, just as softly, he adds, "She's been helping in the whole figuring out our memories, thing. Maybe she's supposed to be here."

Derek stares as Stiles punches him and seems to be the only one really hurt by it. He frowns again, very slightly, as if to show concern and perhaps a bit of frustration at the whole gesture. Why would someone *do* that? Maybe Stiles just needed to be doing something, for some reason. Whatever, he ultimately decides.

Then Stiles is...taking kale chips from the same bag he gave to Derek after Derek seemed to be interested in them. But before he can say or do anything about it, the door is open and Selena is being shown in wearing--if it can really even be called that--clothes that don't fit her at all. If she shows any indication of recognizing him, he nods in acknowledgement of her in general. Sort of a "you exist and I approve this continued state", or in other words, a typical Derek Hale greeting.

Scott McCall stares at Stiles a moment and then utters words he immediately regrets. "What is a force ghost?" It dawns on him a moment later that this is probably another Battlestar Galactica Trek Wars thing. He knows that now Stiles will rededicate himself to Scott watching the entire Dr Who's Stargate Babylon Fifth Element series. Or something. He had a feeling he might have combined two of them, but that wasn't really a concern right now. Particularly as Selena shows up out of the blue. Scott looks behind her waiting to see Dash just show up too. No, no Dash would walk out of the bathroom when Selena opened the door, having been there the entire time. Ok, ok get it together McCall, take a breath here. A moment later he visibly calms down.

"Hey Selena. Did Mason send you?" Mason had said he would try and get Selena or Dash to come out this way if he saw them. Yes that would be rationale. Which means it is almost certainly not what happened. He didn't even need a ghost to tell him so either. He still half expects Dash is in the bathtub. Even as Jacob ushers Selena in. "So when are we going to start searching the forest for this reflection?"

Sadly, Stiles' greeting to Selena is reduced to a mere offhanded wave thanks to Scott's geek faux pas. Otherwise, the sudden appearance of a mostly naked, wet, attractive girl would no doubt have drawn considerable attention. But Scott has done something that, were he any other man, Stiles would kill him where he st--okay, he wouldn't do that, but he'd *totally* stop talking to him and refuse to sit with him at lunch. Stiles turns to face Scott and, giving his very best *Han Solo shut-up-and-don't-say-it-right-now* face, he says, "That is *it*. When this is over, *Star Wars* marathon at my place. You have brought shame on this house, and I'm the only one who can complete your training." He huffs, dropping into a seat, and folds his arms across his chest. Some people just don't have their priorities straight at all.

What, it's cold? Selena hadn't noticed. She just gets a dopey smile on her face when Jacob answers the door. "Wait... what?" She asks in a dazed sort of confusion when she's ushered in. She tries to move along on her tippytoes to avoid trekking TOO much mud into the house... well she tries at least. It's the thought that counts, right? She nods her wet head. "Yeah um.... oh gosh... wait... *your* sweats?" Her eyes widen and she gets that big grin again. She might just die right now. "Shower? Here?" Her eyes look to the muddy track she's leaving and she sighs softly. "Oh... yes... A shower would be good, thanks! I'll hurry." She spots Scott and Stiles and a couple others she doesn't know and they get a quick wave... She falters though when she sees Derek..... Annnnd she BLUSHES but she does offer a nod in return. Her head turns and she blinks in confusion at Jacob.... Why is her *coach* here? Then the same look goes to Scott and Stiles. She shakes her head "I'll figure it all out when I get back. I'm dripping everywhere." She doesn't take long in the shower at all. She's already CLEAN. She just... has to wash all the mud off. She takes whatever dry clothes Jacob gives her--- after sniffing and hugging them for a bit! Shhhh! What girls do to guy's clothes in private is nobody's business but their own! She pops back out in just a couple minutes and makes her way into the edge of the little gathering... Oooh is there food? "So... I'm really getting tired of waking up naked in the woods. It's really awkward.... I'm guessing it's also very Weird." She chimes in helpfully as she pops a snack into her mouth and chews like she hasn't eaten in a week. "Mmmm." She looks around for a soda or something. Totally clueless that she just missed an actual GHOST appearing! Darnit! She shakes her head at Scott's question. "Hi Scott. Nope. Woke up in the woods. No clothes. Not sure why. I recognized Jacob's house after walking for a while and I thought maybe I could get a ride to wherever I left my car.... but all of you are here and... wait... you're going to search the forest for a reflection?" She casts another confused look around the small oddball gathering. "Oookay. I'm in. My night can't get any weirder." Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.

The pair of faded old gray sweats, including both pants and a top, are far too big for her, roomy enough to swim in, but fortunately the pants have a drawstring to avoid any kind of wardrobe mishaps. They're also very soft and cozy, making them nice to lounge in after a hot shower. As Selena rejoins them, she'll also find a big bowl of healthy snack foods on the coffee table, including bags of nuts, bags of kale chips, and other such items. They all look locally home made, too, rather than store bought. Jacob also vanishes into the kitchen briefly, returning with a glass of ice water, which he offers her with a mild grimace. "It's all I've got right now, unless... you want some tea or something?" With a girl present, Jacob is suddenly glad they have tea. Girls like tea, right?

At the mention of Selena waking up in the woods naked, Jacob gets a funny look on his face and... leans in as if to *sniff* at her. He tries to be subtle about it, but to anyone paying close attention, it's not that hard to figure out what he's up to. Whatever he catches scent of, though, he starts a little, clears his throat, and asks as evenly and casually as he can, "Uh, hey, Selena? Do you, uh... do you believe in werewolves...?"

Sly watches all this, then shakes his head, grinning, and hops to his feet. Reaching out to tug Seth along with him, he says, "Well, I know one thing--scrambling around in the woods isn't easy. We're gonna need a few things. So, we'll go and get some supplies and stuff, and we'll meet you back here when we're all ready to go." He shoots the others a *good luck* sort of look, then all but drags Seth out of there. Apparently, dealing with the as-yet-unaware new werewolf girl isn't on his list of things he wants to deal with right now! Or, maybe, he's sincere about the supplies. Who can tell?

The whole thing between Stiles and Scott escapes Derek, but he really isn't sure about anything that goes on between them, as a rule. He just tries to keep himself at a safe distance when he doesn't understand what they're talking about, which is most of the time. Though he has to admit, even if he just does it in his own mind: who doesn't know what a force ghost is?! He would have thought that Scott, as dorky as he kind of is, would at least know that fairly universal bit of mild-level geek trivia.

It leaves Derek awkwardly holding the bag of kale chips when Stiles stalks off to a seat. Great, now he has no reason to be standing there holding a bag slightly out, and he feels like it would be weird if he just stood there and ate the rest of the bag by himself. Selena's off to shower, so he can't offer her any just yet.

So Derek, after a short time of silent keeping to himself, sighs quietly and walks over to where Stiles sat down. It means he isn't really expecting Selena to pop back out again, and when she does, it's right in the middle of Derek impulsively starting in motion to hand the kale chips down to Stiles. And then Jacob sniffs her. What ends up happening is that he helpfully pours the entire bag into Stiles's lap. Enjoy!

Derek's intent of criticizing Jacob for that act and that phrasing is entirely derailed. He immediately stares at Stiles, as if he could convey some kind of apology through the look. That wasn't what he meant to do. Obviously."

Derek is sympathetic to Selena's state. Apparently she's not quite out of the fog that was placed on all of them around the area of Forks, to make them forget who and what they really were, who and what they had been before relocating to this place. Some of them, anyway, since the others who lived here already were also affected.

The whole thing between Stiles and Scott escapes Derek, but he really isn't sure about anything that goes on between them, as a rule. He just tries to keep himself at a safe distance when he doesn't understand what they're talking about, which is most of the time. Though he has to admit, even if he just does it in his own mind: who doesn't know what a force ghost is?! He would have thought that Scott, as dorky as he kind of is, would at least know that fairly universal bit of mild-level geek trivia.

It leaves Derek awkwardly holding the bag of kale chips when Stiles stalks off to a seat. Great, now he has no reason to be standing there holding a bag slightly out, and he feels like it would be weird if he just stood there and ate the rest of the bag by himself. Selena's off to shower, so he can't offer her any just yet.

So Derek, after a short time of silent keeping to himself, sighs quietly and walks over to where Stiles sat down. It means he isn't really expecting Selena to pop back out again, and when she does, it's right in the middle of Derek impulsively starting in motion to hand the kale chips down to Stiles. And then Jacob sniffs her. What ends up happening is that he helpfully pours the entire bag into Stiles's lap. Enjoy!

Derek's intent of criticizing Jacob for that act and that phrasing is entirely derailed. He immediately stares at Stiles, as if he could convey some kind of apology through the look. That wasn't what he meant to do. Obviously.

Scott McCall is suddenly very glad he remembered at that last second what a Yoda was.

It was a muppet! He was sure of that.

Still best to just let that go. At least Mason wasn't here or he'd be getting twice the scowls. Scott bet neither of them new what a Grandma goal was. Or what it meant when someone was crispy with the rock. Bah.

"You woke up naked, in the woods." Oh yeah Selena was in the right place alright. Scott looks at Derek, one of those knowing type glances. He wouldn't even try and say what she had. But she had something. Maybe Derek had a better idea, or as it turns out Jacob. Now that he thought about there was a scent there. Now that he thought about it he recalled it a few times he had seen Selena, he just never thought about it before. Damn weird. "Uhhh yeah, thats right. A reflection in the trees. Whatever that exactly means." He was not going to outright invite Selena, that was up to the alphas present. Though she did sort of invite herself there. Derek did say he wanted more people on this, she was clearly weirded out, and well again, she did volunteer. He was about to ask Derek when he poured locally made kale chips all over Stiles. Scott winced, and wondered between one alpha sniffing people and the other spilling snacks if it was to late to help Sly and Seth. He ends up just looking at the muddy footprints for a moment. My, they are interesting. You can tell a lot about a werewolf girl based off the pattern of the muddy footprints she leaves on another werewolf's carpet. Thats a thing, right?

Once again, Stiles misses out on a prime moment thanks to a sudden surprise. How often do you get to comment on a guy asking a girl if she believes in werewolves? But before Stiles can even sarcastically pretend to howl, he suddenly has Derek looming over him... and then a lap full of kale chips. Blinking a few times, Stiles stares up at the alpha wolf before him and says, "Uh. If you didn't want them anymore, you could've just, uh... put 'em down?" Furrowing his brow, he helpfully gestures to a seat on the couch beside him, then... picks up a kale chip from his lap and munches it. (Hey, why not? These jeans were fresh from the wash! No reason he can't eat a chip off them.) This awkward moment, of course, also saves Scott from the Revenge of the Stiles, which is probably less evil than Revenge of the Sith but also much, much awkwarder.

Selena takes the water and shakes her head. "No. Water's fi----" her words halt slightly as Jacob does his best subtle sniff but alas... for all his effort, Selena is 100% Jacob-sensitized right now. She is IN. HIS. CLOTHES. She sort of leans back a little bit and eyes him as he sniffs her "iiiine.... Okay you're super cute and dreamy gorgeous but that is just a little TOO weird even to overlook for the sake of hotness...." And then the coach is dumping chips in someone's lap and she is being asked about werewolves... she laughs... a short, quick, sharp laugh that cuts off mid-laugh. "Wait... you're serious?" She asks, both brows lifting in surprise. "You mean like.... arrrooo" She makes claw hands with her one hand and just... shakes her head. "Um. No." Caause she doesn't want the guys in the white coats to come around the corner and haul her off. And then... she jut sort of stares at Jacob as if shes no longer sure if she wants to kiss him or slide awkwardly a few more feet away from him.

This draws a frown and a sudden, bright blush surfaces on Jacob's face. "Oh--god, no! I didn't mean!" He coughs, looking at Derek as if begging for help, and then back to Selena. "God, that must have seemed *so creepy*. I'm sorry. I was checking to see if--!" He cuts off, sighing, and reaches up to scrub a hand across his face. "Okay, look, Selena. You're gonna think I'm completely nuts, but... *I* believe in werewolves. They're totally real, and... I can prove it to you." After all, seeing is believing, right? What could possibly go wrong?

The whole thing makes Stiles frown a little deeper and darker, though it never turns entirely into a glower. He steps around and sits on the couch, and without a moment's hesitation just sets the empty bag between himself and Stiles. He starts to lean in to gather up the chips and return them to the bag, but it occurs to him after an admirably few seconds that it probably isn't a fantastic idea to just...clear off someone's lap.

So instead, he reaches over, takes up one single chip, and eats it, watching the interplay between Scott, Selena, and Jacob. However, recognition dawns on what the Quileute shifter is about to do, and as strange and confusing as the own situation is, it's not going to get any better or least of all clearer, if Jacob starts doing what Derek is pretty much totally sure he's going to do.

So abruptly, Derek stands and does his...butt-flex, claw-pop thing, eyes gleaming red, shining like a beacon as he wolfs out before Jacob has a chance to.

Thank goodness. We've all seen enough of Jacob's abs to last a lifetime.

The whole thing makes Derek frown a little deeper and darker, though it never turns entirely into a glower. He steps around and sits on the couch, and without a moment's hesitation just sets the empty bag between himself and Stiles. He starts to lean in to gather up the chips and return them to the bag, but it occurs to him after an admirably few seconds that it probably isn't a fantastic idea to just...clear off someone's lap.

So instead, he reaches over, takes up one single chip, and eats it, watching the interplay between Scott, Selena, and Jacob. However, recognition dawns on what the Quileute shifter is about to do, and as strange and confusing as the own situation is, it's not going to get any better or least of all clearer, if Jacob starts doing what Derek is pretty much totally sure he's going to do.

So abruptly, Derek stands and does his...butt-flex, claw-pop thing, eyes gleaming red, shining like a beacon as he wolfs out before Jacob has a chance to.

Thank goodness. We've all seen enough of Jacob's abs to last a lifetime.

Scott McCall was reasonably sure that Liam showing up as he was walking out the door with a jacket half on and a sausage sticking out of his mouth was going to be the weirdest part of his day. That was likely his first mistake today. He half expects someone to just wolf out and show Selena. But if she is still to werided out she'll likely just think a baby bear broke into the house suddenly. Wait. Wait Wait Wait. Was Jacob really going to do this now. "Uh. Would Jason approve of this? Didn't we like go to out of town to stop people from telling other people about...baby bears." He just stops there. I mean if Selena was a baby bea- *WEREWOLF* Now he had himself doing it. It likely wouldn't matter, would it? Well then Derek goes and pops claws and the wolf's out of the bag now isn't it? Scott loooks around the room and realizes this wopuld have been the moment a week ago when he reached for an inhaler. because he figured the fur was about to fly.

Stiles squirms a little as Derek reaches to start sweeping the chips from his lap, but his protests are strangled to death in his throat as his brain goes into a temporary feedback loop. By the time he's pushed past that one, Derek is suddenly popping claws and--huh, did his butt always flex like that when he popped his claws? Stiles was sure he'd have noticed before, and--*oh god, focus, Stilinski!* He can practically hear the dulcet tones of Coach Finstock summoning him back from his daze, enough so that he shares a glance with Scott as if saying *shit, here we go!* and then stands up slowly, cringing a bit as he scatters kale chips on the floor, and then raises his hands carefully in a placating gesture toward Selena. "Uh, okay, so... step one--werewolves are real. Step two, please, *please* try not to panic right now."

Selena watches Jacob, still clearly freaked out. Although it is kind of adorable the way he turns all pink and rubs his face like that. Still not adorable enough to chase off the weird. And then he's telling her he can prove it. One dark brow lifts in silent challenge. Really who could blame the girl? No one in their right mind would believe those words. And then Derek is wolfing out.

Selena jerks to her feet and stumbles backwards until her back is against he wall and out comes a *scu----reaaaaam* that immediately turns into something more akin to a howl. Poor Stiles' words are lost on her. It's all happening and she probably can't hear him over the scream... The sound of bones popping and muscles sliding against muscles until there is a dark wolf taking up a large portion of the living room.

She hunkers down and growls fiercely at Derek-wolf, claws curling as her muscles prepare to lunge her at the DANGER. She growls deep in her throat and the fur on her back stands up straight. She is NOT happy and the living room is suddenly too small and though her clothes don't rip off of her since they're sweats... they are squeezing her quite tightly... mainly the tied waist of the pants since her waist as a girl is smaller than her waist as a flesh ripping she-beast.

Selena phases to her direwolf form.

Jacob reaches out toward Derek, saying, "Don't do it like--!" But he's too late. Dammit. He was going to give a little speech about the world not being what she thought it was and everything, try to ease her into it! Derek just *went there*, and--dammit, Jake really needs to learn that wolfman form the southern pack all know how to do. It's just so convenient to get a boost without having to strip first. Anyway, Jacob turns to focus on Selena and slowly lowers himself to the ground, crouching down in front of her so he looks smaller, posing less of an ostensible threat. He keeps his body language neutral, neither submissive nor aggressive, and looks her straight in the eyes. "*Selena*," he says, emphasizing the word, "you're a wolf. The only thing you can do is accept that. I dunno if you can understand me in this phase or not, but... listen to your senses. You can tell I'm not here to hurt you. I'm not your enemy." The sweats won't last long, and he knows it, but... oh, well. Small loss, really. If he can just keep her from wrecking the house!

Derek Hale phases to his wolfman form.

Derek stares at Selena, but he figured this would happen. Or something like it. He was prepared for this eventuality, even if everyone else wasn't. Stepping in front of Stiles and kind of...half-bumping him back with werewolf butt, not entirely intentionally, but he'll take it if it gets Stiles to give them some space...he takes another step towards Selena, tilting his head back and gazing into her eyes. He doesn't say anything, but his whole posture is not the same approach Jacob takes.

He's the alpha, dammit. She might have the potential to be one in her, and that's an interesting enough possibility to consider later. For that matter, Scott might have that potential too; Liam's existence would seem to indicate that he does. But these things will keep, to be dealt with later. Right now, they need all the allies they can get, and if it's a little sudden...well, at least it isn't dancing around the topic.

She certainly can't deny that werewolves exist, and now that the rest of them have broken the brainwashing and the fog of amnesia for the moment...maybe it will dawn on her that right now she is an actual huge wolf, in Jacob Black's living room, and she's staring at a...half-wolf, half-man sort of being who was, seconds before, Derek Hale. Once upon a time, gym coach at Forks High School.

Derek believes in her! Hopefully that won't be a mistake. But he doesn't show a single fiber of doubt in the way he stands. His posture is one of complete confidence. She'll come around.

Scott McCall was less concerned about Selena having a panic attack and more concerned about her discovering she is a werewolf by going into a frenzy herself. This was really not cool. Scott would have handled this differently. He truly believes he would have. Ideally in some way that did not result in exactly what he was afraid of. Whose afraid of Selena Wolf in the living room. In the GD living room! Not the best place for a lets get ready to rumble match with four werewolves, and one frail little human whose only defense is sarcasm.

With that in mind Scott moves to protect his best friend, positioning himself in front of Stiles. He hasn't wolfed out himself yet, but he is close to it. He looks back at Stiles and says with a slightly more gruff voice than normal. "Stiles stay behind me!" And Stiles might just see what Derek saw the other night. For a moment, his eyes flicker back and forth from yellow, to fully red, before back to yellow again. He is only missing green and he's be a traffic light. Because amber, really? Pffff. Hopefully he won't have to shift, but right now whatever the alphas do to control and contain this situation, It isn't a very big space, and Scott is worried about Stiles.

Well, crap. First Selena wolfs out, then Derek wolfs out, then he's being ass-bumped backwards into Scott, who *also* wolfs out, and *hello, red-eyes*. Stiles scrambles to get behind Scott, looking decidedly well-aware of just how dangerous the situation is. Stiles is brave, but he's not stupid by any measure, and he's all too happy to put the werewolves between himself and the other werewolf. Once he's behind Scott, though, his mind starts to race. He just *saw* Scott's eyes flicker red. He saw it *for sure*. What the hell did that mean? Scott wasn't an alpha. Scott never killed an alpha, so--! But wait, didn't alphas have to *come* from somewhere? So, maybe new alphas could be a thing. Maybe Scott was some kind of newborn alpha, or--! There wasn't time to explore the thoughts fully now, but in his mind's eye, strings (appropriately, red and yellow) stretch between a few points on his mental peg board, and he makes notes to himself to pursue the investigation later. For now, he looks to Selena-the-wolf with both concern and apprehension. (And to think, he'd been worried about a few kale chips on the floor.)

Selena bristles more at Derek's moving closer that one step. She bears her teeth and growls warningly. She only seems slightly affected by his presense as an alpha... fighting against that with as much force as she growls with. Her eyes do shift from Derek to Jacob once... then twice... then settle on Jacob. For several moments there's nothing but animal there as she glances between Derek and Jacob, but then... just there... there's a little flicker of awareness. She looks around the living room and then lifts her paw and actually gazes at it... and finally back to Jacob, eyes widening and a low whine starting in the back of her throat.

No--- NOW she's starting to panic! No longer growling at Derek, she realizes who these people are but HOLY FUCK SHE IS A WOLF! HOW DOES SHE GET OUT OF IT?! HOW DOES SHE GO BACK!?! OW THESE PANTS HURT! She turns and starts gnawing at the waistband while backpddaling against the wall and turning in a circle both while trying to get the string ripped free which it does with one quick jerk of her head and a loud riiiiipp sound. And then she's just spinning around trying to figure out her own body! She looks back up at Jacob, then Derek then Stiles and Scott with confusion and another low whine escapes her.

Jacob looks relieved when Selena finally just tears the pants away, and he helpfully reaches out to try to get the top off of her, too, whether by tearing it or whatever's needed. He extends his hand again, trying to be reassuring, and says, "You can control this! Just, calm down. You're with *friends*. Derek's a werewolf, too, and so am I. I just... I won't be able to talk to you anymore if I phase, and I don't think we're gonna speak the same language." Dammit, this is why all wolves should have shared telepathy. It's the only thing that makes any sense! Or something. "I want you to picture your human form, okay? Picture it as hard as you can, and try to phase back." He shoots Derek a quiet look as if to implore him to tone down the alpha vibe some. The last thing they need is for her to freak out worse than she already has, and if she goes all fight-or-flight, he figures it won't help. (After all, Derek's pretty damn intense, and his alpha presence is probably enough to touch off a very serious confrontation if she's able to fight it.)

Even before Jacob looks to him, Derek's already shifting back to his more human appearance, holding out his arms to his sides. The way he was brought up, an alpha in presence that knew he was an alpha should be comforting, a source of stability in a storm of confusion. That's all he was trying for. He holds his hands up at his sides.

"You are a wolf," Derek's voice roughly rumbles up. "It's natural and beautiful. Do what Jacob says, picture your human self. Pull it on like pulling on clothes."

He really is remarkably even-toned and seems even-tempered, but that's not exactly different than usual. Very little ever seems to bother Derek much, not that he lets on anyway. He stays right there, right in place, looking to Selena's face and trying to gaze into her eyes. He's recognized the intelligence there, the special glimmer of awareness, and he knows.

She's got this. Derek still believes it. He's seen her try on the athletic field. He's seen her around the others, having fun and laughing and enjoying her friends. She has a link that will pull her back to the human world.

Scott McCall hasn't really changed yet, but he is a hair trigger away from it if it becomes needed to defend Stiles. Stiles who was just looking at him really oddly. But Scott chalks that up to the situation. As things draw out, it seems it may not be needed, Scott changing, as Selena performs the ballet Wolf Lake in the living room pirouetting around the room in her bloody conflict with the sweat pants. *Tear* That would be the wolf for the win right there. In fairness the sweats were always the under dog in that battle. Ahem. Scott maintains his defensive position just the same. Thinking as he does that at some point in the near future he may be doing the same damn thing to protect people from Liam. That was a thought he really didn't need right now, so he tucks it away. Scott figures he can tell Selena he is a werewolf too another time. This might not be the best moment to interject. He watches Derek and Jacob closely though, in case he has to do something like this someday soon. They are both really calm. Scott hopes when it is his turn he is as capable and confident as they are.

Derek Hale phases to his human form.

Stiles takes all this in with a wary gaze, but he doesn't seem as panicky as one might assume under these circumstances. Looking toward Scott and knowing that his friend can hear him, Stiles says, "You know, this is all shockingly less terrifying than I feel it should probably be, but on the other hand, I still remember treading water with Derek paralyzed in my arms while the kanima waited for the chance to kill us." Then, completely out of proper mood for the moment, he sighs deeply. "But, on another note, I'm starting to get the feeling that I'm not going to suddenly remember my awesome super powers like the rest of you. How in the hell is it fair that I turn out to be the boring sidekick? There's no justice in the world, I tell you. None!" Maybe it's nervous chatter, or maybe he figures a bit of normalcy will help calm the situation. Who can even say, right now?

Selena listens to both Jacob and Derek now. She seems to be calming down. She starts to let Jacob pull the shirt off, but then when she realizes they're both telling her to focus on her human form... the idea she might need that occurs and she sort of wiggles back into it a bit... as much as she is able to do. The pants are toast already laying on the floor but Stiles might have a coronary if she lets that sweater get pulled off and THEN.... as she thinks about human concerns and thinks about her naked body without the sweat shirt on... it flows over her like a river. One second she's wolf and the next, the fur is rippling away and her muscles and bones are popping into a new form and there she is, covered in a badly stretched out sweatshirt and smelling all wolfy again. "What. The..." She lifts her hands and looks at them again, eyes wide. "Um.... is there something in the forest that is going to explain all this?" She asks hopefully. "Re... Reflection in the trees... or something?" She looks over at Stiles.... tilts her head and stares. "You mean you actually WANT..." She points to herself. "This?"

Selena phases to her human form.

Once Jacob figures out that Selena's shifting back, he stops trying to help her out of the shirt. Phew, that went better than he'd feared. He shoots Derek a grateful look, since dealing with wolves like this is definitely not the way that *he's* used to. He smiles some and holds out his hand to Selena, offering her help up, and says, "We think the reflection in the trees will help explain why we all forgot this stuff. I turn into a wolf, too, so... yeah, I know it's weird at first. You get used to it, though. Uh, hang on--I'll go find you some shorts or something." And he turns to trot back off down the hallway to find another (presumably disposable) pair of pants for Selena. To be fair, it's not an unusual state of affairs around here.

Derek actually smiles when Selena turns back into her human form. "You're as strong as I thought. Good." It's unusual, open praise from Derek Hale, but there it is.

Since Jacob seems to have it handled, Derek just turns and crouches, snatching the empty bag off the couch and starting to place the kale chips into it. Which he might eat. It's not like he hasn't eaten things that have been on the ground before. He's pretty sure Jacob keeps his house clean, though there might need to be a vacuum through the living room after all of today's business.

It takes Derek a remarkably short time to collect the chips, and once he does, he rises to his feet again. "I thought Scott would want the privilege of biting you," he answers Stiles. Is he joking? His tone makes it hard to tell. "Since he's doing that now." First he looks to Scott, lingering for a moment in a kind of emphasis to his light little rib, or light for him. Then his gaze goes to Stiles. "I'm too...sour."

Scott McCall glances back at Stiles and flashes a Scott smile at him. "Stiles, whatever else anyone can say. Look at this situation. Look at your reaction. Normal?" He continues to smile as he looks back at Selena. "Selena, what we are looking for in the woods, is supposed to explain why none of us remembered, that. Like Jake said, we all forgot everything about it, which is pretty damn weird." Scott doesn't seem to shocked by everything that has gone on. So it is a safe bet there is something going on then with him as well. One could figure Selena might connect those dots anyway. But Scott stares at Derek a moment as he just got teased. Derek Hale just teased him. For a moment he isn't sure what to do, but then he just smiles at Derek in an appreciative way. Yeah. He was digging this new dynamic with Derek. This was a lot better.

Stiles sighs loudly, which ends in a bit of a frustrated groan, and he goes to flop back onto the couch. He gives first Derek, then Scott, then Derek a vaguely surly glare, then snorts and sinks deeper into the couch. Yes, he's still annoyed at the sudden realization that he's not going to suddenly remember secret Jedi powers or anything, and feeling teased about it only has him kind of annoyed. Shooting a look at Selena, he says, "Having super powers and getting to protect people instead of always being the... the... *mansel in distress*? Yeah, I'd be good with that." He knows it's not a picnic. After all, who saw Scott through those early days, huh? But Derek's comment does get a milder reaction. Stiles rolls his eyes some and says, "I'm not going to be an alpha teething experiment for Scott, and if you wanted to bite me, you'd have offered back when you were building your pack back home."

Selena takes the offered hand and stands up. She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly offering Jacob a thankful smile. "Sorry about your pants." She mutters, then looks over at Derek "And uh... sorry for trying to eat you." Then she looks at Stiles "And you." Yeah. Cuz he was next. He looked juicy and yummy... She lifts her shoulders in a little shrug and offers an apologetic smile. Then tilts her head as she looks back at Derek. Butterflies and a teenage crush on teacher resurfaces now that she's not trying to eat him and he's not trying to scare the bejeezus out of her. "I am?" She asks and beams a smile at him. "Thanks coach. I remember gymnastics now... I had to hold back a lot..."

She frowns faintly as she listens to Scott and nods. "I'd like to know why I couldn't remember... It's happened a couple of times before... the uh... the wolf thing. I just... I couldn't remember." Her brow furrows as she starts to get a little mad. Something took her memories! "Let's find it!" She says as she takes the shorts Jacob gets for her, tugs them on and pulls the drawstring tight so they'll stay put. "Hopefully I can keep these on this time." She frowns faintly at Stiles' words. "A Pack...?" More murmured to herself in thought.

After handing over the shorts, Jake smiles at Derek and says, "Don't worry about the mess. I'll clean up later." He runs a hand through his short hair and grins almost ruefully at Selena, saying, "Sure, sure. No big deal at all, right?" And then he gives a genuine, hearty laugh--a laugh of inclusion, not mockery, as though welcoming her to their little circle of weirdness. "Okay," he says with a firm nod. "I'll call Seth, and we can all regroup and get ready to hit the forest. I think it's definitely time we figured all this out and saved everyone from this stupid memory curse thing." And, he thinks without saying it, it's beyond time that he found Jason and made him remember everything, by any means necessary. His heart soars at the thought, and he can feel every bit of gravity in all the world trying to pull him right into the center of the woods. Maybe the memory theft was meant to put them off-balance, but now Jacob remembered. Now he felt the center of his universe again. Now he would find it and have it back, as the old expression goes, come hell or high water.

"Right." Derek sits next to Stiles again on the couch. "I'd try to bite you with him," he nods to Scott, "super-protective due to the Kanima and a crazed band of hunters, when I had my own pack to deal with." It's casual as he can be in pointing out those little details, but since it's Derek, it is of course a fairly direct addressing of the situation. That's how you know Derek respects you to some extent: he doesn't sugar-coat it. Or sugar-coats it even less than he normally does.

But Derek's actually smiling a little again when Selena apologizes as she does. "You didn't. You were just disoriented. I expected that, but you focused and got through it. Because you're good." That should encourage her. He may not actually be a teacher by profession, now that they're getting their memories back, but he does have mentor qualities. Maybe he didn't do things perfectly, before, and wasn't able to do everything he wanted or needed to do...but the circumstances were far from ideal. This might be a kind of godsend, a clean slate to start again, in a way, and establish a better foundation. A place to stand, he muses, with a more careful construction to allow for better things all around.

Maybe he can do this. Derek hopes so. With all this help, he would like to think it's more possible than not. "We're a little...scattered, now. Our memories came back. Yours will too. But we have to focus on the problem so we don't lose them again." It's not certain they'll be lost if something doesn't happen soon, but it's a reasonable concern. After everything they've gone through...

Before Derek gets up again, he glances over to Stiles. There's a kind of sense of offering in the look, but all he ends up doing is holding out a hand to help haul Stiles up. Maybe he was serious about biting him. He doesn't usually kid about that specifically, even if he did pair it with a kind of tease. "We should have...walkie-talkies or something. Some way to stay in touch. Just in case. We don't want anyone to be isolated." Because if the people or things responsible for this situation managed to affect a fairly huge area, they're certainly not going to balk at steamrolling a pair or a trio wandering through the woods without any idea what they're really trying to find.

Scott McCall frowns and looks away. He didn't think of Stiles that way and on some level it troubled him that Stiles would ever see himself like that. "I'm not an alpha, whatever happened with Liam must have been a fluke. So it wouldn't make any difference if I bit you or not Stiles. But we are getting a bit off topic." Talk about your understatements. "When do we want to start searching?" He looks between Derek and Jacob to determine that. Clearly he agrees with Selena here, that getting out there to search would be a good thing. The sooner they find what the ghost wanted them to find the sooner they also found their answers. Also did anyone want to go through this individually with each La push pack member? *That* seemed unwise. "So will we go out in small groups? All at once? We also need to try and find Jason too right?" That might be a challenge. Scott seemed to recall he was not easy to find if he didn't care to be. He nods to Jacob and smiles again. It was so time to end this charade of memories they had been inflicted with. To put the Weird behind them and get on with their still pretty bizarre lives, but lives that were real and their own. "Good idea, walkie talkies. We should get some of those. They likely have them at the Olympic sporting goods store for hikiers." That store where bella Swan worked coincidentally. "Maybe Alice can get us some, I'll text her to let her know what we decided and see if she can."

Stiles takes the hand up, glances from Derek to Scott and back again, and then just shrugs the whole conversation off with a shake of his head. "We should get started searching as soon as we can," he agrees, and then turns to head outside. "I'll head by home and pick up some radios we can use. Dad has a set he keeps at home just in case, and it should be enough for groups of two, at least." Then he heads out, not looking back, as all this wolf-talk has clearly left him frustrated, and the seemingly playful offer from Derek coupled with the looks he was getting from Scott haven't done much to help his mood. As he heads out the door, he calls back, "Anyway, text me if Alice can get us better ones. I'll be back soon." And then he's out the door and on his way.

Selena nods her head. The high praise from Derek has her positively floating on air. She clasps her fingers together in front of herself and rocks onto her tip toes, then back onto her heels. "Ooh. Yes walkie talkies would be good." She nods her head and then offers. "If we need to buy the walkies, I can pitch in fourty... good ones cost at least that, right?" She asks curiously. "And um.... Oh..." She looks around the mess she made of the living room and finds a pen and paper, writes her number down three times and tears them each off, handing one over to Scott, Derek and Jacob. "I know where my car is and my phone is in that. I'll go get it and meet up with you guys... wherever?"

Jacob gives Selena a nod, looking over her number, and says, "Okay. We'll make sure everyone gets texts when we're ready to start." He gives Derek and Scott each a firm nod, too, and then heads for the door. "We'll all meet back soon, and then we're going to go and find that reflection, wherever it is." And he means it, too! But in truth, he knows what he'll really be looking for. In a way it is kind of a reflection, a reflection of himself and who he really is, but it won't be the key to this spell. Instead, it will be the key to Jacob's world, his life, and when they're together again, everything else will fall into place. He knows it as sure as he knows where the sun rises and sets. The only thing ahead of Jacob Black right now is finding Jason Christopher, and then the world will be whole once more.