Tiffany might have jumped at the unexpected tap on her shoulder, but for one detail-- she saw it coming.  Well, not "saw," but her sonar kept her appraised of how people were moving around her, and so she was ready, instead moving to clamp a hand down on the tail-tip when it touched her.  She might very well not be remotely fast enough, but she had to try.

And there she was-- Maura Ebonsgrove and her entourage.  Tiffany smiled at her, as was polite.  (The Ebonsgrove family was powerful, after all, and Maura had influence.)  Still, she'd made a promise to not tell Maura certain things, and she felt that Maura really limited herself by having hangers-on who were less talented than her.  It seemed better to her to have skilled associates and still make an impression by being at least as interesting as they were...

 Felicia did not expect Tiffany to put her hand down on the tip of her tail, and she jumped when Tiffany caught her tail, and she said," Ohh sorry. Sometimes my tail has a mind of it's own." She smiles and then says," Who is she the important girl there?"

"Maura Ebonsgrove," said Tiffany.  "She's a witch, and very good with potions.  She's also influential, as I imagine you can see for yourself.  Her family are well-known as witches as well."

 Felicia will look at Maura and then try to get a smell on her so she can track her. The Felicia remembered Lesleigh was an Ebonsgrove. Speaking very softly so no one but Tiffany can hear her," Is that Lesleigh's sister, I remember you guys talking about her family. She seems stuck up to me and thinks she is better than everyone else, that is what I see. Oh and by the way Tiffany good catch on my tail."  Felicia will move her tail under her hand to try and tickle Tiffany's hand.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:48, Sat 14 Sept 2019.

"Tha-- aahhh!" Tiffany yanked her hand clear of the tail, and tried to stifle her laughter at being tickled.

"Yes, that's Lesleigh's sister," she said, quietly.  "Lesleigh did ask us to not talk to Maura about her.  It might not come up, of course."

Maura didn't seem the sort to go around talking to new students, after all.

Eliza wasn't paying too much attention as they glowered after the grave-kin cabal. She did eventually notice Maura because Tiffany and Felicia was looking but didn't stare long themself, having took enough time to realize that their research in studying teen behavior and cliques via movies didn't really help them glean much information, as the woman was likely not the head of the cheerleading squad.

 Felicia laughs when Tiffany moves her hand because she tickled her and makes a funny sound. When Tiffany responds to her question, Felicia says," I see why she doesn't like her that is for sure, well I have a feeling Maura would probably not even talk to someone like me."

 Felicia really liked Tiffany but wasn't sure how Tiffany really thought of her, Felicia knew Tiffany liked her but she didn't know how much she did. Felicia was very nervous of being in school but with Tiffany helping her she should be okay.

With the other students forcibly scooted out of the way by the pair of toadies, Maura makes her way to the front row and takes a seat, while her cronies take a seat about an arm's length away from her on each side. As soon as she crosses her legs like a proper lady, one of the minions gasps and points at her shoe, "My Lady, look!"

While the other minion gets up and roars at the surrounding crowd, demanding that the low-life responsible come forward to be punished, Maura herself stares at the oddly coloured shoe that totally clashes with her dress, not to mention being a different colour than her other shoe, with mute incredulity. Then she starts laughing, which makes both of the brown-nosing twits beside her freeze in place...

"...I am beginning to think that I really don't understand Maura at all," said Tiffany, watching her laugh.  Her hand idly stroked Felicia's tail if not prevented, but her attention was on Maura and her minions.  What had just happened there?

 Felicia had no clue what was going on with the Witch, and why she was laughing. " Umm I might be new at this but why is she laughing and her followers frozen in what looks like fear?" When Tiffany strokes her tail she likes it alot and she begins to purr as Tiffany's touch felt so good.

Anthony looked over at the sudden laughter, a brief expression of surprise on his face, as he thought to himself, “Well, that was unexpected. I believe the courtship has begun!”

And then he turned back to the amiable conversation he was having with the sharp-toothed (and forked-tongue, it turned out) Ellen and only paid peripheral attention.

"Well, she might see the humor in the situation," said Tiffany, still stroking Felicia's tail.  "...they are acting like they're scared of what she'll do, though.  Maybe she'll lose her temper with them in private."

 Felicia kept purring she really liked Tiffany's touch, no one has ever petted her tail before and she really liked it.
" Oh well she seems like a real bitch to me."

Eliza did finally turn more of their attention to the witch and her entourage, frowning as they folded the modeling clay back in on itself to become a formless mass. Eliza couldn't hear Felicia and Tiffany talking, and was trying to figure out if this was some sort of weird-normal ritual for a monster academy, or a weird-weird ritual.

OoC:
04:28, Today: Eliza Draper rolled 14 using 1d20+8.  Expertise: Magic .

This message was last edited by a game editor at 09:35, Tue 17 Sept 2019.

Maura's laughter fades and then she eyes her minions critically. "Well? You got so upset over a simple child's prank, don't tell me you're going to stand there without fixing it."

The pair verbally fall over themselves trying to find a workable incantation, and after a good thirty seconds of this Maura holds up her hands. "Enough. I'll wear it the rest of today as a symbol of your incompetence."

"But My Lady," one of the toadies, named Roberta, whines.

"Be silent. No witch did this, so it's not like it will be difficult to find the culprit once you stop being hysterical."

Nobody saw nor heard a thing.

Yet, on the small stage stands a lean and fit elderly man dressed more like a swashbuckler than the headmaster of a school. His gray hair is cut short and his face has more lines than Nazca, making him seem quite grandfatherly, but his beady little crimson eyes give away his lack of humanity. He doesn't need a microphone to be heard clearly throughout the auditorium.

"By which you mean, that you don't know how to undo it, either. Isn't that right, Miss Ebongrove?"

Maura startles alongside a good chunk of the student body, but swiftly recovers her composure and "harumphs" at the accusation.

"Well, we can get somebody to fix it for you, I'm sure. Ah, where'd my manners run off to? Good morning, everyone! Welcome to Baneberry! The name I'm using now, I'm sure you'll agree, is certainly not the best I've ever come up with, but I'm your headmaster, Drake Fiero."

Tiffany had started to reply to Felicia, but then the headmaster appeared.  She studied him warily.  He was teasing Maura in a way that implied that he knew her... but then, Maura's family was well-known.  He might well know them.  She didn't laugh at Maura's discomfiture, though-- it would be too easy for that kind of humor to become aimed at her, and she didn't want any part of that.

 Felicia looked at the headmaster was just there, she also held the urge to laugh, she could sense Drake was very powerful and she did not want to bring his wrath onto her. The only thing her parents told her of the Headmaster was be very very respectful, her parents where afraid and respected him that is all she had to know. She will also try and see how the headmaster smelled. She wanted to say something but actually she was trying to figure out how he got there without her noticing at all. Felicia was not afraid her parents had called her fearless but she was definitely in awe of the headmaster.

In reply to Felicia Zamon (msg # 36):

Anthony turned from chatting with Ellen, amused by the toadies, attracted to Maura, and wary of the headmaster, but he repressed his usually rambunctious nature in deference to the dragon’s foul temper and flaming breath. Maybe.

Eliza had started to pull out their phone to text Tiffany, who may have had a better view of what was going on, when the headmaster spoke up. Eliza may not be very familiar with their compatriots hiding among humans, but they felt they could confidently identify something that was a feeble human disguise. Eliza started to remember again that they were among peers - some that may hate them, sure - but peers none the less, and got excited again to see what the year would bring.

The students return their headmaster's greeting warmly for the most part, including many of the freshmen. The details may be hazy and prone to outlandish rumours, but it is well known that the dragon protects the students, and provides for any that are unable to pay their own way from his own pockets.

That sense of safety cracks in short order.

"Well, I'm not one for long speeches, so let me try and get to the point. You're all here at my school to find your own paths into the future, but that future is ever more perilous. The rise of technology has surpassed anything my clutchmates and I could have ever dreamed, and with it, those that hunt us grow ever bolder, ever more precise in their pursuit of our murder. I have heard that within the last year, in fact, they struck the Ebongrove house directly," he says, which instigates a wave of gasps and exclamations of disbelief.

He dips his head to Maura and says, "My condolences on the loss of your little sister. What was her name again?"

"Lesleigh."

"Lesleigh. Lovely name. I'm saddened that she'll never grace my campus."

He allows that mournful note to linger before he heaves a great sigh. "It's a shame to lose one so young and full of promise, but that is not the end of our sorrow. I have the permission of his clan to announce to the public for the first time that Lord Maksym has fallen. He flew into a rage after his youngest child was murdered by his long-time enemy, Lord Atkins, as the youth was preparing to begin his time with us and was himself slain by his partner, who simply goes by Tex."

Tiffany raised her hand.

"We've noticed some kind of spellcasters in town," she said.  "Ones that aren't attending this school.  Could that be related to this problem at all?"

Eliza wondered at the interesting display of information. People's names, clans, and families, thrown about as if they were significant. They knew the tradition of casting artifacts into the whirling aethers that lead to earth were not very reliable or natural transits, nor did it lead to much socializing among peers, but Eliza was suspecting that as they hid their proclivities behind the actions of an unruly child, they might hidden themselves from an organization of supernatural in the Chicago area was well.

Eliza instead began tapping at their phone a mix of thoughts and notes in shorthand, questions they ought to seek out the answer to in the coming weeks.

If Tiffany was pressed for more information, Eliza would volunteer that one kid's body was hot enough to cook steak on too, and they didn't see him here, he'd practically glow. Were there different sects of supernatural folk? Another question to add to their list.
This message was last edited by a game editor at 13:22, Sun 22 Sept 2019.

 Felicia listened to Tiffany speak, Felicia didn't know any of the names, but what she did know was that she had friends who where hunters and it could get bad if there was some kind of war. She hoped it wouldn't come to that, she has nothing to add that she wanted too at this time so she sat next to Tiffany loving that she was still playing with her tail.

"As expected of your lineage, Miss Cabot, you've hit the nail squarely on its head" he says, his hand starting a slow circling gesture that Tiffany had heard corresponds to intense thought. Then it stops.

"Well, I'll just come out and tell you all about it, I think. This is your lives we're talking about here, after all. So, at least of some you have surely heard the rumours that there are hunters here in Moorhaven. After all, what else would I be protecting you from, hrm? The simple truth of the matter turns out to be that there are a lot of hunters... in training," he says while slowly ambling from one side of the stage to the other. The surge of murmurs and hushed conversations rises but falls as soon as the Headmaster holds up his hands.

"They attend a different private school known as the Rainsford Institute. And have, for nearly as long as my beloved academy has stood. Your parents, those that graduated from here at least, all passed through this trial by taking heed of what your instructors will spend the next four years teaching you. Any questions?"