Anthony raised his hand. "I have many questions, but most importantly... are we are war with them? With them sticking their stupid school here, of all places? Certainly seems like they're picking a fight."

He exhaled, as if trying to tame the whirlwind of thoughts spinning around in his mind. "So, I guess I'm asking, what are your rules, in this matter?"

Although he thought to himself, in his best Morphieus voice, "Some rules may be bent, some broken."

"War? Certainly not!" he says with a small laugh of incredulity.

"Of course, as I say that, I'm sure there are a few of you that are planning how to get your hands on some juicy hunter meat, and there are plenty of them that would be delighted to have one of you in their literal sights. However, you will find that our focus here is on keeping you alive, and deliberately engaging in life or death struggles is the opposite of that," he says, meandering over to the other side of the stage as he does.

Tiffany nodded.  They'd probably retaliate or go hunting more intensely if some of their precious students were to go missing; keeping their heads down, at least at the moment, might be for the best.

 Felicia smiles at Tiffany, and whispers to her," The Headmaster knows you, of course he does you are a Cabot, did I get that right?"

Eliza glanced around at the other students, wondering if this was an explainer more for the freshmen here in the school, or if everyone had always known there was a rival hunter's school. She'd wondered at the wisdom of having the two schools so close, but maybe it was as natural as magic and nature, which abhor vacuums. She started to wonder if Scott was going to Rainsford as well. She hadn't asked, because she didn't want to draw attention to her attendance here.

In reply to Eliza Draper (msg # 48):

Anthony’s eyes narrowed as he heard the incredulity in the headmaster’s voice, and he thought to himself,  “Dude! WTF? A group of hayseeds puts a school to train people to hunt us right next to this place, and you see fit to mock me for even suggesting that that was an act of war? Maybe it was, and you just missed it? Well, screw that. Maybe we can’t fight them directly, but I have some tricks up my sleeve. We were here first, both in the local sense, and the larger sense.”

"Yes," whispered Tiffany.  "We're a big family; people know us, and we know them."

Which was more or less how her family did everything; it really was who you knew, not what you knew.

 Felicia smiled but what the Headmaster said bothered her, Kenzie was a Hunter and her friend. Felicia will stand up and say," What are we suppose to do Sir, with so many hunters nearby what if we run into one Sir?"

The news of the hunter's school doesn't seem to be much of a surprise, although there are a few that didn't get the memo it seems.

"Excellent question Miss Zamon - and yes, I know all of your names. Generally speaking, we teach that it's best not to be identified by a hunter in the first place, but should you be discovered we teach self-defence with an eye on escape. Well. I should point out that for many of you, killing a human makes your escape rather certain, so that's an option, but it's a troublesome option. You will typically need to relocate after being discovered, and if you kill your hunter you will have to relocate faster and leave fewer traces. Lastly, for some of you, when dealing with certain hunters, you have a very, very small chance of being able to talk your way out, but that's such a rare event that while I mention it here, I most certainly would not bet on it."

Eliza frowned at that, putting her phone aside as she mused aloud, no louder than a grumble, "So we are learning primarily to get into college, do work interviews, and build our 401Ks, while there's a whole academy for murdering us that we can to take an extracurricular on to prepare against. Ok-aaaay." Eliza wasn't all that bitter about the contrast. She had expected to go to normal high school, after all, and had already learned so much. The contrast just felt very lopsided. She wanted to learn dangerous things as well.

"We should work together to protect ourselves, then," said Tiffany.  "The hunters probably will; if they're organized, and we aren't, we're in a lot of trouble."

Teamwork was something that she understood well, both from her family and sports.  This was no time for lone wolves, no matter how much it was in the nature of some of the students.

 Felicia smiled that it was a good question and she was not surprised he knew her name, even for a school of Monsters a Bastet was very rare. Felicia knew this could be troublesome with her friendship with Kenzie a Hunter, she knew Kenzie would never harm her but she can't trust her Hunter Friends.

 Felicia will look towards Eliza after she made her comment, she would look towards the Head Master for his response, Then Tiffany added her comments and Felicia wanted to add," Yes we should have groups, or pairs work together for protection and knowing how these humans think. She should be organized to be able to protect us from the Hunters that shoot first ask second, but we are allowed to use our abilities or nature to get out of a Hunter's grasp without hurting them correct Sir?"

"Oh, I seem to have been unclear. You're perfectly welcome to slaughter the lot of them for all that I care, but, there are consequences for your actions and you should consider them carefully. That's why our courses emphasize evasion and escape; it has the least long term trouble," the Headmaster says with a broad gesture.

He meanders on the stage for a couple of paces as he says, "Okay, there's a timetable we should try to stick to, so if there are more questions we'll have to address them in your classrooms. Next, I would like to introduce Doct—"

He stops short and there's a momentary pause as he readjusts his thoughts. "Rather, I would like to introduce the school nurse, Miss Saphee."

She slithers onto the stage from the side, and there's little doubt that the pink scaled Lamia is indeed a nurse from her classic outfit and related accessories. This goes over with the male half of the student body as one might expect, with a handful of outright cat-calls and whistles, which the Headmaster leaves to her to address. She has to use a microphone, and while she has an accent her voice isn't especially sibilant as one might assume.

"Alright boys, I know that you're hormonal and all but you can keep it together better than that," she says, prompting a few laughs. While settling into a coiled position she says, "Good morning, everyone! I'm here to tell you all about our state of the art medical facilities and how we can accommodate all of your varied and unique physiologies, but considering the announcement that began this assembly, I'd first like to deliver a bit of good cheer. The reason that it's me on this stage instead of our dear Doctor Glenn is that he's had to make a house call. As of six thirteen this morning, our world has been blessed with a healthy new minotaur."


This news catches the dragon by surprise, though his delight is written large on his weathered face. "And the mother?"

Saphee smiles brilliantly and says, "Recovering fine."

Eliza clapped politely at the announcement of the newborn minotaur. They weren't very, but still somewhat - abashed by being as distracted from her phone as a good half of the other people in the crowd by Miss Saphee. Eliza had studied humans for years and the sense of community among so many different kinds of people without an obvious majority was weirdly out of place.

Eliza was around their cousins occasionally, one or two of them they'd played with as a baby. It was always an oddly charming part of mortal life, babies, even when they were terrible to be around. "Do they have a name yet?" Eliza found themself asking aloud, not sure if there was some etiquette, curious about how much information gets around this hodgepodge of inhumanity.

Eliza had no malicious interest in the information, and didn't mean to stir up any trouble by asking.

Tiffany applauded at the news.  Some species might vanish from the world someday... Hers, well, probably not.  Not unless the humans carried through with their program of ruining the world before dying off, anyway, and something could be done about that.

 Felicia smiled at Tiffany, and then listened to the Headmaster, then the School Nurse Miss Saphee. She was very interesting for sure, when the guys did cat calls she didn't know why they where doing it but she figured it was a teenage boy thing.

 Felicia was happy a new Minotaur was born Tiffany clapped and she clapped with her. When Eliza asked the name she smiled and was happy Eliza was here.

Anthony spoke up, grinning. "Personally, I think 'Anthony' is an excellent name for a minotaur. Or, honestly, for anyone or anything. And Mazel Tov!"

Then he switched back to the previous topic and said, his grin fading, "What is the current state of the laws of this country? Are we here given the same protections as humans? I was born in this state, to parents who are citizens. I'm confused as to how there is a school training people to hunt us, any more than a school training people to hunt Native Americans, or African Americans, or..." he paused for effect, "Minotaur Americans."

The crowd takes this news with muted joy, the round of applause that Tiffany started taking a moment to reach its peak before dying off again.

"I do believe I said that further questions would have to be answered in your classrooms," the old dragon mutters loudly enough that there is no difficulty hearing him, even in the back.

"Headmaster, may I?"

"Of course," he says, taking a symbolic step to the side.

Saphee peers at Anthony for a long moment while she chooses her words. "I'll be blunt, since this is eating into the time I'm supposed to spend telling you all about our medical facilities and how you should all feel free to visit us. There are no Minotaur Americans. No Lamia Americans, either. Nor are there Centaur Americans, Harpy Americans, Bastet Americans, and a list longer than I am of others. Never forget, young man, that your legal status is a powerful advantage that many of your classmates lack. More than a few Witch Hunters have met their ends languishing away in a regular prison, even if, perhaps especially if they murdered their target. Human laws apply to humans and those that can pass for them."

She doesn't seem to be particularly angry, but her tone makes it plain that she hopes to drive this home and not have to repeat herself. The Headmaster steps back in then.

"Thank you, Saphee, that was very succinct. And speaking of humans, our good doctor is human, and I'll say that if humans are a required part of your diet, that you refrain from trying to take a bite out of him. I don't think even I would make it if she gets a loop around my neck," he says, indicating Saphee with his thumb. She responds with a "hrmpf!" and a downright sassy sway of her coils.

He laughs and says, "Poor sod is still oblivious, isn't he?" Saphee blushes brightly while he continues, "And speaking of oblivious, as some of you already know, not everyone is oblivious to the true nature of our Academy. Our reputation, which gives a lot of leeway for covering up accidents, is that we're especially good at straightening out the entitled brats commonly spawned from wealthy elites. In many cases, their own parents are alumni as well, but for some reason, they always leave it as a surprise."

He chuckles softly again before gesturing to the other side of the stage from Saphee. "They may not be for eating, but never-the-less allow me to introduce this year's fresh meat!"

About a dozen terrified teenagers of various descriptions are lead onto the stage by a black-furred wolfman wearing a tracksuit, their arms all bounds together by one giant set of manacles and chain, which the wolfman has no trouble at all jerking when they hesitate despite their combined weight. Growls, jeers, and howls of every sort erupt from the students, further terrifying the already frightened human kids. One, in particular, a small Asian girl with a granny dye job that's showing her roots, completely loses the ability to stand from the force of her trembling terror.

This seemed a bit much... and lacked an explanation.  Tiffany raised her hand.

"I'm a bit confused," she said.  "What do you mean by 'fresh meat'?"

Eliza Draper wondered that there wasn't more of a demonstration of freshmen given the nature of the school, but not quite this. At first, they glanced back at Anthony, figuring that he ought to be among the rich, spoiled brats to be 'straightened out', but it quickly became clear that he was definitely not among the condemned, 'so-to-speak'. Eliza even entertained that they might have been missed, but their parents were as dull as dirt.

Were these dozen pure humans without any exposure to magic? The trust fund babies of the go-betweens that served mankind and monster? Or the children of Renfield and Associates, kept isolated from whom their parents were devoted, like uninitated cult members? That Tiffany was confused is more surprising. Eliza was done asking questions, they'd been - as at the fair - spoken over by Anthony.

Monster society was weird. Eliza definitely much better grasped the intersectional and interpersonal strife of humans. Human privileged was easier to ken.
This message was last edited by a game editor at 12:05, Sun 06 Oct 2019.

Anthony nodded, saddened. Dragons. Lamia. Minotaurs. All manners of other beasties. Some, like dragons, and the Fae, who far predated humanity, relegated to second class citizens, or worse, thrown into the same trash heap as those destitute humans described as "illegal aliens," subject to all laws, but having pitiful few rights.

 Felicia listened and she knew she wasn't an American, she was born in Egypt, and came here when she was young. AS far as she knew her parents never told anyone Felicia was in the US now. Then they brought of the scared teenagers, Felicia felt very uncomfortable. She was about to say something when Tiffany did, Felicia wasn't a human lover but there where a few she really liked Kensie was one of them.

 Felicia felt really bad for the young asian girl, Felicia was about to run up and help the poor Asian girl but she squeezed Tiffany's hand and wait for the response to her question.

"I didn't think the joke was that bad," the Headmaster replies to Tiffany with good-natured chagrin.

"It was, though," Maura says, sending a hush over the crowd as she rises to her feet and makes her way up to the stage at a leisurely pace. She lacks the overwhelming vocal projection of the dragon, but in the sudden silence, it's not hard for her to reach even the back row. The pair of toadies she's left behind watch in utter discombobulation.

"If it wasn't clear from the context, these people here are all human, like me. Unlike me, however, they're powerless. This should be their first encounter with the uncanny side of the world. They've been thrown into the deep end and told to learn how to swim, or drown," she says as she walks over and stops in front of the small Asian girl, the three faculty members giving her the complete attention such boldness warrants.

"This one is mine," she says, indicating the cowering girl.

"Now Miss Ebongr—"

She turns her head to look the Headmaster straight in the eyes. "I said, this one is mine."

Hardly anyone dares to so much as breathe for a couple of heartbeats, and then the Headmaster shrugs and says, "As you wish."

The wolfman hesitates a moment but grudgingly complies, moving to unlock the Asian girl. As soon as she's released, she latches onto Maura's skirt and starts sobbing, which in turn prompts the toadies to begin screeching at her "audacity." Doesn't she know who she's clinging to so shamelessly...?

 Felicia watched and listened and oh it was a training thing, Felicia then when Maura seemed to take over and she chose the poor Asian girl. Felicia wanted to stand up and do something but the way everyone even the Headmaster backed down, she wasn't sure but she couldn't let that poor girl be under that witches control.

 Felicia will look at Tiffany and mentally send to her," Wont anyone stand up to the Bitch or Witch sorry. I can't let her torment the Asian girl, I am going to stop her."

 She will remove her tail from Tiffany and get ready to stand up, waiting for a response from Tiffany.

Well.  There didn't seem to be much of a choice about this; she didn't quite understand what was going on, but letting Maura do whatever she wanted to was too much.  She couldn't let that happen, or Maura would wind up causing trouble for everyone, and bullying the entire school.

"Maura," she said, firmly, "follow the rules.  Don't go skipping in line like that."

This might be a bit suicidal, but she was a Cabot.  She wasn't going to be pushed around, and, after all, she was tough.