MV2: A Hypothetical Job Offer

"Would you like to work for me?" asked the demon. "I could use an enforcer, and Y.T. already said no."

Andy frowned, studying her. She was just a little shorter than he was, beautiful despite the reddish tinge to her skin and the short black horns growing out of her temples. Her blouse had been adjusted to accommodate the wings on her back, and she was studying him in a way that suggested measuring his worth.

He wondered if it would be worth the effort to stab her, then said: "Ask me later. I'm not making any career decisions right now."

She shrugged. "You're going to miss your chance to get in on the ground floor. Once I've finished adjusting to this realm, I'm going to go big. I'm already making plans."

"Do your plans include a name?" he asked. "I'm Andy."

"Agrat B," she told him. 

"All right. Well, if you want to conquer the world or whatever, keep in touch. Just 'cause I'm not ready to commit now..."

"I'll keep it in mind," she conceded. "If conquest doesn't work, I might try starting a record label in LA."

Andy blinked. "I've heard worse ideas," he admitted.

MV2: Wolves and Claws

"Andy, step over here." Jim was sandy-haired, grey-eyed, and evidently could turn into a mountain lion; he had been brought in for their combat training. He wasn't tall, but he was solidly built and moved with a dancer's grace. 

Andy rose, crossed to the center of the roped-off training area, and positioned himself where the werecougar indicated. Y.T. watched him from the edge of the impromptu ring; so did the three werewolves, a ghost, and one of the vampires. Apparently he wasn't the only one who was worried about self-defense -- not by far. 

"Good. Jürgen, if you'd be so kind...?" One of the wolves rose, stepped into the arena, and planted himself opposite Andy.

"You've done some wrestling, haven't you?" asked Jim, and Jürgen nodded. Of the three wolves, he was the one who seemed most at peace with his condition, happiest at being a monster.

"Excellent," Jim said. "Keep your human form, and wrestle with Andy, here."

Jürgen came in immediately, tangling arms and trying for a lock; Andy countered, sweeping him up and carefully not breaking his back across his knee. Jürgen came to his feet, growling softly.

"Stop," said Jim. "So, this is the first lesson: don't underestimate your opponent. Jürgen, I deliberately set you at a disadvantage, and I apologize for it. But you need to understand that while both of you were athletic as mortals, wights -- in general -- are roughly as strong as wolves in our full-wolf form. And unlike us, they are that strong all the time."

Jürgen shifted to his half-wolf form.

"Good," said Jim. "Andy... claws."

Andy called out his claws, then called out the longer versions of them, hands and feet alike.

"Wights can have longer claws than we do as well," Jim said quietly. "Where we have an advantage, if we can use it, is that we can bite." He sighed. "Sit back down, both of you."

Andy went to sit back down, and Jürgen -- after a momentary hesitation -- did so as well.

"Combat is situational," Jim continued. "You want any advantage you can find. Claws, fangs... pick up a weapon if you can. Be aware of your surroundings, and it's best if you have friends beside you. Working together will give you advantages that raw strength or speed can't match." He hesitated. "That assumes you haven't had time to plan in advance, but we'll deal with more deliberate combat later. Right now, we're looking at situations where you have to defend yourself unexpectedly."

One of the wolves held her hand up. When Jim looked over at her, she said: "Question: will we be looking at weapons? I mean, claws and fangs are all well and good, but if I can just shoot a fucker instead..."

Jim nodded. "Yes. We'll be looking at all of it. Not least because not everyone here has claws."

MV2: An Animated Conversation

"Judgement," said the aggressively ordinary man, and offered a hand. He was just a little taller than Andy, with medium-brown hair, medium-brown eyes, and medium-brown skin -- for the moment.

Andy had happened to be passing by when the Animate came out of his room, before he'd put his face on; he was a silvery-gray humanoid figure, with fingers but no distinct toes, a head but no eyes or mouth and only the vague suggestion of nose and ears. "Andy," he offered in return, and shook.

The Animate's grip was firm but not aggressive. "Would you share your story with me?"

"If you like," Andy said. "What would you like to know?" He didn't see any real point in keeping secrets; not here, not now. 

"Would you start by explaining to me how you became a monster? I have heard Y.T.'s story, but I suppose yours must be different. It is yours, after all."

"All right," said Andy, and did his best to explain about being an ordinary human going about his life, being attacked by monsters, and waking up as one himself. When he was finished, Judgement nodded.

"I thank you. Would you care to hear my own?"

"Of course," said Andy. "We should get moving towards the classrooms, though."

"Let us talk as we walk, then." Judgement started down the hall, and Andy paced along with him. "I was a mannequin -- in a department store, I believe. My early memories are not the clearest. But I was stolen by a small group of friends, who were also employees of the store, and they enjoyed taking me along with them -- to their apartments, to their parties, to nightclubs... and to movies. They would sit with me, adjust me, pretend to talk to me -- or to talk for me, to others." He paused. "Then there was a moment. We were all watching the second Terminator movie, and there was a moment when the T-1000 paused to look at a mannequin like myself. I realized then and there that I was me, that I was alive, that I could alter my appearance just as it did." 

"That must have been a shock," Andy said quietly. 

"No more than waking back up after dying, I suspect," answered Judgement. "I did not wish to scare my friends, so I waited until they were asleep, took on the seeming of an ordinary man, and departed. I had no idea what I was intended to do, of course, and no real idea how to navigate the world -- and this was in Boston. It wasn't long before the Authority picked me up and brought me here."

"Well," said Andy, "It's a pleasure to meet you, and I'm glad you're among us."

"You as well," returned the Animate. "It is my hope to someday be human myself, but for now all I can do is look like one -- and do my best to learn their ways."

Andy considered that for the space of a breath, then for another. "That's an admirable goal," he said finally. "Let me know if I can help."

Judgement considered that. "For now, I collect stories. What I lack in living as a human, I hope to make in learning about them."

Andy hesitated, holding open the door to the central building that held the school rooms. "All right. I have other stories I can share, when we have time."

"You are gracious," Judgement observed. "Like my friends were." 

MV2: Human Wights Issues

"Have you tried talking to the dead yet?" asked Y.T., as they walked back towards the dorm. 

Andy shook his head. "No. I'm pretty sure my maker can, and I know he can reanimate corpses, but I'm not sure I want to develop that as a skill. Not unless I'm going to join the hunters, and that is not a decision I'm prepared to make any time soon."

"I finally managed it today," Y.T. said. "It's tricky, but I could help you."

Andy considered that, nodded. "Let me think about it. Also, congratulations."

"Thanks." She'd scaled back some of her initial intensity now that they'd had a few days to get used to each other. "I'd like to work on claws, but..." 

He glanced at her. "Why?"

She shrugged. "Paranoia, maybe," she admitted. "I'm stronger than most humans, but if another monster jumped me? Claws are about the only edge I'd have. Can't count on raising the dead to defend myself. And there are worse things out there than us."

"We can carry weapons," Andy observed quietly, "but..." He trailed off, thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of having a built-in fistful of knives as opposed to carrying a gun around. "I mean, I'll try to help if you want."

"Thanks," she said. "I... I find it a little hard to believe you're seventeen. You don't talk like it, and you sure don't act like it. If this had happened to me back then, I'd have been actively suicidal."

Andy huffed. "I can't say it did anything good for my mental health. And I spend a lot more time reading books than talking to other people, so I suspect I kind of talk like it."

"You do, but that's not a bad thing." Y.T. hesitated. "Listen, I'm sorry for coming on so strong when you first got here. I just... I really wanted to have somebody else like me around, so I wouldn't feel like such a fucking freak."

"See, now you sound like you're twenty-five. I'm seventeen; I felt like a freak even before I was turned."

That got a laugh out of her. "You want a hug?" she asked. 

"Sure."

They leaned in, awkwardly, hugged, and withdrew. "We don't really stop having human needs, I guess," Y.T. said quietly...

And Andy said, "Yeah." 

MV2: Settling In

It took two days to get him properly set up and logged in to the online classes, but once they were ready Andy loved it. He could work almost any time, even during the day when he was trapped indoors; he could work as quickly or as slowly as he wanted to; and while he still had particular curricula he needed to complete, he could look at other things as well. It didn't take him long to fill out his class schedule.

Maria and Tom were frequently awake, especially when night was approaching, and the three of them wound up bonding over shared schedules as much as anything else. Maria was calling herself Maria OG -- "Original Ghoul" -- and had been turned much as Andy had, though ghouls didn't usually bother with the living. She'd been working in a mortuary, she explained, and had the misfortune to cross paths with a particularly desperate ghoul. Unlike Andy's maker, hers apparently felt really bad about it, and had brought her to the Authority himself, risking a citation to do it.

Andy tried not to be jealous about that. 

Tom, on the other hand, was less clear on his own origins. The black-eyed children were another order of being entirely, more akin to a ghost or a nature spirit despite having a physical form. "I woke up beside a stretch of road," he'd said quietly. "There was a car going by, so I put my thumb out. The driver picked me up, and I knew he'd done horrible things and was planning to do them to me, too. So I did horrible things to him."

"So how did you wind up here?" Andy asked. "If it's not prying, I mean. Don't tell us anything you don't want to."

"No, it's okay," Tom said. "After they found the wreck, a few people came to poke around who felt... I don't know. More like me. I ran, at first, but after a while I decided to talk to them, and... here we are."

Maria had nodded slowly at that. "Well, if it's any help, I'm glad you're here, Mijo."

Tom had nodded. "I wish I knew what I was... like, am I kid? Am I a ghost who just looks like a kid? I have these instincts, but... I like being here, where you two like me. And you're not... what that guy I killed was."

Andy had nodded at that. "I don't know either," he said. "I barely know what I am. But if you have a problem and you want... I don't know, help or advice... I'll do the best I can." 

"Me too," said Maria. "But you know that." 

Tom hesitated, then just said, "Thanks."

And then they went back to watching the baking show. 

MV2: Feeding at School

"This way," Mr. Carillo said, then paused as they reached the hallway. "Ms. Jiménez."

Stepping our behind him, Andy found himself facing a black-haired, dark-skinned woman in her... late twenties or early thirties? He wasn't sure. Definitely a grownup, regardless.  "You were looking for me," she said easily. "And this must be the young Mr. McFall."

Andy nodded and remembered his manners. "A pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

She chuckled gently as she studied him. "We agreed I should be the first one for you feed on here," she said.

"Oh?" asked Andy. "All right."

"Would you like some privacy, or...?"

Andy looked to  Ms. Jiménez, who offered a small shrug. "Here is fine," he said. "It's not like I've had a lot of privacy so far."

"All right," she said. "We'll have some other options for you later on, but for right now..."

He nodded and reached out. She wasn't a tall woman, but there was something about her... Maybe it was just self-assurance. She wasn't afraid of either of them; she wasn't even nervous. 

He put his palm to her forehead, and felt a sudden and unexpected surge of power; he choked it back immediately, even as the beast tried to rise up inside him. He was not going to mess this up, and he was not going to hurt anybody who was trying to help him...

He yanked his hand back. He felt better, fresher, his thoughts sharper; likely he looked better as well. He already knew that without feeding, his body would wither into something even more corpse-like, and he didn't want that at all. His appearance was bad enough as it was.

Ms. Jiménez sucked in a breath, then smiled. "Very good," she said.

"What just happened?" Andy demanded. "That was... that was a lot."

"Claws," said Mr. Carillo. 

Andy looked down at his hands, then realized the full length of his claws were out. That had been the beast, and he hadn't realized it... but at least he hadn't done any harm with them. "Sorry," he said, and resorbed them into his fingers. 

"You passed a test," Ms. Jiménez told him. "I promise you, most times we'll warn you in advance. But feeding -- draining -- is a touchy issue, and one of the main sources of friction between monsters and the human world. So we needed to make sure you could handle yourself in unexpected circumstances."

Why would you risk that??? His expression must have been obvious, because Ms. Jiménez chuckled again. "I'm a sorceress," she said. "Also a witch, but that's less important here. I can set a working to break the connection if it passes a certain point, and I did -- only you didn't get there."

"I'm a little worried about the claws," Mr. Carillo said. "Veronica told me you could call them out, but wights don't usually extend them during feeding."

Andy considered that, but only for a moment. "There's... something in my mind. I'm not sure how to describe. It's like a second self, but it's... feral. Bestial. Feeding is tricky for me because it, uh... takes an interest when I do."

Mr. Carillo exchanged a glance with Ms. Jiménez. "That isn't usual either."

Andy shrugged. "The person who first tried to help me control my feeding was a psychic, I think. She touched it, it woke up, and she pulled back out -- fast."

Ms. Jiménez frowned. "That sounds more like a were than a wight," she said.

Andy nodded. "Steve -- he was one of the hunters who brought me here -- said that too. Then he smelled me and said I was definitely a wight, though." 

Ms. Jiménez grunted thoughtfully. "We'll just have to keep an eye on that, I guess."

MV2: Negotiated Planning

"We're probably going to have to set you up with classes online," Mr. Carillo said, as the other monsters filed out. "Feeding won't be an issue -- we have a decent staff of human donors, who rotate feedings so nobody gives too much. You can feed safely, can't you?"

"So far," Andy told the ghost. 

"That's a relief. What I'd like is to get you the rest of the way to your diploma in the earlier hours of the evening, and then work with you on abilities and anything else you're interested in afterwards."

That didn't sound bad. "All right," Andy said cautiously.

Mr. Carillo smiled reassuringly. "I feel like I should remind you that you aren't trapped here," he said gently. "We're trying to help you so you can go back into the larger world when you feel ready. You could walk out the gates right now, and nobody would stop you."

Andy nodded. "Except for the bit where my maker is out there somewhere, hunting for me."

"Except for that," Mr. Carillo admitted. "Still, it's your choice."

Andy sighed. "You're right, it's just... Look, I like going to school. I'm good at it. Online classes will be fine, and I do want to graduate. But this thing with Titus Anthropicus... I've done some fencing, some wrestling, and a little karate -- plus gymnastics and track. None of that leaves me feeling like I could defend myself against him, let alone all three of them."

The ghost took a long moment to consider that, then said: "First, let me emphasize that you're safe here. The wards around this campus have been built up over decades. Your maker and his friends would have a very difficult time trying to come for you here. Second... we don't normally train people to fight, but we can. I'd prefer if you also trained in things that might offer you some sort of reputable career, but there are those of us who make their living through violence. The Hunters are among them. So if you want combat training, we can provide that. Just be aware that it's likely to set you apart from a lot of your fellow students."

Andy shook his head. "I don't know about careers," he said. "I mean, I really have no idea. I just... right now, if they drove a van through the gate, I've got nothing going for me but claws. So sure, let's look at other things for a career -- Rodney suggested something along the lines of Accountant By Night -- but also I need to be able to defend myself."

Mr. Carillo nodded thoughtfully. "All right. I can pull some strings for that."