MV2: Spirits and Spades

Maria OG opted out of the game, claiming to prefer watching a bit more television to playing cards, which surprised Andy a little bit. He was less surprised when Tłʼóoʼdi suddenly appeared and took a seat at the table. She was dressed in a bright green skirt and top, with a cape of feathers thrown over her shoulders, and she studied Andy for a long moment as he cut the cards. He was suddenly very aware that he was dealing with newborn spirits here; it wasn't like the wolves, who'd all had prior life experience and then become monsters."Everybody good with numbers?" he asked quietly. 

"I can count," Tom said quietly, then glanced nervously at the other two. 

They nodded, so Andy asked, "And how a standard deck of cards is counted?"

Tłʼóoʼdi looked puzzled, so Andy launched into an explanation of the suits, the numbers, the face cards... and how all that fit into the rules for Spades. "So the way this works is that four of us are two teams. I'm sitting across from Tłʼóoʼdi, so we're one team. Divvy and Tom, you're the other team. What you need to do now is make your best guess about how many hands you can win with the cards you're holding; that's your bid. There's a rule called 'sandbagging' where you lose points if you win too much more than you predicted, but we're going to ignore that for now."

He dealt the cards, then sat back to let everybody write down their bids. Tom nodded seriously, studying his cards, then turned them towards Andy. "What should I do with this?"

Ahhhhh... Andy shook his head. "I mean, first of all, you're really not supposed to show your cards to anyone else, especially the opposing team. But all right, first time out, we'll just walk through it." He laid his own cards out on the table, face up. "With what I'm holding here, I think I can take three hands. Tłʼóoʼdi, will you show us your cards?"

She laid hers down just as he had, and cocked her head as she studied him. 

"All right," he said. "With what you're holding, I'd say you can probably take four. Tom, if you play it right I think you can do the same. Divvy, do you want to show us, or keep yours hidden?"

"Hidden," said the spirit. "That's what keep the game interesting, right? Not knowing what the other players are holding?"

"It is," Andy acknowledged, "but since this is our first game there's nothing wrong with looking at the strategies openly."

"Even so," said Divvy. "I believe I can take five."

"All right," said Andy, and wrote it down on the notepad he'd grabbed from the shelves. "Let's find out."

He picked his cards back up, and Tłʼóoʼdi and Tom did as well.  

"Trust your partners," he advised. "You don't have to put down the card you think is most likely to win a hand, if you think your partner has one that will do it or if you think what they already put down will take it. If you're sure your team is going to lose a particular hand, you can use it to get rid of low-value cards that you know won't win anything."

He wasn't terribly surprised when Tom and Divvy took the first game. Advantage of surprise, and all that, he thought, smiling. "Well done," he said. "Tłʼóoʼdi, well played. It didn't go our way, but you have the idea now. When we play again, nobody shows their cards -- and maybe we can kick their asses, metaphorically speaking."

The woman in the cape of feathers smiled at him. 

MV2: Spirits of the Land

"Oh, hi," Andy said automatically, stopping to study the dark-skinned man in the hallway. 

He was dressed in a swallow-tailed coat and a top had, with an enormous, garish feather affixed to it. Of the two newborn nature spirits, he was the one most often visible; the other one preferred to remain unseen most of the time. 

The man hesitated. "You're a wight," he said. 

Andy nodded. "Andy." They'd been over this in their early-evening group meetings, but maybe it needed to be reiterated. "And you're Divvy."

The spirit nodded. Like the black-eyed child Tom, he had a solid, physical presence despite his origins; the hand he offered felt like, well, a hand when Andy clasped it. "Where you at on environmental stuff?" he asked. 

Andy chose his words carefully. "Conservationist," he said after a moment. "I mean, leave some room for camping and hiking, but keep the natural beauty in place. Otherwise, why bother with the camping and hiking?"

Divvy nodded and grinned. "Baby steps," he agreed. "Like to see the whole continent returned to its natural state, but that ain't gonna happen."

Andy nodded softly. "Does seem a pity sometimes. You up for a game of cards? Maria OG and Tom are usually up by now, and I've been trying to teach them to play Spades."

Divvy laughed. "Sure, I'm in. All you had to do was ask."

Andy chuckled. "I've been trying to take it slow," he said. "Several reasons."

"No need to explain," answered the spirit. "Come on. If your friends don't want to play, maybe you can show me and Tłʼóoʼdi."

MV2: The Second Call

"Andy?" asked Mr. Carillo. 

Andy frowned. He'd only just gotten out of bed, and it was still daylight outside; early spring, but bright and crisp. "Yes?"

Mr. Carillo held out a cell phone. "Your  family called back."

"Ah." he put them on speaker, then said, "Hello?"

"Can we see you?" asked his mother, immediately. "Even if you're..."

"I looked up some information on wights," Judith put in. "Like, we know how you probably look now."

The sound Andy made was something like, "Ahhhgh--" He looked to Mr. Carillo, who said: "We could probably arrange something, but doing it without endangering you or your family would be... tricky."

"Maybe," Andy said into the speaker. "I don't know if you heard that, but... Like I said, the guy who killed me is still looking for me, and he wouldn't hesitate to use any of you as hostages. Or to murder you outright, if he had half a reason for it. I think the Authority would authorize social media contact -- assuming we can all be very discreet -- but I think it's better to keep my distance for now."

His father said, "That's... definitely better than nothing."

Judith sounded momentarily scared. "I don't ever want to see those things again. I have nightmares about them."

"I don't want them anywhere near you," Andy affirmed quietly. "Or me, really, but I'm the one they were looking for."

"But you're okay, right?" asked his mother. 

"I'm good," he replied. "We're working on feeding -- so far I have pretty good control of it -- and I'm finishing up high school online, and we're looking at self-defense after that, even though we're pretty safe here."

"That's... that's good, Honey. I'm proud of you."

Andy nodded, and managed not to rub at his eyes by an act of will. "If the situation changes, I'll let you know." 

They fell to more day-to-day issues after that -- how Judith was doing in school, how Andy liked his classmates, his dad's frustrations with his job as an engineer, his mother's taking a break from her career as a nurse. It was good to just talk about daily life -- a reminder for Andy that life went on, and maybe a reassurance for his family that he was still doing well even after the tragedy. 

When he finally hung up, it was full dark and time to get back to his studies. 

MV2: Practice Dummies

Trainer Jim -- apparently the werecougar's name was James Trainor -- had set up a a dozen or so wooden training dummies behind the classrooms building. Andy had already demolished three of them, with a combination of barehanded strikes, basic claws, and the longer claws of a wight. He knew there was a woodshop on campus; he'd have to build more to make up for it, but right now he needed to break things. Hitting the punching bag in the gym just hadn't done it for him. 

"Hey," said a soft voice behind him. 

Andy spun around, and found himself looking at Sam W -- Samantha Wolfe, she was calling herself, having apparently been turned in her late forties. He thought there was a joke to it, but he didn't get the reference. She was the werewolf who'd asked about shooting guns, though. 

She held her hands up and he put his claws away.

"Hey," she said again. "It's not really any of my business, and I'll go away if you want, but... are you all right?"

He shook his head. "No. No, I am so very much not all right."

She nodded. "You want to talk about it?"

He sighed, looking at the scattered bits of wood that had been three practice dummies, and the gouges in a fourth one. I should stop now, while there are still enough left for the class to use. Did he feel better? He wasn't sure, but he thought so. "I'm taking classes online to finish high school."

Sam nodded. "You mentioned that while we were waiting for movie night one time."

"Yeah, well... Internet connection. So I opened up social media, and saw... what my family is going through right now. Kind of had a meltdown."

"That's... how bad is it?"

"My family was in mourning. My girlfriend died in the same attack where I was turned, and her family is... turning their grief to anger. At everyone, including my family, the school... and particularly my sister, who survived the attack by hiding in her room and calling for help."

"Oh." Sam paused for a moment, picturing that. "Jesus. That's..."

"Yeah. That's why I've been hiding in my room for the last three days. Mr. Carillo arranged for me to call my family and let them know what's really going on, but I think I'm going to have to talk to Amy's family too. I've asked the Authority to give them more information about what happened, and how little chance any of us had of stopping it." He turned away, then turned back. "I thought I was okay, that I was handling all this, but then it all caught up to me and I'm... not."

"Andy... You're still calling yourself Andy, right? ...it's okay. You're allowed to freak out." Sam hesitated, then said, "God knows I did. If I hadn't been presumed dead, I'd owe the apartment complex a few thousand dollars in damages. At least all you did was hide away for a little while, and break some things that were built to be broken."

Andy sat down on the grass. "Thanks," he said.

Sam moved cautiously closer, and when he didn't object she sat down beside him and put an arm around his shoulders. "I don't know if we're friends, exactly," Sam said carefully, "but I like you, and as far as I know the others do too. We've been lucky; no real assholes in this class, even if we do have our own issues. As far as I can tell, you're doing just fine. Plus, I owe you for getting us started on self-defense training. So if there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

Andy nodded. He didn't like asking for help; he never had. But the offer was genuine, and maybe it was time to consider that mutual support was supposed to go both ways. "Thank you," he said quietly. 

MV2: Family Reunion

"Andy?" asked his mother. "How... Where are you?"

"Colorado, I think. I didn't ask." 

She gave a shaky laugh. "They said you were dead."

"When I was very young, I had a stuffed turtle that went with me everywhere. When Grandpa passed on, I asked if I could leave it in the coffin with him, to keep him company."

"Holy shit," said his father, clearly audible over the phone. "How is this even...?"

Andy sighed. "I wasn't supposed to get in touch with you. I really did die. And then three days later I came back as a wight, because that was what killed me. The Authority has a whole system for dealing with situations like this, and they've been doing their best to teach me how to live as... something like this. Not quite human, not quite alive."

"But you are alive," said Judith. "I mean, you called, you're talking to us."

He nodded, knowing they wouldn't see it. "You wouldn't recognize me, though. I look dead. I don't have a heartbeat. That's why I didn't come back home."

"Son..." His father cleared his throat. "Come home anyway."

Andy hesitated, then shook his head. "I can't. The thing that killed me is still looking for me. I can't risk leading it to you."

"What about Amy?" asked Judith. "Any chance that she...?"

"No. A clean death, I was told. And I think if she'd been reborn the way I was, they'd have kept us together."

Mr. Carillo nodded at that. 

"Oh." Judith sounded sad. "I'm so sorry."

"It wasn't your fault you survived, Sis. You were smart, and lucky. Amy and I were... right in the line of fire. Dumb fucking luck, but there it is."

"Andy," his mother said. Then, a moment later, she continued with, "Never mind. It's not like your little sister has never heard curse words."

"Yeah, I know about those, Mom," said Judith. "I do watch YouTube."

"All right," said his father. "If you can't come home, and you were supposed to be dead, why call us?"

Andy hesitated for a long moment. "Because I thought it would help more than hurt. I might be dead, technically, but you'd still want to know I was all right -- and so far, I am. I can't imagine that this was any harder for me than it was for you, but... Listen, I'm still out here and I still love you guys. I worry about you."

There was a long silence, then his father burst into tears. His mother said, "I think... this was a lot. Can we... can we take a little while to sit with it, and then maybe talk to you again?"

"That might be a really good idea," said Andy, who was feeling more than a little overwhelmed himself. "Just... before I go... Judith?"

"Yeah?"

"You did the right thing. You stayed in your room and called for help, and it kept you alive. I don't really know how you're holding up, but I think you living through that was vital for Mom and Dad. You understand? And for me. You couldn't have changed things, and hiding wasn't cowardice. It... it was survival. Be proud of yourself, Sis, okay? Even if it's hard."

Judith sniffed. "I wish I could have saved you."

"I just told you: I think you did." He ended the call before he could say anything else, and stood for a time just staring down at the phone. His family doubtless had the number now and could have called back, but they didn't. He suspected they needed some time to adjust just as much as he did.  

MV2: Casting Oil On Troubled Waters

It took a few hours to get back on his feet, but when Tom threw his arms around Andy's waist he was glad he'd done it. Mr. Siegel was one of the wolves and one of the teachers, and willing to endanger himself by letting a starved wight feed off of him. Andy was starting to realize how much more life could be gained from other monsters than ordinary humans, and scaled his feeding down to suit. The beast stirred, but didn't rise. 

"You can't just give up," Tom said, looking up at him with those eerie black eyes. "Not when I don't even know where I came from."

Andy nodded. "Yeah. Sorry. I've just been... I think it all caught up to me."

Tom nodded. "Better now?"

"Not yet," Andy admitted. "But I'm willing to consider that it could be."

"All right," said Mr. Carillo. "Your voice shouldn't have changed much, and I've got a call going through to your family."

Andy stepped up, took the phone in a grip that should have broken it, and waited until an unmistakable voice said, "Hello?"

"Judy?" he asked quietly. 

There was a long moment of silence. Then his sister asked, "Am I supposed to believe that you're Andy?"

"Not really," he said, thinking fast. He was suddenly proud of his little sister for being suspicious that this might be a scam. "You remember those stupid banana-shaped earrings that I got you last Christmas?"

"Worst gag gift ever."

"Yeah, but you did wear them to school." 

"The uniform shirts are bright yellow. They matched."

"Okay, look. Put the phone down, go into my room, and look under the far left corner of the bed. I had a box back there."

Judith hesitated, then said: "All right, wait a moment."

When she came back a few minutes later she asked, "Condoms? Why did you want me to know you had condoms. Were you and Amy--?"

"I didn't want you to know. It was just the most secret thing I had -- the best way to prove that I'm me."

There was a long pause. "Andy?" Judith asked. 

"Yeah," he said. "I died. But I was killed by a wight, and I came back as one. I don't look... much of anything like you remember."

"But you're alive." 

"Sort of. And I am so, so grateful that you are really truly no-shit alive." Andy hesitated. "Can you find Mom and Dad? And put this on speaker?"

"No bullshit?" she asked suspiciously. 

"No bullshit." 

MV2: Hard Wall

There was a knock at the door, and Mr. Carillo's voice called, "Andy? Are you in there?"

And groaned and rolled over. "Go away," he called back. 

"Ah," said Mr. Carillo, a little more softly. "May I come in?"

Andy considered that. "If you must."

There was a brief burst of mist, and Mr. Carillo was inside the door. It remained closed, and locked, behind him. "Andy..."

"I'm taking a break," Andy said. 

"You haven't been out of your room in three days," the ghost pointed out. "You need to feed, at least."

"No," he said deliberately, "I don't. I need to wither, and fade, and move on."

"Andy," said Mr. Carillo, soft but intense, "What happened?"

He sighed. "I checked social media. My little sister's in shock -- and therapy, at least. My parents are grieving and sound like they might get a divorce. Amy's family -- she was my girlfriend -- are looking for somebody to take it out on, and with the Authority blocking them they're going after the people in my life: my parents, our teachers, the school... as if Amy should never have been allowed to come over, even if it was her decision, as if I could have done anything more to protect her, as if it's Judith's fault that she managed to survive when we didn't. She's fourteen, Mr. Carillo. She's not equipped to deal with this." He rolled over to face the wall. "Just seal me in and let me rot here."

"That won't kill you," Mr. Carillo told his back. "It might drive you mad, if you're lucky, but it won't kill you."

Fine, then I'll kill myself. It wasn't as if he hadn't thought about it. "Just go away."

The ghost actually sighed. "Not yet. I don't think we can afford to lose you. Y.T. seems to find your presence reassuring; Maria OG, Judgement, and Tom genuinely like you -- they were the first to ask after you -- and even the wolves respect you. They know you've fought."

Andy frowned, but rolled back over. "Then you're going to have to stage an intervention," he said, quietly. "Not with me. Tell the Gordon family what really happened, how little chance we had of stopping it, and get them off my family's back. Figure out if letting my family know I'm still around, even undead, would help or hurt. Get some restraining orders if you need."

Mr. Carillo hesitated for a long moment, then nodded. "All right. Will you come out and feed?"

"If it will help fix this," said Andy, flinging the blanket back and coming to his feet. 

"All right. I'll have to make some calls, so bear with me." 

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." 

MV2: Classmates

Distracted as he was, Andy hadn't gotten a good look at the inside of the building; but the room he followed Maria and the black-eyed child into had the very distinct look of a group therapy setup -- not that he'd ever been in that sort of therapy himself, but he couldn't imagine any other reason for a circle of chairs in the middle of a room with essentially no other furniture. 

Mr. Carillo was seated opposite the door, and Andy could see what Veronica had meant: he was misty, half-transparent, and hard to see even in the brightness of the fluorescent lights overhead. The chairs were cheap and basic: molded plastic seats and backs, with metal legs underneath. One of them creaked as a smooth-faced, androgynous figure settled into it. 

Y.T. squeezed his shoulder, but went and sat on the far side of the circle when Andy followed Maria and Tom and took a seat beside the boy. 

Once everyone was seated, Mr. Carillo stood. "Some of you have already met our newest student, Andrew McFall -- he goes by Andy. Andy, would you say a few words? You'll get the chance to meet your fellow students over the next few days, but for now I'll be getting you oriented and setting up your schedule."

Andy sighed and stood up, then looked around the circle of chairs. It was every bit as diverse as Mr. Carillo had described it; aside from Y.T. and the ghosts, he couldn't even remotely identify what sort of monsters his fellow students were. "Hi," he said. "I'm Andy. I'm a wight, obviously, newly turned and still kind of in shock about that." He sighed, then raised a hand a made a vague circling gesture. "Can we just assume I said the usual platitudes about being glad to meet you and looking forward to getting to know you? I'm not trying to be an asshole, and if you aren't either we'll probably get along just fine, but this kind of speech isn't really my thing."

Tom reached out and touched his hand, and a low rumble of laughter circled the room.

"Well said," chuckled a brown-haired man in dark slacks, a tan trench coat, and a fedora. He was misty and half-visible, just as Mr. Carillo was; one of the ghosts, then.

Mr. Carillo nodded. "Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Introductory Academy."