fandomhigh | Hunting 101

"Okay, kids," Dean said, taking a seat on the teacher's desk. Look at him being all teacherly. And nary a dodgeball in sight! "Today we're gonna talk about shape-shifters. The kind that can turn into anyone they want, not the ones that grow fur and fangs. Those'll be covered next week."

"I apologize to anyone who ate right before class, because this might get kind of gross," Sam said with his best puppyface. "Like Dean said, shape-shifters can take on the appearance of anyone they want, and the ones we're familiar with do it by, well, shedding their skin with each new appearance. Literally."

That got a smile out of Dean. Because he was a twisted individual. "If they see you, they can look like you. And if they look like you, they start being able to think like you. And we mean literally. They have some weird ability to get your memories and and mannerisms. Which makes them harder than hell to catch when they start killing people."

"Not all of them are automatically killers," Sam said. He was still determined to be the diplomatic one here. "But it's pretty easy to get away with crimes when you can change how you look whenever authorities get too close."

"Or impersonate the cop investigating the crime..." Dean shook his head. "Easy way to check. Cameras. They can look normal everywhere but on film. Their eyes glow like they're on fire or something."

"And, probably obviously, finding a pile of gross skin sitting around is a bad sign too." This was the anti-eating class, seriously.

"Oh, and teeth. Hair too." DAMN IT, BOYS. Dean clapped his hands together. "Alright, how to stop these suckers is simple. Silver works on them. If you're fresh out of silver... decapitation. Which works for a lot of things, really. When it doubt, remove the head and burn the remains."

"We're not going to have you practice that sort of thing yet." Suck it up, Dean. "For now, we're going to give you guys some cameras and have you practice your photography skills. Taking pictures when something strange is going on is always a good idea in general. Snapping good shots of suspicious people takes a little practice, so try to get your shots without stopping and focusing for too long. You might not get the chance to take your time."

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"Okay, so what if you don't catch them in the act?"

"Then... that's it, and there's nothing you can do," Alec summarized, looking uncertain. "Why, do you disagree?"

She was rather hoping for that answer, actually.

"So . . . you don't just assume it has to be some evil thing and then go find an evil thing to kill for it?"

He shook his head. "Only if there's real evidence," Alec said. "Anything else is against the Law."

And Alec was pretty much the most Law-abiding Shadowhunter around.

"Why are you so curious?"

Raven shrugged, looking askance. "Sometimes people in my world go after the ones who can do things just because they're different. It's nice to hear that not all worlds are like that."

"Oh." That sounded like mundie bullshit to Alec. Because Shadowhunters were neeeever judgmental of other types of-- oh, wait.

Anyway.

"Sorry yours is," he offered. "And that theirs is." He nodded at the teachers. "People are sometimes..." He trailed off.

'Ignorant' would be a good word. Or 'jerkasses.'

"Terrible?" Raven offered.

"Easily freaked-out," Alec tried instead. "When they don't know what to do in a situation but they think they do, it can be a little..."

Well. He nodded to the Winchesters again.

"Shoddy."

"Someone should clue these guys in," Raven said. Because shapeshifters weren't snakes, holy crap. "Who even gave them the authority to decide what needs 'hunting'?"

"Nothing, as far as I can tell," Alec said, sounding frustrated. "I asked on the first day if they were... what I am, and they said no."

He rolled his eyes. "You and I could probably teach this class better than they do."

"And I've never even seen a ghost before."

"There you go, then." Wow, they were really not respectful members of this class.

To be fair, Sam and Dean didn't really command respect. "Maybe we should have tried to be TAs. Then stage a mutiny."

Alec laughed. "Do they even have TAs?" No, they did not. "Maybe there's still time. Except I don't think that one likes me."

He gestured to Dean. But subtly, because he didn't want to be noticed.

"Pretty sure they'd hate me," Raven said cheerfully. Though she wasn't going to be able to tell him why.

"Why?"

Too bad Alec couldn't read narrative.

Oops.

Raven shrugged, glancing away. It took her a moment to find an answer. "Because I'm making fun of them in class? Teachers don't usually like that, back home."

"Oh." Alec had no idea what teachers liked. "That makes sense, I guess."

Could you tell he'd never gone to real school before?

"I walked in on him in some kind of mental torture room once," he offered.

Raven blinked at that one. ". . . What?"

No one had warned her about mental torture rooms!

"Oh. Did someone not tell you about the dungeon from last month?" Oops. "We all got teleported somewhere. There were these rooms that were playing mind games and I guess I accidentally followed him into one."

Surprise!

". . . You were teleported into an evil dungeon?"

They should really start putting these things in the brochure.

"For about a week," Alec confirmed. "In our pajamas. It was stressful. You're lucky you missed it."

Edited 2013-06-05 22:17 (UTC)

"Does that kind of thing happen a lot around here?"

Alec shook his head. "First time, as far as I know," he said.

Although-- "Not long before that, there was a week when we were in some sort of alternate universe," he added. "It was a little dystopian. There was mind control and a dictator."

Spoken by anyone else, the understatement and casual tone would be funny; for Alec, he was pretty much just a literal guy.

"That sounds like something out of a comic book."

Oh Raven. If you only knew.

Re: Take Pictures

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