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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"Because you're a professional ghost hunter."

"Right." Way to go, Raven! "And it's surprisingly easy to adjust to all this. I'd chalk it up to adaptation rather than shock."

"Being from a world with mutants has probably helped me adjust, too. I can't imagine what it must be like to show up and not know anything strange from back home."

"My boyfriend's like that," Alec offered. "For a definition of 'strange' meaning 'supernatural.' He deals okay."

He shrugged one shoulder. "Mutants? Is that what you call them?"

Raven nodded. "My brother is into genetics," she said, leading with that off the bat this time to avoid unnecessary "so why do you know about all this, then?" questions. "He says it most likely stems from irradiated DNA from all the nuclear testing at the beginning of the century. Change the right gene and it can make you telepathic or a shapeshifter or, well, almost anything."

"Oh." That was certainly more scientific than what Alec could grasp. "That's... really different from how it is in my world. Are there groups of people with similar abilities? Or is it just random?"

"Well, there's not very many yet," Raven said. "And the ones there are are still hiding, what with the way people might kill them and all. So there's not a lot of data, just yet."

He nodded. "Well, it sounds really... confusing," he admitted. Science was not his forte, okay? "It must be really upsetting to go through."

"Learning science?" Raven asked, the small laugh in her voice showing she was joking. "It's not easy to be different. But it's who w-they are."

"Just - you know, if there isn't a common frame of reference," Alec said. "Where I'm from, you're either born as something different and you have parents who are it too, or there's some kind of... transformation process where I presume things are explained." He didn't really know how it worked for werewolves and things like that. "You wouldn't have someone all... surprised and confused about what they are."

That was surprisingly thoughtful, Alec.

"It must be harder for mutants you're from, that's all."

Raven bit her lip slightly. "Well. I guess at first you kind of figure everyone must be able to do it. It's just part of your reality." That's what Charles had said. It was pretty easy to figure out you were different when you were an entirely different color. "Then, well. It's the others that make it hard. The normal folk. For a mutant, it's all just natural."

"Oh. Okay." She seemed to have a pretty decent grasp on how it worked, but Alec wasn't making any guesses just yet.

He nodded, reassured. "Good."

Hunting 101 - Wednesday

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