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The Cryptozoologist's Field Guide, Wednesday, Per 1

Even if Verity hadn't been addicted to coffee on the regular, there was no way she would have been able to have her first class without an over-large cup of it this morning. Her evening before had been spent going over her notes, questioning her capability to teach such a course, and then remembering the class she'd heard about last semester, which had gotten her to dive back into the material again.

Rival-teaching: great for the pedagogy, terrible for the sleep cycle.

"Hi," she said, when all the students had filed in. "So, this is The Cryptozoologist's Field Guide, and I'm Verity Price. I come from a long line of cryptozoologists, I actually came to the island to study some of your native cryptids, and I promise this class will have a lot more to learn than perhaps other classes that had purported to share a topic."

See, that was calling out in a classy way. She'd learned it from being on reality TV!

"Since today is our first class, I figured we'd talk a little bit about what cryptozoology actually is." Turning, she wrote on the board:

Cryptid, noun:

1. Any creature whose existence has been suggested but not proven scientifically. Term officially coined by cryptozoologist John E. Wall in 1983.

2. That thing that's getting ready to eat your head.

3. See also: "monster."

"So, cryptids. There are lots of different versions of cryptids out there; including several cryptid species of plants. Cryptids can be sapient or not--this class is going to be focusing on cryptids of general animal intelligence." Because she didn't trust any of you with information on how to spot sapient cryptids yet. "Cryptids are not aliens or creatures of the supernatural, thought some may come from other dimensions or have things that appear to be preternatural powers. The study of cryptozoology is hardly exact, because to have exact information, you need access to large populations and the ability to carry out longterm studies. Neither of those are the case for cryptids, most populations are small, endangered, and scattered rather far from wherever their origins may have been and they all live in secrecy, trying to avoid notice by the normal, human world. Mostly because humans have never been kind to the inexplicable, which is also why so many cryptid populations are so small."

And if she ever did get around to teaching a semester about sapient cryptids, she'd even go into detail about some of what happened to them and why they were so rightly afraid of humans.

"Primarily though, if cryptozoology is the study of cryptids, being a cryptozoologist is primarily about preservation: of individuals, of species, of habitats, and of knowledge. It's a tough, thankless, tiring job, but there are a lot of wonders in it, too."

"But, that's all stuff we'll get into next week. I'm told that this week is for introductions. So name, why you took this course if you have an interesting reason, any experience with cryptids or magical creatures from your world if you have any, and if you don't have anything that suits...I dunno, ask me a question about cryptids or cryptozoology. Let's see what you're interested in and how fast think on your feet."

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Caffeinated

Mara Jade

Yang Xiao Long

Molly Squidpiddge

Dante

Take notes, talk to each other, you know, whatever.

"Name, why you took this course if you have an interesting reason, any experience with cryptids or magical creatures from your world if you have any, and if you don't have anything that suits...I dunno, ask me a question about cryptids or cryptozoology. Let's see what you're interested in and how fast think on your feet."

"I'm Mara Jade, and we don't have magical creatures back home," she said. "We do have a lot of aliens, though, with a lot of different abilities, so I'm hoping some of the things I learn here will translate."

"I do, too, but I can't promise anything," Verity said frankly. "Rules work differently across dimensions, which I'm sure you've realized already. But even if the facts I've learned about cryptids don't translate over, perhaps the skills about interacting with them might."

Not that that was really a focus of this class, but maybe a workshop in the future...?

"Have you run into any stories about Earth-based cryptids that have interested you?"

"Hey," she said with a little wave. "I'm Yang, and I'm here because I'm training to be a professional Huntress. We deal mostly with the creatures of Grimm, usually when they're on a rampage and threatening settlements, but we can take all sorts of contracts and it's good to have a wide range of skills for dealing with dangerous creatures."

"So, that sounds interesting as all hell," Verity said, before belatedly remembering that she probably wasn't supposed to say 'hell' in front of the students. "So, are any of these creatures sapient? What makes them so dangerous?"

"That kinda depends on your definition of 'sapient,'" Yang said. "Different kinds have different strengths. Think... okay, so, most of them resemble giant animals, but made out of shadows and bones. Take a polar bear, make it a thousand times bigger with an eternal hunger for murder and destruction, and you've got an Ursa. An Ursa's smarter than a Boarbatusk, but nowhere near as smart as a Goliath."

"They're vicious, they'll kill any faunus or human on sight, no matter what. They don't actually eat, so the theory is they actually feed off the act of killing sentient creatures, since they'll leave normal animals alone. They're attracted to strong negative emotions... entire villages have been wiped out because the sadness of a funeral attracted herds of Grimm."

"Supposedly they get smarter as they get older... my dad said the largest ones are hundreds of years old. But they just use that cunning to be better at killing."

Verity had propped her chin in her hands to listen to Yang's description. These creatures sounded fascinating. "So, perhaps they feed off of the fear and pain and grief of their victims, you mean?"

How did that even work? Verity already wanted to see one.

"Is intelligence determined by size?" A Boarbatusk sounded like a boar, and an Ursa was based on polar bears, and she had no idea what a Goliath might be based on, but it meant giant so she was guessing it was big. "What can an Ursa do that a Boarbatusk can't, intelligence-wise? And Goliaths?"

"Neither Ursas or Boarbatusks are great at planning, like, ambushes or anything like that. They're more charge-in-murder-everything-now, unless they're really ancient. Waiting for the right time to strike is more the province of Goliaths or Lancers. Hang on." Yang whipped out her scroll, flipping it open and setting it flat on her desk to put it into hologram mode. "Display: Grimm subgroups."

The scroll flickered to life, and began projecting different images in the air next to Yang, changing from one to the next every few moments. "Meet the creatures of Grimm."

Verity itched to get her fingers on the information there, especially since she couldn't just stay and read it and ignore the rest of the class. "I'd love to take a closer look at that sometime if you're willing," she said. "Though it is interesting--by which I mean dangerous, likely deadly, and probably stupid--to study where the difference between animal-level trickery and cunning end and true sapience begins."

Verity stop grinning like that. It sets a bad example for the students.

"The disintegrate immediately after they die, and don't survive in captivity, so, it's not like they can be studied," Yang said with a shrug. "So, mostly we just punch them until they stop trying to make people dead."

She picked up her scroll and flipped it off, sticking it back in her pocket. "Though... wouldn't a sapient cryptid just...be a person?"

"People, yes, but not human," Verity said. "And most of them would be horrified to be classed with us, or even as mammals. There can be sapient cryptid people who hunt and attack humans. Apraxis wasps, for instance, or ghouls. All ghouls eat human flesh, though, since they prefer dead and decaying flesh, most have an arrangement with a local hospital, morgue, or crematorium. Most isn't all, however."

It was an excellent question, however, and Yang was getting an approving nod for it.

"Well, yeah. We have Faunus," Yang said, gesturing. "They're people with animal-ish traits? And yeah, they aren't all mammals, but, like, they're still people."

Vale -- and by extenions, Patch -- was very liberal, compared to other parts of the Kingdoms. Yang knew that not everyone shared her opinion, but, like, that wasn't anything she could change.

"This world is still wrapping its head around the fact that the concept of 'people' extends past straight, cis, white men of a certain age and class," Verity said with a sigh. "The idea that a giant snake or small mice or bogeymen are actually real and also people is still a ways away. So they hide, to not get wiped out."

"I'm Molly Squidpiddge, and I've spent a lot of time lately around the undead," she said, feeling freer about talking about that sort of thing. "I've also encountered Gamin, Nephilim, and other types of creatures in Malifaux. It's a place practically made of magic, there's a lot going on there."

She fiddled with her dark glasses for a moment and then decided just to pull them off entirely, revealing her cloudy eyes.

"I also am undead. I promise I don't eat brains, though."

"Hi Molly," Verity said, with a welcoming smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My old babysitter growing up was a ghost that's been with our family for a generation or so and my grandfather's a Revenant--a construct of formerly dead body parts that's been successfully reanimated through one highly-unpleasant mechanism or another."

In Grandpa Martin's case, it was your standard mad scientist bent on defying the laws of God and man in favor of obeying his own twisted muse. So, pretty bog-standard.

"Oh, I've got a friend like that," Molly said. "He's built from all sorts of people. And a squid. He didn't come with me to school, though."

"Grandpa doesn't have any squid parts, I don't think. Not that it would bother Grandma; he's more human than she is."

He'd at least started off that way.

"My mom's adopted."

"I'm Dante," Dante said lightly, "I was wondering what the 'real deal' class about this shit was like." Beat. "We got demons, mostly."

"What kind of demons?" Verity asked. "Are we talking border imps, or the bigger, meaner ones you get when you travel further into Hell dimensions?"

Beat.

"I mean hi, Dante, nice to meet you."

Edited 2018-01-05 01:53 (UTC)

"Yeah, that last one," Dante said, wrinkling his nose.

She might be slightly jittery though

And many thanks to

captainskullpoopl for being cool with Verity's attitude!

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The Cryptozoologist's Field Guide, Wednesday, Per 1

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Listen to the Lecture

Introductions

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Talk to Verity

OOC