39th Howl | Monday, August 4 [Audio]

[professorwolf]

[A certain familiar British voice is back on the network, everybody.]

Well, I'm back. I don't think I remembered to let anyone outside my immediate circle know I would be gone... I apologize for that. But summer school and training are both out of the way, and I'm free for a whole week before classes begin again.

For anyone new here, I'm-- Randall Lyall.

[There's a brief hesitation there, as he consciously makes himself not say "Randolph".]

Biology teacher at Locke High. Also happen to be a werewolf.

So did I miss anything terribly important? It doesn't look like anything's blown up, in my absence, anyhow.

Comments

audio;

[detectivetroll]

Welcome back. You have time for me to stop by?

[Audio]

[professorwolf]

For you? Always. To be honest, I was a little surprised not to find you here waiting when I unlocked the door.

[He's definitely teasing, there.]

[Audio]

[detectivetroll]

[Nick laughs.]

I've been told people tend to find that a little too creepy.

[Audio]

[professorwolf]

[And Lyall chuckles, pleased that he got a laugh, to begin with.]

And I'm a werewolf. I think a little creepy isn't going to be too much of a surprise. But when should I expect you by, now that I'm home and you're so anxious to see me?

Voice

[icy_heavens]

We've got the mafia on our backs, now. [What are greetings?]

[Audio]

[professorwolf]

[Eh, he knows who it is, and he's not terribly surprised by the lack of greeting. Really, that seems to be the norm on the network, anyhow.]

Well, that's unpleasant-sounding. How did that happen, and where in particular should I be wary of?

[Audio]

[icy_heavens]

[Toushirou may talk to more people now than he did before the network, but his social skills kind of have a ways to go, still.]

Dunno how it happened; they've hassled a lot of us and told us to "stop interfering", even though most of us haven't done anything. They trashed Expresso Yourself, and . . . they burned someone's house down.

[Video]

[scramasax]

[Toshiro got to the apparent most urgent bit. Slurring mumble:]

Some of us are trying -- ...I think some of us are, thinking about o -- our P.R.

Ho - how we -- ...How we can take control of. ...It.

[Audio]

[professorwolf]

Hello, Anthony.

[There's a smile in his voice.]

Has anyone come up with any ideas in particular? I'd have to think on it, and I'm not really sure if I'd be able to help much... though my reputation is back to being relatively good at the high school, at least.

[scramasax]

Hi, sir. [A bit croaked as usual - but otherwise rather easy.

Clears his throat.] I umm. Only - talked... to Winter Adamas, really... She um. Mostly... suggested, um. [Trails at a straying.] ...keeping track of any puh - particular things they're saying. Ideas they're spreading -- about. Us... Writing reports and letters to, uhm. [Pause for phrasing.] Cor... correct it - ...

I apologize if um, I'm -- ...not - telling you that - well. [The very phrasing of that is in and of itself not telling something well.]

audio

[senseandcecilbility]

[Cecil is not new, but new enough, and he has never talked to Randal/Randolph before. However, there is something incredibly familiar about his voice. British, he knows, like his missing parents and deceased grandparents, but that's not quite the issue here.]

W-werewolf?

[professorwolf]

I'm afraid so. Utterly harmless except for the night of the full moon, though, I assure you, and I keep myself locked up with an armed guard, then. Mostly I can change into a wolf-- and still be myself, by and large-- at night, and I have a fantastic sense of smell.

[senseandcecilbility]

[Apologies, sir, he is still stuck on "werewolf". ]

Does it hurt?

Audio

[onecream_fivesugar]

...Woah woah woah. Hold on a second. Mr.Lyall? You're a numbered too?

And a werewolf!?

[professorwolf]

[It's always a bit disheartening to discover one of his students is on this network.]

I am indeed. Both, I'm afraid. I've been part of this ordeal since it began, a year and a half ago, though the werewolf thing didn't start until that summer. That would be why I've been out sick so often over the past year.

[onecream_fivesugar]

O-oh... Well that makes a whole lot of sense actually.

[She had only been at the school for about half a semester, but he did seem to be away more often than other teachers.]

Well, at least you aren't actually sick. That's some good news.

...But you already knew that.

[chalicejoker]

Good to have you back. I guess things haven't been as outright crazy as they could get...

[professorwolf]

I've already heard a few things, yes. It could be worse. Anything else I ought to know that Toushirou and Anthony didn't share with me?

[chalicejoker]

I think they hit all the important parts. Crazy, but not as crazy as a giant snake rampaging everywhere or toothpicks suddenly deciding to attack.

[Does he sound slightly disappointed at that? He can't help it; the bug wants to fight, and there's been precious little of that, at least for him.]

[audio]

[ruleorserve]

I haven't seen anything blowing up. But I am only recently arrived, here. Enough that I could easily have missed something.

[There's the hint of a smile in his voice, though. Enough to suggest that he doesn't truly expect that anything has blown up. Not any more than the recent attacks by the mafia might be considered, anyway.]

[audio]

[professorwolf]

Obviously you missed the whole Wise Snake debacle, and its preceding events. There have been quite a few explosions over the past two years. Not to mention a home went up in flames while I was gone, apparently.

How recently arrived are you, if I might ask?

[audio]

[ruleorserve]

It did, unfortunately. The current thorns in our side are to blame, in that, and that it should have happened at all is nothing short of a tragedy.

[A brief pause, and then:]

But you would be correct. I've only been here for a month, and so was hardly present for those particular events.

Voice.

[flamberge]

Welcome back. Aside from the mafia targeting Numbered and public opinion of us plummeting, not much else has occurred during your absence.

[professorwolf]

Both of which appear to be a bit of a problem. I wasn't told the word was "plummeting", though. Has there been a concerted attack on us in the media, then, or simply a lot of innocent misinformation and somewhat understandable prejudice?

[flamberge]

A mixture of all three from what I've gathered. The media has taken to portraying us in a negative light, which leads to fear and prejudice on the part of the public.