Scene takes place in the University of Chicago. Professor Carlos Rosa is teaching an afternoon class of students. History. He almost forgot how much he enjoyed moments like this. The classroom is as it would seem in the late 1960's. Teachers still write on a blackboard of slate with a piece of white chalk and students take notes with pencil an paper. Rosa feels that if one is to embrace the future one must also learn about the past. The class topic for the day was the industrial revolution and how it affected America. It gave the class a feeling of what was then and what is currently going on now. After a two hour lecture the bell rang and the class of students departed. Young teenagers scrambling to the next class or rushing to spend time with campus friends. Sounds of gossip and dreams being spoken as they filed out. Well, almost all the class left. One stayed behind. A female around the age of 19. Neither fair nor unattractive. But sharp. Sharp enough to know the meaning of what happened in the history lessons and to readily piece together the repercussions. Rosa knows her name well enough. Mirai. He, with permission, has fed from her from time to time. She has never tasted his blood and yet she always seems so quizzical about him. Almost to the point of being that annoying child that if you tell them the sky is blue they ask why? Halfway through erasing the blackboard with normal speed and efficiency he pauses. And this is when the scene unfolds:

Rosa: (with the voice of one trying to remain less then annoyed) What is it this time child?

Mirai: I was just wondering how things are going?.... I mean between The Second City and the other kingdoms?

Rosa: Last time I checked we still have newspapers and the local news on the idiot box via cable. Those sources of information should keep you quite up to date. Minus the weather reports that seem even more apt to change then the latest fashion trends around campus. 

Mirai: (severe frown) Are you ever going to stop talking down to me or any of us when we speak to you?

Rosa: (Turns and faces the Japanese girl with outlandishly green hair) If and only if you start asking the proper questions that your talented little mind might be able to conjure up if you take the time to think before you speak. Then yes, I will talk to you and not down at you as you so childishly put it. 

At this point in time Mirai was frustrated enough and bold enough to ask a very plain and yet extremely outlandish question.

Mirai: (In a quiet tone, one sensing dread.) What is going to happen to us? I mean really happen to us? A lot of us are scared that things aren't going so well in the whole scheme of what we are being told. About half of the people I talk to just go through this day to day routine to have some kind of structure in life. Most would have lost it already if it hadn't been for Lord Gemini and what he has tried to do for this city with the rest of the council. You taught him. He must still speak to you from time to time? Let you know what is really going on? He is a leader of our city...sorry kingdom. He must tell you things that are of good news. Knowledge from outside that can give everyone hope of things possibly returning to normal. 

Rosa: You are standing in a classroom with a very old very patient vampire. On a campus that has a mixture of wraith and ghouls as security to protect these hallowed halls of learning. To give you an education. To prepare you for what is out there. To teach you how to survive and once again flourish. And all you can ask me is when things will return to normal? Do you realize that there never was a normal? Since recorded time all the might go bump in the night have remain hidden to avoid what happened so few years ago. There will never again be a normal. This is the price those with power are continuing to pay for their arrogance. It will never get "better" until those that caused this atone for presuming Godhood, and realize that the cosmos does not revolve around them!.......unfortunately ones such as your self are caught in the wake of so many's foolish pride. 

At this point the girl is in tears but refuses to move or be cast away. A kind of defiance that Rosa appreciates. Almost noble in nature.

Mirai:  What can be done then? How can humanity, any of us survive this for much longer? How can we make it right? 

Rosa: (with a sigh of resignation) That question might be better asked of a philosophy teacher across campus. I honestly don't know how to fix what was never conceived to have been breakable. All of sentient life's worst qualities made what you see today possible. My guess is only through a complete and total opposite can it ever be returned back to what we would call balance. That would require the most ancient and powerful being on this planet to come to the realization that certain power does not come without a price, and to use what power they have to not only fix the damage they have done but severely weaken themselves in the process. You are basically asking the nobles to act noble, and from what lord Gemini has told me that would be a first.

Mirai: (still with tears in her eyes, but a lighter tone in her voice) Is this the part where you tell me they should take a step back and take a good hard look before they can take a step forward? 

Rosa: (slight smile) I see you haven't been spacing out during my lecture. If you truly wish to know I will tell you all I can. You may be one of the next generation that has the aptitude to fix this mess in case the current one fails less then completely. (Rosa pulls out a business card) Take this. But it does come with a price tag. If you truly want to know what is going on and think you are up to the challenge call this number. You'll be given a time and a place to meet Gemini. But I warn you. Once you go down this road you can never come back. You'll never be the same and they're will be a lot of sacrifice. The choice is yours. 

With that Rosa turns and departs the classroom leaving a student with a world filled with infinite possibilities and and worst nightmares.... all a phone call away. 

~END SCENE