High Stone Academy
Of Extraordinary Arts
Intro: Part 5
You are
Jimmy Vale, a mostly human, slightly Zebran, Martian.
Your early life was weird, to put it lightly.
You grew up on Mars as part of a community of Human Zebras.
>>>
When Mars was terraformed enough for humans to survive in the open, it was declared free for anyone to settle.
Many decided to make it their home, free from the restrictions and prejudice they experienced on Earth.
Among them were an insanely large amount of different furry fandoms, which would, over time, use the advancing gene modification technologies to alter their biology.
And now we have Martian furry communities. Well done, crazyabe and Zultan, really, well done...)<<<
After a few years, it was clear that something was wrong with you. While the other members of your group had proud snouts and bushy tails, you wouldn't develop any of those.
You had a nice, gray, fur, hooves and the typical stripes on your arms, but aside from that, you looked, almost disgustingly, human!
Once you were old enough to make your own decisions, both you and them were relieved when you decided to leave the community and, since Mars still was an empty, barren planet, migrate to Earth.
>>>While so many left Earth for all the prejudice, the citizens of Earth itself developed a surprisingly high tolerance towards most life forms since then.<<<Your flight to Moon was unspectacular.
Space flight used to be dangerous and exhausting, but modern ships were pretty comfortable and secure.
The home planet of the human race was so different from your old home!
Gigantic cities, dotted with large forests and fields, covered the landscape as far as your eyes could see from the slowly descending space elevator.
Once it arrived on the ground, you got an electronic identification tattoo and were free to go and explore this new world.
You needed to find a job, and since you always were kinda creative, you decided to become a trainee for a stone mason whose beautiful pieces were traded on the whole planet.
At some point you read something about Clowns from Mars and their gray skin, which you found hilarious, since you, too, had gray skin.
You decided to color your hair green as theirs, as a sign of solidarity.
A few years later, and you were a professional stone mason yourself, creating high quality toys, mugs and instruments and selling them for high prices.
You found a wife and had 3 kids with her.
One of them had a phase where he wanted to turn himself into an Apache Attack Helicopter.
After a long talk that ended with the words "Aldric Chuckles Jimmy Vale! As long as you live in my house, you are not going to grow rotor blades!", he decided against it.
All in all, life wasn't bad.
But then came the day you lost those most precious to you...
...and now you are here.
"My,
my... that is
quite the
story, Mister Vale! I am Ladeera, the secretary of this Academy." Ladeera said.
"Now that we made clear
who you are, the question is,
why are you
here? Are you a
student, or a
teacher?
Leader or
follower? What do you think this place will
give you, and what do you think this place will
get from you, Mister Vale?" she asked in a mysterious tone.