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It's hard to be a unicorn in the modern world. Habitats recede daily. The connections between the supernatural and natural worlds ebb and flow, making it hard to know when you'll be at home with your own kind.

The modern unicorn has to be adaptable, fierce even. Its magic is too precious for it to die. When the unicorn goes extinct, the world grows so much darker.

You are, as far as you know, the first and only omnivorous unicorn. Enchanted grasses are not enough to sustain you. While your kind's nature is to be gentle, the role of predator is not foreign to you.

However, you are more often than not a scavenger. Your wandering hunger has taken you to the dumpster of an Arby's on the outskirts of Santa Peralta, California. You're gnawing on old roast beef sandwiches when suddenly you see a man in a tan shirt and brown pants approach you.

He is in his late 30s, receding black hair, and a fat belly. He is approaching you with food in his hand, smiling and shaking it, beckoning you to come forward and take a bite. However, one hand is hidden behind his back.
"Easy there, easy, easy." he says in a calm voice. "I just wanna take you somewhere you won't get hurt. You like this? Mmmmm. Yummy yummy oats. You like oats, don't you?"

He kneels down to the ground, holding the oats up to you. The sun glints off the star on his breast pocket. When he kneels down, you can see a large van parked a few feet away. Inside the van is another man holding something long, like some sort of weapon. The van has a picture of a dog, a cat, and a dragon running away from a man in a similar uniform carrying a large net.
As you rush through the alleyway, you stumble across three burly looking, hairy men leaning against a wall. They are drinking beers and laughing. Motorcycles are parked next to them, decorated with a ludicrous amount of stickers and mementos from various places they have visited across the USA.

On the sleeves of their jackets are circular patches depicting a snarling wolf standing on its hind legs in front of a desert landscape.

They all stop what they're doing and turn to face you. Their eyes widen as they see you.

"¡Mierda! ¡Un unicornio! Un verdadero unicornio!"

"¡Cállate! No lo asustes lejos."

"Ese es un unicornio que parece sarnoso."
((Hey, I don't mean to be like, overbearing or anything, but I would appreciate it if you didn't like, say certain things were there that haven't been described yet. For example, parks and ponds and stuff like that. You're in a downtown SoCal city, there's not a whole not of nature and stuff. Not mad or anything, just saying.))

As you wander around, you see a three human children playing with a remote control drone. As soon as they see you, they drop the remote control and rush towards you. They stick their hands out and attempt to stroke your fur. They are around 7-9 years old, a skinny boy, a chubby girl, and a skinny girl. They are wearing t shirts, shorts, and sneakers. They all have tan skin, messy black hair, and green eyes.
You hear the sound of a truck approaching, and suddenly, it stops. You see two animal control officers disembark. However, one of them is not a human being. They are purple, with five long snakes jutting from their scalp. They have golden eyes with slit pupils, and pointed ears.

The gorgon looks at you, and you feel your muscles begin to tighten. You are rendered stiff, almost paralyzed from the neck down. Your unicorn powers could break the bond, but you find yourself unable to touch your horn to your body.

The children cry out in shock. They rush to the animal control officers and beg them to let you go.

"Now now, children!" cries the human. "We're just trying to take the unicorn somewhere safe! We can't have a unicorn running around in human territory, it's going to get hurt. We're taking it to Oddity Park. They have people there who can take care of it, give it a proper home."

The gorgon, maintaining eye contact with you, begins to approach with restraining cuffs.
The gorgon restrains you, and the two animal control officers lift you into the back of the van, much to the protest of the children.

As you are loaded into the van, you notice that there's another being in the car with you. It is an adolescent hippogriff, roughly the size of a greyhound. His front half resembles a barn owl, and his back half resembles an appaloosa horse. He looks to you, and begins speaking in the language of animals.

"Are you a real unicorn?"
"Gorgon venom. You were hypnotized and poisoned. It will wear off in a matter of minutes now that he's not staring at you."

The vehicle begins to move.

"Where did you come from? I've never seen your kind around these parts. You from Arcadia?"

Arcadia is the home dimensions of the faeries, as well as many other magical creatures. It is weekly tethered to this world, the connection waxing and waning due to cosmological forces. Many supernatural beings either originate from Arcadia or are descendant from Arcadians that have settled on Earth.
"Oddity Park, I'm guessing. It's at an intersection of ley lines. Lots of our kind there. Filled with the supernatural beings. We should fit right in. I just hope I'm allowed to roam free. Worst caste scenario, they clip my wings and make me a pet. I mean, if we were anywhere else, I could also be slaughtered and used for magical ingredients. But, California has pretty strict laws about killing magical creatures. And you? A unicorn? I'm surprised you don't have your own police escorts. You're at the tippy top of the protected species list. Of course, I'm not fluent in human language. I only know what I know from watching TV through people's windows. I could be wrong."
The back of the car door swings open. You have full movement capabilities, but the shackles are still tight around your legs.

The gorgon guides you out. You find yourself surrounded by strange topiary. Bushes are trimmed in the shape of various animals. Dogs, lions, birds, dragons, giraffes and more. You are lead down a cobblestone path past a row of thatch roof cottages. You see various faerie creatures tending to their lawns. Trolls, goblins, gnomes, elves, things of that nature.

You are lead towards a somewhat modern (in comparison to the cottages, to us it looks more like it was made in the 80s) building. You cannot read the sign, but it displays a picture of a woman in a labcoat cradling a baby hellhound in her arms. You understand that this is a veterinary clinic.

You are escorted into the building and you see a row of people with animals in their arms. A sasquatch nursing a doberman with a broken paw, a grey alien holding a cage full of squirming space grubs, a harpy stroking a mewling baby manticore.

The front desk is tended to by a mantis woman, and she carefully types out information given to her by the animal control officer using her claw-like appendages. She hands him a printout and points him towards a door.

You are escorted into that door, and you see a mermaid woman in a labcoat checking the vitals of a Chinese long dragon. She sees you come in and is shocked.

"Oh fuck," she groans. "Is that..."

"Yup," replies the officer. "100% pure unicorn."

"Tell Lucy to transfer my appointments," she sighs. "One of the other vets can handle them. This just became my priority."

"Ya hear that, little buddy?" the control officer coos to you in a babyish voice. "Doctor Bautista's on the case. Marlena here is the best vet in the world!"

"Daryl, I'm not going on a date with you," she scoffs. "Trying to sweet talk my patients isn't going to turn me straight."

"You have a good one, Marlena." he replies as he walks out the door.

"You alright?" she asks you. "I speak animal, you can be honest with me."
She cackles at the mention of oats.

"Daryl is a fucking idiot, don't worry about him. Lets take a look. Obviously you're a little scraped up, look to be suffering from malnutrition."

She listens to your breathing and heartbeat with a stethoscope.

"Vitals appear to be good. Let's tend to those wounds."

She begins to rub healing salve over your wounds. It stings, very much. But, she strokes your mane and shushes you to keep you from freaking out. After a moment, she wraps bandages around where the salve was applied. She then begins to come through your fur for parasites.

"Oh, man. You got a nasty little tick right at the base of your neck. I'm going to come at you with some sharp instruments, but I need you to trust me, OK? I'm not trying to hurt you."
Marlena takes a sharp pair of tweezers, pinches down on the tick, and gently pulls it out of your skin. She takes another instrument and scrapes out some remaining parts, and rubs some healing salve over the wound. She then puts a bandage on it.

"I'm not going to put a cone around your neck, because that would be the least dignifying thing I could do to such a majestic creature. However, you have to promise me you won't pick at it. Ok?"
"Until we can find a home for you, I'm going to take you to our little animal shelter. It's not the most glamorous existence, but you'll be taken care of."

Marlena guides you out the back door towards a massive green field enclosed by a 20 foot tall fence. You see a few other magical creatures frolicking around. A pack of pug-like gargoyles chasing after a giant beach ball. A pair of griffins tending to a nest of chicks. A wyvern and a manticore wrestling over a piece of steak, and you see the hippogriff you came on the car with.

There's a row of stables and a barn on the far side of the enclosure, a pond, and a sort of tower of obstacles and play sets for you and your friends to frolic in.

It's not a forest. But, until further notice, you just might have to accept that this is your home for now.

-END OF DAY ONE-