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World Mythology -- Third Period -- Monday

Ghanima was not wearing her normal formal Imperial clothing today. Instead of her usual elaborate gown and hat, she was dressed in her Fremen robes, hair pulled back into a simple ponytail. The classroom was also transformed, with large pillows taking the place of desks and chairs, and there was another woman seated beside her.

"Today, we're going to discuss what happens when myth becomes reality," she said, gesturing for the students to take seats on the pillows heaped around the room. "As some of you may know, myth does not always stay detached from our day-to-day lives. On occasion, myth becomes fact, fiction turns reality, and we are left with the aftermath of our gods and heroes."

"This is not as theoretical as you think. In Fandom alone, anything is possible, and many of us are from worlds where that it has already happened at least once," Ghanima said. "So, what do we do when faced with such an event? How do we reconcile the merge of two previously incompatible worlds?"

"My mother's people saw our greatest myth become flesh, the Lisan al-Gaib, the Mahdi, 'The One Who Will Lead Us to Paradise.' Aly has met various gods, goddesses, and seen great prophecy become truth. Today, she'll be your guest speaker, and then you can ask questions or talk about myths that you've seen come to life."

Aly lounged easily against one of the pillows. She also was dressed differently - a sarong and cropped jacket of bright coloured cottons and more necklaces than the the normal black beads. "To be frank," she said easily. "I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't made a bet with a god. Trickster god though so I'm pretty sure some of you can guess how that worked out. If I haven't met you before - which is most of you, my name's Alianne. Feel free to call me Aly certainly. The country I grew up in, Tortall, has a bit of a history of the gods poking their noses in here and there. Gods can't always influence everything, and they rely on their Chosen Ones to help nudge or bludgeon events the way they want."

"So when you're dealing with Gods, you have two choices. One? Stay far, far away and definitely don't catch their interest. When you do catch their interest, don't engage, don't get caught up in their games. Even more so don't get caught up in their infighting. The other option? Ignore all the rules cause you can be damn sure a God will break any rule he wants and play and win."

"This isn't a game you can play to a stalemate," Ghanima agreed. "If you're walking with gods and demons, you can either not play at all, or play to win. There are no other choices available."

"You can, however, use their own archetypes against them. A trickster is always a trickster, and the mother goddess always a woman. They are what they are, and they cannot act against their natures," she continued. "And the greatest heroes of all the stories are either humans or demigods. We have a flexibility, a power, that they don't. We can change and grow with a situation, but a god is eternal, and they can be slow to react."

She tilted an amused eyebrow at Ghani. "Just don't let them know you're doing it. When they're not slow to react, they're really, really fast. And it's very rare that a God can't overwhelm a human mind if they turn their mind to it." Her attention was back on the class. "So don't let a God turn his mind to it. Outwit them, outplay them, outrun them, out think them, even a trickster can be tricked, and even the Black God has a weakness." She tilted her head. "What is it? I dunno. Depends on who your gods are. But if you know the stories of your people, the myths of your gods, you'll find your own way to play through to the end."

Ghani nodded at Aly. "Now we'll go for the questions, I think," she said, looking at the students. "You can ask the Cunning One, Chosen of the Trickster, how she's dealt with the gods she's met, and then we'll talk about your experiences with myths made real."

[~~Wait for the Divine OCD to strike!~~ The OCD has arrived!]

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Divinely Touched! ~~not dirty~~

Andrew Wiggin

Ben Skywalker

Raven

Tahiri Veila

Hoshi Sato

Jacob Black

Karla

Leda

Naomi Wildman

Spock

Jaina Solo

Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis

Jo Harvelle

Annja Creed

Take notes, pass notes...

Being the daughter of an evil god, Raven couldn't help but squirm uncomfortably a little during the lecture. But she did pay attention, wondering what about her father could possibly be turned against him.

Jacob was stabbing with his pen at his notebook. The gods part meant very little to him, but myths becoming reality he knew that all too well.

Her best friend was Dreams Made Flesh; The Living Myth. Karla felt a little more comfortable with today's lesson.

As the lecture went on, Firekeeeper found herself reaching up to lightly brush her fingers over her lips, remembering that day from several moonspans ago.

Kiss me, the Meddler had said, mouth to mouth, as a woman kisses a man.

She'd banished that event to the darkest corners of her mind... until now, that is. Part of her was amused by the literalness of her own encounter with a myth-made-real, in that she'd undertaken the action that would allow him to become flesh. Most of her, however, was just troubled and confused by his interest in her.

Edited 2010-03-01 19:09 (UTC)

Using their own archetypes against them? No, Tahiri didn't know anything about the subject at all, nor had she ever been consulted at any length on how exactly to do that.

Uh huh.

She wasn't even trying to hide the wry half-smile behind her hand as she listened to the lecture.

Leda had a mental image of a Mother Goddess being a very maternal gay man (Nathan Lane in fact) and had to bury her face in her hands to hide the giggles.

Between the talk of trickster gods and using their own archetypes against them, Jaina was trying really hard to not look too amused here. It might have worked?

Prior to coming to this school Joolushko would never have even considered the idea of meeting any gods or coming into contact in any way with myths made real. Myths were supposed to be something to study, not something to encounter.

So she was shaking her head just a bit as she took notes today.

Ask the Cunning Aly of the Copper Isles about gods and prophecy. Don't worry, she's not shy to make her opinions known.

She will however glare at your actual teacher a lot for that Cunning One crack.

But no, Aly was there to answer your questions and comments.

Ben raised his hand. "Jedi have prophecy, but not really deities," he said. "We have the Force, which is large and unknowable and without any real personality traits. It just is. But in order to be Jedi, I must interact with it daily. Other than giving it a personality and blaming it when things go wrong, do you have any suggestions on how I should work with it?"

Karla nodded when she heard Ben's question. "The Darkness is the same," she added quietly.

"There's a big difference between Gods and forces of magic or power," Aly pointed out, raising an eyebrow at them. "Not being a mage, I couldn't begin to tell you how to handle your own manifestations of power. Possibly your kinsman Anakin would be of more use to you in that, Ben. And unless things have changed greatly, I would think there might be others more magically inclined to help you as well, Karla."

Not that anyone studied the class list or anything.

She shrugged. "Knowing what you don't know is at least as important as what you do."

"I know the Jedi response," Ben said with a smile. "I was looking for a different perspective. We tend to think of gods as the way other species try to describe the Force."

Aly gave him a smile in response. "In my experience, that's a bit of an oversimplification. Possibly-" she thought for a moment. "And I'm aware this is getting both metaphysical and possibly not layered enough, gods would be the ones who can use the life force - of the planet or the world or the universe - to create new life."

Or just to mess with it.

"If you ask some people, Elves are a myth. Have the people, or Gods or whatever you've met had to deal with that much?"

Aly gave a little smile. "A little," she said. "Before I was very small, our world believed that Immortals - dragons, basilisks, centaurs, Stormwings and the like - were just myths or at most legends of the far distant past. And then suddenly they weren't, and they were released from the land of the Gods and were living in Tortall and the other countries. It made for an interesting ten or fifteen years to hear my uncles and aunts tell the story."

"That sounds a lot like where I'm from. Is there much uh, discrimination on one side or the other?"

"If you define 'discrimination' as a few wars that lasted for years, yeah, you could say that," Aly said. "No one reacts well to a sudden attempt to take their home."

Leda nodded. Again, a lot like Bordertown. "How are things now?"

Have you ever encountered myth or legend made reality? Have other people in your world? How did you (or they) handle it?

Once they are here.

Jaina was here. Still looking amused. That wasn't going away.

Your marvelous guest-speaker! She may be around before or after class!

She is around for both! Possibly messing with Ghani's head though. Watch out for head-messing.

Who is also around, although possibly making fun of her friend.

Can we go to the Bahamas for realz?

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World Mythology -- Third Period -- Monday

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Class Discussion: Myths and Gods Made Flesh

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