fandomhigh | Cryptozoology 101, Thursday, Period One

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cryptozoology

Cryptozoology 101, Thursday, Period One

Back in the classroom today, no Fae servants or flesh-eating horses in sight. You're welcome students. This week was something of a break for you. Yes, Trick was still going to tell you about a sinister type of Fae that looked completely normal and yet could do horrible things to many of you without reprisal, but at least you weren't going to have to deal with any of them, either before or after class?

Maybe he was feeling a bit sorry for the last two weeks. Or maybe he was saving up for something extra-special next week. Who knew?

"Mesmers are a type of Fae that gain control over others by manipulating their locomotive systems," Trick began, as he enjoyed starting class on a cheerful note. "Using hand gestures, Mesmers control victims like marionettes; with a simple twirl of their hands, they can force their victims to do any physical action they choose. While this can be as simple as forcing someone to make a fool of themselves in public, it can also be used for much darker purposes, using catspaws to commit acts of robbery, treason, and murder. Once a Mesmer has gained control over someone, it is almost impossible to break free without significant outside help. This is true whether the victim in question is a human or another Fae; even the most powerful Fae can be held by a Mesmer in full control of his or her powers. There are some items that can offer a measure of protection, but these items are incredibly rare and powerful."

In other words, he wasn't even going to bother talking about them, because the odds of anyone who had one voluntarily giving that item up were astronomically small. Well, that and because he wasn't keen on sharing all Fae secrets.

"As dangerous as Mesmers are, there are a few way in which you can keep them from using their powers against you. The first and most important option is to keep a Mesmer's hands bound. If they cannot move their hands, they cannot use their abilities." There was a more gruesome way to keep Mesmers from using their powers, but that was a conclusion he'd let unless the students draw for themselves if they wished. "Mesmers also must remain close to their victims; they cannot send them away to carry out their orders elsewhere. At the very least, they seem to require line of sight, which means that if someone is bound by a Mesmer, that Fae is relatively close by. Furthermore, some Mesmers can be convinced to let go of a victim, if offered something for their trouble. However, Fae are just as varied in their needs and desires as humans, so finding the price for their cooperation may be difficult--or possibly too high for you to meet.

There was a reason many Mesmers joined the Dark Fae.

"The last option is to distract them. Mesmers must concentrate to keep their victims ensnared, and breaking that concentration will halt their magic. Furthermore, Mesmers are not effective against groups. An incredibly powerful and competent Mesmer may be able to ensnare a group of two or three people, either by controlling them all at once or, more likely, switching their concentrate from person to person at will. More than four or so will make it too hard for the Mesmer to focus long enough to do real harm."

"So, today, we have a discussion class. Sadly, if you find yourself being controlled by a Mesmer, there is little you personally can do about it. However, if someone you know is being controlled, you have a few more options. How would you handle that situation? Are there any times you can imagine a Mesmer's powers being used for good?"

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"Only turn and walk away?" Loki chimed in thoughtfully. "That sounds awfully magnanimous of you when it comes to those who wish you grievous bodily harm."

He was totally an expert on that.

Sparkle turned a grin back at Loki that was perhaps a little too sharp.

"They get three strikes," he decided. "If they kept it up after that, obviously I'd have to come up with something more creative to keep them from coming back again."

He shrugged. "But what I'd want to make them to do themselves, I can't say in class or I'd land myself in detention."

... Sorry, mind-readers in the room, for the horrifyingly creative thoughts that were flitting through Sparkle's mind just then.

"And, should they screw up their courage with wine and testosterone, returning in a group?" Idle curiosity, really. "That which cannot be understood is to be feared, yes. But more often, that which is feared is to be hated with great zeal."

Sparkle wrinkled his nose at that, shaking his head a little.

"Where I come from, stuff like this doesn't happen," he pointed out. "If someone goes running into a bar screaming about some punk kid dancing him around like a puppet, he's just going to get laughed at, man. Committed, maybe, because he's talking like a freaking psycho. You lose credibility when you talk about monsters that bump in the night. You don't round up the townsfolk and the torches or, like, anything like that."

A beat.

"But I dunno, it probably depends on the situation."

"Perhaps you are correct," Loki granted him, twisting in his seat to be able to set his feet on the chair closest to him. "The peoples of Midgard are a resilient lot, though. I think, should it happen more than once, some will take note. A secret may only be kept by one person, after all. Two, if the other is dead."

"So the trick is knowing when to use powers, and when to use your brain," Sparkle noted. "I mean, I survived on the streets just fine, and it isn't like I can fly or turn people into puppets or... other super things."

His knowledge of superpowers was... small.

"And I did it without killing anybody, too. Having something like that for like emergencies or something, though? That would've been fucking awesome."

"It would always be an emergency," Loki replied after a moment. Perhaps Ikol deserved a nice dinner tonight for this stunning revelation. "Power such as that would be hard to contain. Harder still to avoid using. If you are threatened with a dagger, but possess a gun, would you not use it? From there it becomes easier and easier to use."

"And if it became that easy, we'd be having a really different conversation right now," Sparkle mused. "Maybe if I'd had the gun the whole time, I would be using it. But I didn't, I never had the damn gun, so maybe it's just harder for me to think about using it."

In retrospect, however, he was coming up with his fair share of moments when he wouldn't have minded having a gun to use.

"The gun is merely a metaphor," Loki reminded him. "As your world lacks in the more fantastical elements I am accustomed to."

"The gun, the power, the whatever it is," Sparkle replied, waving a dismissive hand. "It's all the same thing in the end, if you're going to use it like a weapon, isn't it?"

"All things are a weapon if used correctly."

Sparkle considered this for a moment, and then nodded a little in agreement. No, no, that made sense enough.

"No second chances?"

This kid seemed to know what he was talking about, was the thing. And, you know, thinking about it? It wasn't as though he'd get a second chance in the same situation, reversed.

Oh sure, ask him that.

"I believe it can be very foolish to trust in mercy all the time," Loki replied carefully. "For mercy is the virtue of the strong, not the weak. That is not to say it is unwarranted in the right situations."

Like, say, his relationship with his brother.

There was a moment of silence while Sparkle chewed on that, and then he nodded a little.

"Okay, fair enough." He drummed his fingers on his lap. "Maybe second chances are something that you can't really judge without knowing what the situation really is in the first place. Like, I can sit here speculating all day, but who is it that's gonna get, like, Mesmer-whammied? And... I dunno, maybe they can be more useful if you don't make 'em walk away. But I wouldn't kill 'em. Bodies just make people ask more questions."

Well that was true enough.

"That they do!" Yeah, Loki wasn't allowed to discuss these things. "I find that a small alteration or push can cause great changes."

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"That's where you're incorrect," Trick told Sparkle mildly. "I asked for your opinion, I'm not going to punish you for it. If you don't want to share, that's one thing, but if all that's keeping you from complete honesty is a worry about detention, then by all means. Share."

Oh, Trick. You probably had no idea just what you're just unleashed.

Sparkle's eyebrow. It went up at that.

He was going to hold you to this promise of impunity, Trick, just as soon as he got into the meat of what he had going through his mind.

"Well, I'd give them a taste of their own medicine," he decided, and then cleared his throat and launched into a diatribe ~~not suitable for a public comm~~ about all the very creative things that he'd make the sort of people you'd run into trouble with in a dark alleyway in Toronto do to themselves.

And since he was speaking with the voice of experience, the descriptions were not sparing in detail in the least.

Trick had lived through the Fae wars, so while creative (and, yep, disturbing), Sparkle's diatribe was unsurprising. He'd seen what centuries-old Dark Fae could do to another, including some very sadistic Mesmers. He was a bit worried for Sparkle, that he could easily come up with these ideas, but not about to punish him for them.

"And do you feel that's a moral or right way to use your powers?" Trick asked when Sparkle was done. "Or simply the most satisfying?"

Sparkle shrugged.

"It's the one that'll keep them from trying that shit again," he replied. "Maybe that makes it all the same thing, when the goal is keeping alive."

Morality was for other people. Sparkle's opinions of morals were pretty low, after seeing damn near everyone in his Philosophy go running blind into the alley to play the hero during Monday's class.

"If you had this kind of power, would you still be in the same position you are now?" Trick asked. "Presumably, you'd be able to make things easier for yourself as a Mesmer. Would survival still be an issue, the same way it is now?"

Sparkle thought on that for a moment, and then he shrugged. Again. Lots of shrugging today.

"Probably a lot of things would be different, if I was one of those," he noted. "I wouldn't be me, really, would I?"

"Say you discovered you had this power now," Trick said with a shrug of his own. "Presumably, basic survival is no longer an issue here at the school. Would your outlook be the same, here? How about when you return home?"

"Here, now? What would I do with it here and now? I have, like... food and a job. Roof over my head... I guess I'd get creative, but it isn't like I'd need it."

Actually, it would kind of take the fun out of a lot of things.

"Mesmers generally have those things, too," Trick pointed out. "And yet they still use their powers. But let's say for a moment you get powers here. You return home to Canada. Would you end up using them then, you think?"

"Depends what I'm going back to, I guess," Sparkle replied with a shrug. "Like I said... Got along fine this long, but they might make things... easier. Maybe I would, since they're right there."

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