Jono Starsmore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
furnaceface) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2012-10-19 11:02 am
furnaceface) wrote in fandomhigh2012-10-19 11:02 am
Entry tags:
Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2
"I can't say 'Nothing lasts forever,'" Jonothon began, once he stepped into the classroom today, slightly late and looking a little rumpled. He wasn't going to fall into the habit of coming to class directly from training sessions in New York, but he'd missed far too many between break and the like, and he wasn't about to let Jubilee grumble at him. "Because there are things that will last forever. I've met them. I've looked into their eyes before they walked away and understood in that moment that they were Endless."
And to Jonothon's credit, he said that with squared shoulders and his chin up, and only the faintest waver in his voice.
"Perhaps those things that set you apart, those things that have you on the outskirts, are something that will last forever, too. Immortality knows too many forms for me to even begin to grasp how many ways that might be possible, and I'm fine with that. Perhaps that thing that keeps you apart is something that might not last into eternity, but is almost certain to last your entire life. Genetics, perhaps. The way you're made." He clenched his jaw, almost imperceptibly. "Even something like that isn't guaranteed to last. And if what's keeping you apart from the world is something fleeting, something like being a teenager, perhaps... Well, you're not likely to remain a teenager forever, but again, I can't speak for all of you."
Jono was willing to accept that there were things about his students that he might never fully comprehend. He looked pretty okay with that as he leaned back against his desk, steeling himself for the rest of his lecture.
"Here, a good many of those things that might make it impossible for you to belong elsewhere... just don't seem to matter. A checkered past, with a few too many steps into a moral grey area. A 'don't touch me' attitude that Fandomites manage to ignore completely, no matter how hard you try. A quest for revenge, perhaps. Powers that nobody back home trusts. Here - and I think any Fandom High alumnus could tell you the same if you were to approach them at the dance tonight to ask - those things that make pariahs of us just don't seem to matter at all. Not because those things have gone away, but because, please, it isn't as though anyone here is in any position to judge, are they? So what if you look a little different from everyone else? That bloke over there, he can blow up a city block with his face by mistake if his concentration slips, and you think we should hate and fear you?"
That example had come out of nowhere, truly.
"Back home, back where you come from, those things that set you apart probably aren't as simple to ignore. It isn't terribly likely that somebody will just say, 'No More...'" His jaw clenched a little as he forced himself not to say mutants at the end of that. "... That somebody will be able to twist the world itself around, so that whatever sets you apart from the rest just... suddenly isn't there any more. And for some, losing that thing might seem like a blessing. Suddenly here is this chance to get closer to people than you've ever been able to before, you don't have to be alone. For some, it could be a death sentence, losing that thing. All that you are might be wrapped up in that one difference, and even if it seemed like a curse at the time, being stripped of it might leave you deaf, blind, and mute, laying on the flat of your back and unable to breathe." Not that he knew that from experience. "For some, it might just mean closure, or opening yourself up when previously you refused to. And perhaps none of these things seems terribly likely to you, but I've seen it happen. I've felt it, personally, and I know that even if I can't say nothing lasts forever, I have every faith that there isn't any such thing as the impossible, either."
And was there anyone else in the room who could make that sentence sound every bit as much a blessing as it was a curse quite as well as Jono did?
"Today, we're going to speculate. We're going to sit ourselves down and make believe that somebody with the power to do so murmured 'No More' and whatever it was that kept you apart from the rest was suddenly taken away. You've been given a blank slate, you've been stripped of your powers, you've gotten your revenge, you're suddenly, irreversibly... normal. I'm going to ask just one question, a question that I've seen millions of people have to ask themselves before, when that very thing happened. A question that I've had to ask myself, in the wake of that very thing."
He spread his hands a little as he looked around the faces in the room.
"What now?"
[Open!]
And to Jonothon's credit, he said that with squared shoulders and his chin up, and only the faintest waver in his voice.
"Perhaps those things that set you apart, those things that have you on the outskirts, are something that will last forever, too. Immortality knows too many forms for me to even begin to grasp how many ways that might be possible, and I'm fine with that. Perhaps that thing that keeps you apart is something that might not last into eternity, but is almost certain to last your entire life. Genetics, perhaps. The way you're made." He clenched his jaw, almost imperceptibly. "Even something like that isn't guaranteed to last. And if what's keeping you apart from the world is something fleeting, something like being a teenager, perhaps... Well, you're not likely to remain a teenager forever, but again, I can't speak for all of you."
Jono was willing to accept that there were things about his students that he might never fully comprehend. He looked pretty okay with that as he leaned back against his desk, steeling himself for the rest of his lecture.
"Here, a good many of those things that might make it impossible for you to belong elsewhere... just don't seem to matter. A checkered past, with a few too many steps into a moral grey area. A 'don't touch me' attitude that Fandomites manage to ignore completely, no matter how hard you try. A quest for revenge, perhaps. Powers that nobody back home trusts. Here - and I think any Fandom High alumnus could tell you the same if you were to approach them at the dance tonight to ask - those things that make pariahs of us just don't seem to matter at all. Not because those things have gone away, but because, please, it isn't as though anyone here is in any position to judge, are they? So what if you look a little different from everyone else? That bloke over there, he can blow up a city block with his face by mistake if his concentration slips, and you think we should hate and fear you?"
That example had come out of nowhere, truly.
"Back home, back where you come from, those things that set you apart probably aren't as simple to ignore. It isn't terribly likely that somebody will just say, 'No More...'" His jaw clenched a little as he forced himself not to say mutants at the end of that. "... That somebody will be able to twist the world itself around, so that whatever sets you apart from the rest just... suddenly isn't there any more. And for some, losing that thing might seem like a blessing. Suddenly here is this chance to get closer to people than you've ever been able to before, you don't have to be alone. For some, it could be a death sentence, losing that thing. All that you are might be wrapped up in that one difference, and even if it seemed like a curse at the time, being stripped of it might leave you deaf, blind, and mute, laying on the flat of your back and unable to breathe." Not that he knew that from experience. "For some, it might just mean closure, or opening yourself up when previously you refused to. And perhaps none of these things seems terribly likely to you, but I've seen it happen. I've felt it, personally, and I know that even if I can't say nothing lasts forever, I have every faith that there isn't any such thing as the impossible, either."
And was there anyone else in the room who could make that sentence sound every bit as much a blessing as it was a curse quite as well as Jono did?
"Today, we're going to speculate. We're going to sit ourselves down and make believe that somebody with the power to do so murmured 'No More' and whatever it was that kept you apart from the rest was suddenly taken away. You've been given a blank slate, you've been stripped of your powers, you've gotten your revenge, you're suddenly, irreversibly... normal. I'm going to ask just one question, a question that I've seen millions of people have to ask themselves before, when that very thing happened. A question that I've had to ask myself, in the wake of that very thing."
He spread his hands a little as he looked around the faces in the room.
"What now?"
[Open!]
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Before Class!
Re: Before Class!
The parts of it she wasn't eating, anyway.
Lecture!
Or nap. This one's long enough, you'd probably have enough time.
Re: Lecture!
At least every time she jolted back awake and tried to be subtle about it, it was kind of funny?
Re: Lecture!
Re: Lecture!
Back home, she was normal. Well, other than the whole adventurous teenager thing. The Underground was full of borrowers, including other adventurous teens. It was Fandom, all full of giant beans and bean-shaped creatures that made her an outcast.
It was nice that most folks didn't care much, but still.
Re: Lecture!
Your cars are ready.
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Eggletina would be so relieved that she had another mode of transportation around the island.
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Discuss!
Do you leap back into society with open arms? Do you spend a lifetime longing to take that thing back? Does nothing change at all?
What now?
Re: Discuss!
"I think, for a time, life would go on as it has," she said quietly, looking at her hands. "Habits are hard to break. But I think it would be... good."
Re: Discuss!
Too far, he decided.
"Nothing would change," he said. "Nothing ever really does."
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And as much as his powers frustrated and overwhelmed him, kept him afraid of letting people really get to know him... that had been scarier. The not-knowing and the silence.
That one weekened had been maddening, he didn't know how he'd deal with a lifetime of it.
"I don't know," he said finally. "As much as I- don't like the thing that sets me apart- I don't know if I'd know how to just be without it." A beat. "I couldn't just jump head-first into everything. I'd have to figure out how this... new-me... would work."
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"Though maybe I could be helpful. Beans can reach much higher shelves to borrow things from."
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"So I'd be a real boy, no question about it, but I also lose all my powers?" he said, trying to frame the question. He assumed using technology to get some powers back, even different ones, was barred by Jono's wording.
He drew a breath. "Okay, things wouldn't change too much right away. And some legal stuff would get way easier. But I think I'd always be a little sad, you know? To go back to being some kid collecting action figures and wishing he was the one who could help people -- it wouldn't be easy."
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Alone. Sisterless. Abandoned. One-faced.
She shuddered and her sisters gathered close, clinging to one another at the very idea.
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She wouldn't though, but she didn't know that yet. And she hadn't considered how losing all those enhanced senses would take a lot of getting used to.
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Like that wasn't what he was doing with his life right now.
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"Why do people assume we want to be part of society, or that we ever were part of it to start with?" she asked, actual mirth in her voice. "It's never just 'one thing' that sets people like us apart, is it? It's everything we are. Why bother fussing about it?"
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He gave her a smile that was just slightly brittle.
"Depending on who you are and where you go, just one thing can very, very much be something that other people will single you out for."
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"And if I am unmade, then it's just some witch with a name that was never mine, and not me. Trying to make me fit? Even if that were possible in the Blood, I'd probably have a body count in the triple digits by the end of the first hour."
Re: Discuss!
Talk to the TAs!
Re: Talk to the TAs!
So...not very.
Re: Talk to the TAs!
Talk to Jono!
He does happen to be a bit of a study in 'what now,' himself, if you care to ask.
OOC!
I'm going back to sleep for a bit. This morning my brain woke me up in a panic going, "AAAAH POST CLASS NOOOOOW OR ELSE FIRE, VOLCANOES, END OF THE WOOOOORLD!!!!1!!!"
My brain is dumb. Sleep now.