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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