fandomhigh | Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2

"Once upon a time," Jono said, speaking without preamble as he walked into the classroom looking fairly well-rested, even if he smelled a little like Mr. Clean, "there was this bloke who didn't stand a chance in hell of fitting in, back home. He was, on top of being a little antisocial to start with, a mutant, hated and feared by humanity because his genes were a little different. And, beyond that... Well..." He held up a photo of himself in his X-Men days for the classroom to see, face unwrapped and fire twisting violently around him. "... Frankly, he was a little terrifying. Even other mutants, people with the same problems as him, shrank away from him as though he was a monster."

He managed to deliver that line in a fairly cavalier sort of way. It still stung, but the point was mostly moot, these days.

"And then, through an accident of fate or by the power of Fandom or after tripping into some strange sentient mist - don't ask - he found his way here. Here, surrounded by humans, aliens, mutants, fairies... So many people who were other, it was probably absurd of him to assume that they'd consider him all that different in the first place. He continued to be standoffish, continued to assume that there was no way anybody here could come to accept him as anything but what the people back home made plainly clear they saw him as.

"And then he found love. He found love twice, actually, both times with people who weren't quite normal themselves, and both times with young women that only cared to see him for who he was, not what he was. He had a hand in saving the day right alongside people that he's still proud to this day to have known as friends. Hell, he was even voted Prom King the year he graduated, and he's still half-convinced that the entire senior class had been drinking the spiked punch a little early when that decision came about."

He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"The point is, even when he went home, he held on to that. He was still a mutant, still different in a way that wasn't going to ever let him really fit in, but he wasn't entirely so hesitant to let himself be happy, either. And if, to this day, the only regrets he really has are the result of things that are well beyond his control, well... then his time here wasn't a complete waste, and it's really no wonder he ultimately chose to come back here to teach this class, is it?"

Come on. Like you didn't see that one coming, kids.

"So, how about you lot? Any 'oh, I'm actually not as alone as I thought I was' stories to share about this place since you came here? You don't have to go quite as in-depth as I did. I hardly expect visual aides or anything. But I suspect I'm not the only one in this room who was surprised to find that I belonged somewhere, after being so resigned to the prospect of spending the rest of my life hated, feared, and hunted for what I was."

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Sholeh shook her head. "It's just all turning to desert. The water is drying up, lands that were once fertile farms turning to dust and sand. Every year we have less and less arable land. We've been trying to send people out, to anchor our landscape to another so we're not so adrift, but everyone we've sent out..."

She looked away, expression becoming cold. Shuttered. "They come back hurt and broken. If they come back at all. Because they trusted people."

*Are you sure you should be telling him all this?*

::Why not?! He already knows everything else!::

There was a lot of that story that seemed to hit a little too close to home for Jono. He frowned and nodded faintly, and then tilted his head at her.

"Anchor it to another? How do you mean?"

Jonothon suddenly suspected that her reality would be one heck of an interesting sight.

"Well, like Bridges," Sholeh said, trying to explain. "If you have people who can call both places home, they can create a bridge between them that links both places. And just having people who belong to both homes makes the links between them stronger."

"So... you're a bridge?" Jono tilted his head at Sholeh, looking her over thoughtfully. "And you were looking to... to tether your home to Fandom?"

He was trying to wrap his head around this one, yep. It was not the sort of solution that he was quite familiar with.

"I can't build a bridge that will get us there," Sholeh said. "But I'm an anchor. If I'm connected enough to this place, I can hold Tryadnea to it so it doesn't drift away."

"Well... then I have only one more question for you, Sholeh, and you can do with it whatever you will."

He lifted his chin a little, looking at her thoughtfully.

"How are you ever going to forge a meaningful connection like that with Fandom, if you don't even feel safe being yourself while you're here?"

Yes, back to that. But Jonothon wasn't expecting an answer, this time. It was hypothetical. It would give her something to chew on, perhaps.

Ouch. Way to make that questions a metaphorical punch to the gut, Jono. Wow.

For her part, Sholeh decided to make good on that clear exit out, gathering up her things and stumbling towards the door, heart too full of troubling thoughts for words.

In a few moments more, she'd be crying. She didn't want anyone to see that.

Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2

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