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Supernatural Studies, Wednesday, Period 1

Jack was leaning against his desk as the class filed in, hands behind his back. “As I promised, we’re talking about exorcisms today,” he reminded the students. “Which is an ancient spiritual practice believed in some cultures to rid an individual of demonic possession. We’re going to watch a brief video clip of a child being exorcised in recent years. It’s not graphic, but if you feel you cannot watch it or find the topic offensive in general, please feel free to leave the room now. Call it a week off.”

He waited a moment for anyone who wanted to leave, then cued up a video. “This gives a decent overview of what an exorcism is and how it might look in modern times,” he explained.

Once the video was done, he began talking again. “If you’ll notice, the narrator mentions the family’s priest thinks the boy’s problem is psychological damage caused by his father’s death, not demons. I’m not here to say one way or the other, but it is worth noting that many alleged possessions are now believed to be undiagnosed epilepsy, schizophrenia, or other organic disorders.”

“But families may still turn to possession as a way to explain symptoms that are otherwise inexplicable and untreatable. One famous fairly recent case was Anneliese Michel. She’d been diagnosed with epilepsy and hallucinations, and her family attempted drug treatment. It did nothing and they turned to religion. They had to go to several priests before they found one who said she didn’t ‘look’ epileptic and agreed to perform an exorcism.” Jack’s tone was dry on this, measured, and a bit angry. “Her priests attempted a total of 67 exorcism rituals over ten months. As the … treatment progressed, she started refusing food and drink as a way of atoning for the sins of the world. The exorcists remained convinced she was possessed and did not halt what they were doing to seek medical treatment. Anneliese finally died of malnutrition and dehydration, and the priests were charged and eventually convicted of manslaughter.”

“My question for you is this,” he said. “If a spiritual adviser honestly believes an individual is possessed by demons and, like Anneliese Michel, the individual dies as a result of an attempted exorcism, is the exorcist a murderer? Or is something else going on?”

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Possessed!

Jackson Whittemore

Stiles Stilinski

Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar

Alec Lightwood

Jack Frost

Toby Logan

Korra

George Drayton

Kate Bishop

Mercy Thompson

Hanna Marin

Percy Jackson

James of Krondor

Lucrezia Borgia

Billy Kaplan

Kenzi

Or not-a-lecture, if you chose to leave class. Anyhow there's a video.

Jackson stayed. He couldn't believe he'd come back for this, after everything that had gone on last night. Which, yes, included breaking free from the back of a police car (which he couldn't remember doing) as well as getting a restraining order against Stiles and Scott.

But he stayed.

He looked pretty stoney-faced, though. It was the topic at hand.

=Awww, c'mon,= Zeela wheedled. =I wanna watch it!=

Fortunately, Zhahar was agreeing with Sholeh on this and neither of them wanted to see it. Just the idea of forcing out 'demons' from inside a person made Sholeh sick. What would that do to her sisters? Was it possible that someone could try that on them?

=See? All the more reason we should watch it! Be prepared and all that!=

*No, Zeela.* Zhahar's voice was firm. "We're leaving."

Sholeh politely waited until Mr. Priest had finished his lecture, then gathered up her books and left the room as unobtrusively as she could.

When you were seven years old and overwhelmed by hearing the thoughts of everyone around you... well, he'd heard the term being thrown around with regards to himself, more than once. It didn't matter that he was reasonably certain his world did not have actual demons.

So, yeah. First chance he got he was bolting out of the classroom. He stumbled out into the hallway, sliding down with his back against the wall and curling his arms around his knees.

Sholeh hadn't made it very far out of the classroom when she heard the door open and shut behind her again. Peaking back, she saw the Boy Who'd Heard Her curling up around himself. She hesitated, more because he was the Boy Who'd Heard Her than for any other reason, and then chided herself for being unkind.

"Hey," she said, walking back over to him. She didn't come too near, in case he didn't want company. "Are you..." Well, clearly he wasn't okay. "...I had to leave, too."

So, if he wanted to talk...it was possible she'd understand.

"Yeah?" he looked up, giving her a wan sort of smile that didn't really reach his eyes. "Why would y- oh, because of the..." whole thing where they were three people who shared one body.

Sholeh tried not to flinch at the reminder that he knew. "Yeah," she said, not needing him to fill in the rest of his statement. "Because of that. Mind if I sit down next to you?"

Well, they did have a sort of mutual-destruction treaty going on. Not that either of them was really the sort who'd reveal said secrets to others out of vindictiveness. Leaving aside the fact that either secret would probably cause the citizens of Fandom to shrug and go about their business.

"If you'd like," Toby said, and then was quiet just long enough for the silence to edge on being uncomfortable before he spoke again. "I wasn't expecting- that," he added finally, with a glance back at the classroom door.

Well, Zeela might. But even then, more to protect her sisters than actual vindictiveness. And even knowing the responses of the people around them didn't make it any easier to tell a secret you've clung to for years for your own protection.

"Me neither," Sholeh whispered. "I suppose I should have stayed and watched, just to know, but--I just couldn't. Last week's assignment was hard enough."

"Last week it was all just, you know. Theory. For me. I mean, my world doesn't have demons, not real ones, the way some places do. But that doesn't stop people from believing that they're responsible for things that can't be explained." Like a little boy who heard voices telling him all sorts of things he shouldn't know.

"My world does," Sholeh said in a whisper.

=Yeah,= Zeela said glumly. =And we're among them. Shit!=

Welcome to knowing a little more about Sholeh and co, Toby!

She was now looking at him with panicked eyes. "Please don't tell!"

"Why would I? And if I tell people how I know, that the voices in my head told me so, for all I know I'll be the one dragged off," he said bitterly.

Edited 2013-02-01 16:59 (UTC)

=Please,= Zeela scoffed, bitter. =There are lots of people with freaky powers on this island. But guess how many three-in-on demons there are.=

*Zeela, shut up,* Zhahar said. *This isn't the time to play who has it worse.*

=But--=

"No, really, shut up," Sholeh agreed, sounding tired. "We're all unhappy to be out here." She peeked at Toby. "I'm sorry that you have to be scared, too."

"I dunno, maybe your sister's got a point," Toby said with a sigh. "I'm probably being stupid. But when he started talking, all I could think of was the time I spent in a Catholic group home and..." he trailed off, shaking his head. "Sorry. For unloading on you. That you have to hide. That I know what you don't want me to." He was Canadian, Sholeh. He could be at this a while.

=See? He thinks I'm right.=

"None of those are your fault, exactly," Sholeh said, ignoring her sister. "Well, okay, maybe the first one, but I don't mind. It's nice knowing that I'm not the only one out here, even if I kind wish I were, for your sake."

She drew her knees up and rested her cheek on them. "So many people here seem to be completely okay with stuff like this. It makes it hard to talk to them, because they don't understand what it's like to be so scared. Or they did, once, but still think they know what's best, you know?"

Hanna stayed, though she wasn't paying much attention. This was mostly because she was concentrating on staying awake. She hadn't been sleeping very well lately due to unsettling dreams about Alison.

Though, she supposed, they weren't more unsettling than exorcism videos.

Percy decided to stay. He thought about leaving but really, he'd probably go back to his room and his attention would wander. Here, there was at least a video and his attention would wander but it'd have something to come back to after it did.

James stayed. Constructions of evil and possessions were real, and the knowledge of demons and possessions might assist him in the future.

He hoped he would not see another example in his life, though.

Lucrezia had never witnessed an exorcism. She imagined it would be horrifying, but not nearly so terrible as the threat of Hellfire.

She stayed, keeping her fingers clutched tightly around her cross.

If someone dies during an exorcism, is the exorcist a murderer? If they aren't, how would you explain what happened?

"I think it's dependent on the person who was exorcised agreed to everything," Percy said after thinking about it. "If they knew the risks ad they died, then I think they share the blame."

"Depends if the person was already dead," he stated, no emotion showing.

"The soul outweighs the body," Lucrezia said, fingering her ornate cross necklace. Today's had rubies making the body of the cross; the red matched her dress. "To end someone's life is tragic, but to lose their soul is far worse. Ideally both would survive, but if that cannot happen, this is preferable to the alternative."

(as always, her opinions /= mine, etc)

Who are almost definitely mostly not possessed.

Jack may have been somewhat possessed, though he'd never heard of an exorcism to kick out lycanthropy and doubted it would work. He was, however, preoccupied. He'd been dreaming in Russian, with Irina Stephanova beckoning him to dance. It was ... unsettling.

"Esli ty mechtaesh' o mne, ia pridu," she'd told him as they spun. If you dream of me, I will come. Her voice was still echoing in his ears as he taught.

[OOC: Many thanks to

notyetplatypus for making the Russian non-awful.]

Edited 2013-01-30 16:21 (UTC)

Stiles was indeed not possessed. For now. Who knows what would happen next season. For now he was sticking around for the movie 'cause the TA leaving the class seemed weird. Not that he'd leave in the first place 'cause he found the topic pretty interesting.

I picked the least gratuitous and most educational video I could find -- it's from National Geographic -- but I still totally understand if it's not your idea of happyfuntimes RP to watch it.

Also, I have a song tradition to carry on:

Not that I think you're worried, but Sholeh is leaving for purely IC reasons!

I knew that, but it's good to be reassured. Thanks :-).

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Supernatural Studies, Wednesday, Period 1

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