fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Monday

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Practical Philosophy, Monday

Yesterday's revelation that they were releasing another movie about his life had not put Ender in the best mood. It was a harsh reminder that what awaited him back home wasn't always much better than what met him here-- at least at Fandom he could expect a certain degree of anonymity.

While he tried to keep the annoyance and frustration and numerous other emotions out of his work today, it was obvious he was quieter and more distant than he usually was. He picked a topic that was as comfortably distant from his own experience as he could find, without becoming irrelevant to their story entirely.

"This is our last class," he said. "Sooner or later, you'll find yourself at your last class, period. Fandom is a school and so your stay here comes with an expiration date. Are you glad about that? Relieved? Unhappy? When you leave, what will you carry with you of this place? Mostly negative experiences? Mostly positive? Why?"

Then he fell silent.

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They were good priorities!

"Oh god, I know," she said, thinking of the sheer amount of Hero work that would screw over. "This is terrible and I don't know why people hadn't said anything before! Is there, like, a time limit? How long you have to be here before it gets you too?"

Because, if so, she was gone.

"What, are they supposed to put that into the brochure?" Kathy yelped. "Who'd believe them? 'Coming to this school may turn you into a boy, child, pony, or anything else, which will then follow you for the rest of your life.' If you'd read that, would you think it was true, or just that the school prided itself on being weird?"

Which, in and of itself, would have been a nice warning.

"I wouldn't have believed them," she said, stressing the word. "But it would've told me that this was not a school for me. I mean, I knew it was weird but there's 'bizarre clubs' weird and then there's... this kind of weird. And, face it, who wants highschool weird stalking them their whole life? If they'd mentioned that... yeah, no way would I be here."

"Even if they said that this was gonna follow me my whole life, I would have assumed they meant there was an alumni association that kept bugging you to stay involved with 'campus culture' and asking for donations," Kathy admitted. "But, yeah, I don't think there's anyone who wants to get stalked by high school weird. Especially this kind of high school weird."

She made a face at the very thought. Ugh!

"And now we're probably stuck with it," she said, sighing. "Seems pretty unfair, huh?"

Karina thought so!

"Does your world have weird, at least? Or is this all new?"

"Totally unfair," Kathy agreed. "I don't want to turn into a pony for the rest of my life, just because I spent half a summer here once."

That just wasn't even right. If it had to follow them home, couldn't it be proportional to how long they were here for. Ugh!

"My world is pretty normal," she told Karina. "I mean, a few months ago, this superhero called the Mighty Dragon showed up, but even most people assume that all the hype is actually publicity for a new movie or something. Watching people fight deafening pterodactyl things are not my idea of a regular weekend. And I thought the Sevens were trouble."

"Well, it'll only be for a week at a time, tops, but still..."

Yeah, she didn't want to be a pony either.

"Sevens?" Karina asked, curious. "And superheroes, huh? Do you believe that it's real?"

"Yeah, but I'll have the chance to be a pony for a week for forever. Like, I don't want to be a grandma giving out literal pony rides, you know? Or teaching my sons to shave their faces by showing them on my new five o'clock shadow."

It was craziness. Sheer craziness. She couldn't even picture the number of ways this could ruin her entire life.

Which was funny, because back in LA, she would have sworn up and down that she didn't have a life, but with the island hanging over her head, she was discovering just how much worse things could get than just being the quiet girl no one paid attention to.

"The Sevens? Oh, they're a local gang. Technically, they're the South Seventees and they call themselves the SS." Kathy rolled her eyes, because really, guys? Really? Still too soon. "They're all over my part of LA. And, yeah, the Mighty Dragon's real. He's based in LA so people really get to see him. He flies and breathes fire and is way cool."

Someone miiiiight be something of a fangirl.

"Way cool?" Karina teased. "Sounds like he'd be hot, instead."

Yeah, that was bad.

She grinned a bit ruefully and shrugged. So what if it was?

"Just the one hero though?"

That'd be a boring reality show...

"That was terrible," Kathy said, grinning at Karina. "I mean seriously terrible."

In case she was wondering.

"No, not just one, though the others are more like rumors. A weird monster roaming Venice Beach. Maybe an ape-guy in Chicago, too. Stuff like that. What about your world? Anything weird there?"

"It had to be said," Karina told her. "And... we've got superheroes, I guess."

Her being one and all.

"Some people," definitely not her, really, honest, "started getting powers some forty something years ago," she elaborated slightly. "That's pretty weird, right?"

"Why would that be weird?" Kathy asked. "People are only just getting them in mine. I mean, literally just. The Mighty Dragon's the first real superhero in the world and he hasn't been around for even a full year yet!"

Why would getting powers be weird. It would be SO COOL.

Yeah, Karina just looked extremely dubious.

"I suppose it's totally cool having people be terrified of people with scary, uncontrollable powers. Or getting beaten up because of them. Or insulted and degraded."

None of which had happened to her, because Karina's closet where she hid her powers as a civilian was extremely deep.

"Yeah, we've got superheroes and they're cool and have powers," she said, her voice sharp and anxiety in her eyes, "but not all NEXT can be superheroes. Not all NEXT have that protection. Sure, I bet they get hate mail," and boy did they ever, "but they're symbols. It's the everyday people that get the worst of it, that are hurt by it. And people just spontaneously developing powers? That's weird. And scary. For every one person who thinks it's great, there's going to be a hundred that thinks it's wrong."

She was weird. And a freak. And a superhero.

Not that she was admitting to any of it.

Now Kathy was all kinds of confused. "Okay, whoa, whoa. What's a next? Why should people be terrified? Are you talking about like some kind of Y-People thing?"

She shrugged at Karina, not unkindly. "The Mighty Dragon keeps his identity a secret and while some people don't believe in him, I don't think anyone's afraid of him. Well, except for the criminals he puts away."

"And you think it's just going to stay that way?" she asked, tilting her head. "Like, oh good, one superhero is enough, no need for more people with powers? What if criminals start getting powers? How long will people not be afraid of them?"

"You make it sound like people just decide to wake up one morning and get powers," Kathy argued, folding her arms. "I don't know how it works. And, yeah, I doubt that everyone's gonna be okay with it. People have a damn good track record of Otherizing damn near everyone. But you know what? Ask your average gay teenager if he'd rather be bullied because of his perceived sexuality or because he somehow got awesome powers and see what he says. You don't have to be special to get death threats and degradation."

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Practical Philosophy, Monday

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