fandomhigh | Coping With Change, Friday, Period 3

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coping with change

Coping With Change, Friday, Period 3

This week, students showing up for Jono's class would be treated to not one, but two teachers! Neither of whom probably looked quite how they were expected to look, but what in the world were you going to do about that, with the island as… Fandom… as it was being, these days?

//So,// Jono began, clad in all black as usual, though his head appeared to be not there, replaced with fire, held in by a metal helmet. Which he figured was status quo, thank you very much, though he supposed everyone else's opinions were going to vary. //I've been informed that the class I'm teaching you today isn't, in fact, the one I remember teaching you lot for the past few months now. Lord only knows why I'd choose to teach a class on coping with anything, but at least I've picked up somebody a little more well-versed in change to assist.//

It was amazing how he could give Cecil a side-eye, without benefit of having, you know, eyes.

Cecil just snickered. "You cope just fine!" he assured Jono. He grinned back at him, a couple of his tentacles going to pat him on the back. "But really, change is life, right? I mean, we pretty much all change all the time; there's no point in fighting it."

//Ah, but fighting, I can do,// Jono sighed. //I have a perfectly good syllabus for that already figured out. Much as I'd like pitting you lot against a pack of Danger Shop Sentinels or something, however, I suppose we ought to focus on what you're actually here for. Considering the state of the island these days, I figure we've all got a bit of it to wrap our heads around.//

"Well, so to speak," Cecil amended, with a sheepish grin at Jono.

He was met with another particularly impressive side-eye. This one might have involved a few sparks.

//… I'd place bets there are at least a few of you in here who've been informed that you're… getting yourself wrong, somehow. Cecil and I are likely rather obvious at a glance, from what I've heard. A few of you seem to be, as well.//

Cecil gave him a blank look. "Obvious about what?"

//… Well, apparently I'm obvious. Cecil here could very well have aged a decade or so and sprouted tentacles overnight, granted.// And really, knowing how special the X-gene tended to be, Jono probably could, too. He wasn't going to think about that. //Either way, something unusual seems to be going on.//

Cecil rolled his eyes. All three of them. "I've had these since I hit puberty; they're hardly new. And I'm...well, mostly aging at the same rate as always, odd weekends and such notwithstanding, and -"

//-- And I've been wearing this thing,// Jono rapped two knuckles against the side of his helmet, making a hollow, metallic echo, //for the past decade, now, but there are people here who insist that I've only been for a week or two. And others who have informed me that at some point in my life or other, I was blue. Something is amiss around here. Changes are happening where they probably aren't meant to be. Discuss.//

[OOC: Open! Co-written with the delightful

voiceoverdue!]

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Like one of your teachers has no head, and the other has tentacles and a third eye.

Cosette Fauchelevent

Celia Bowen

The One Who Speaks With the Voice of Many

Joker Moreau (and Skippy the spacemonkey)

Mercy Athena Thompson (almost Cornick!)

Kathy Li

No, really. No head. Tentacles. This isn't status quo even for Fandom.

… Cecil's cheerful obliviousness and Jono's long-windedness are, though.

"What's that, Skippy?" Joker asked his pyjak. "No, you're right, we're not in Kansas anymore."

If you haven't noticed odd things going on with the people around you by now, you might not actually be paying attention.

"So... hey," Joker asked, "if things are changing all over the place, then shouldn't we be doing something to try and fix it? I mean, I've got less than no clue how to do that, because this is pretty crazy right here, but just ignoring it and hoping it goes away kind of seems like... very, very wrong."

//That's part of the reason I'm initiating the discussion,// Jono replied, crossing his arms over his chest. //I can't exactly hie myself away to the library, sit down, and read the way I used to do.//

Eyes helped, for that. And there wasn't exactly a wealth of research material there that was written in braille.

//All I've encountered thus far are people questioning what's going on. If we can hammer it out, actually put a finger on it... We're clearly not all going crazy. We need to stop questioning if that's the case. Something here is obviously terribly amiss.//

"Well, okay, so has anyone taken a look at the obvious answer, then?" Joker asked. "A malicious time traveler?"

Sometimes, Joker, Jono had no idea if you were trolling or not.

//... Please explain how that's the obvious answer?//

He knew malicious time travelers, Joker. He had been a member of the X-Men once, too.

"You don't watch many movies, do you?" Joker asked. "Seriously, it's a common trope -- someone goes back in time and makes a change, and then poof! the present is different."

"That assumes time is real," Cecil pointed out logically. "And even if it was, maybe it's a non-malicious time traveler?"

"No, a non-malicious time traveler would have stopped after one fuck-up," Joker explained. "Unless they're an idiot. We're looking at wholesale mayhem, right here."

//I would've guessed alternate realities entirely,// Jono offered, thoughtfully. //If time itself has actually been muddled with, nobody would remember enough to know that there's been a change, since it would've changed for all of us.//

A beat.

//I'm from a reality where time travel actually does occur fairly regularly, mate.//

"You... you are. Of course you are. Someone would have to be." Joker sighed. "Okay, so you've got a good point. But that puts us back at square one: if parallel universes are crossing and mixing, what do we do? Is Portalocity behind it all?"

//If they were, I imagine they would've said something by now. Not something fessing up to it, of course. That's hardly their style. But I'm certain we would've seen at least a dozen disclaimers and possibly a few e-mails with photographs of gnomes in them trying to waive responsibility entirely.//

Really, had Joker used Portalocity before?

No, no he hadn't. The concept was pretty familiar, though.

"So, they're pretty much a normal corporation, not an evil out-to-take-over-the-metaverse sort of thing. Okay, that's good to know..."

"Aren't all corporations out to take over something? I was sure it was in the incorporation papers..." Cecil mused.

"Change is inevitable," said the One Who Speaks With the Voice of Many. "To stay constant is to decay."

The being sitting in class presumably still appeared to be a girl, one they had known as Eleanor. The weird glow to the body's eyes was faint enough that it wasn't noticeable until someone got close.

(THIS WAS ALWAYS IN THE RIGHT PLACE. YOU SAW NOTHING.)

//I would actually agree with most of that,// Jono noted, after a moment's pause. There was something very different about Eleanor. It made his senses twitch, trying to put a finger on it. //Only, even decay is a sign of change. Stagnation and decomposition are two very different things. One is a sign of no improvement, but at the same time, no regression either. The other is a sign of falling apart.//

He gestured around the room.

//Whatever this is, reality twisting into and around itself in ways we can't quite keep track of, I'd argue this is some manner of decay.//

[NOTHING AT ALL.]

"The implication that change is desirable or positive was an unintentional one," the One stated. "But entropy acts upon all systems. Stagnation cannot hold indefinitely."

//No,// Jono agreed, //I suppose it can't.//

He reeled his senses back a little. It was fascinating, really, the way trying to pay too much attention to Eleanor actually made his head spin.

All things considered.

//Still, there's such a thing as too much change, especially of a sort that has no business going on here.//

"That would depend on what purpose the change serves," the One intoned seriously. "Should it further the common good, it would ultimately be beneficial. New calculations must be made."

... You were starting to weird Jono out a little, Eleanor.

Ah.

Her too.

//At present, it's serving only to cause confusion,// he offered, carefully. //Recalculate if you must, but this all seems rather ominous, overall.//

The reaction was a common one. While the Family embraced the One as their Messiah, they did not wish a close emotional connection -- nor would one be possible, considering that there was no person at the center of the maelstrom. The lack made some individuals uneasy.

"Calculations will continue." The One dismissed that easily. Calculations always continued. "The trend does appear ominous, but it remains to be seen what the outcome shall be."

So... Eleanor had been a little weird, sure, maybe.

But the words "the common good" coming out of her mouth, in apparent seriousness? Joker stared. And cringed a little.

"But sometimes change is wrong," Celia argued softly, watching her friend curiously. "Sometimes it's against our will. Sometimes we should fight it, shouldn't we?"

"Autonomy is not a good predictor of happiness," the One replied. "A truly benevolent dictatorship would be preferable to a democracy, if only because people are ill-suited to meeting their own needs."

Celia felt a knot swell in her throat, but ignored it for the moment. "Eleanor, you don't believe that," she said softly, willing her instincts to be wrong in just this one instance. "Free will is the barest right we possess as humans. Who are we if not our choices?"

"What can we do?" Celia asked, clearly distressed. "How do we know which is right when our own memories are apparently failing us? Is it even 'change' when we're caught in a riptide of not knowing how things apparently used to be versus what we know them to be now?"

The last few days had been a nightmare for Celia. She was struggling to keep herself under control, now, because the last thing she needed to do was make something important implode on itself because she couldn't calm down.

//We start,// Jono said gently, //by keeping our cool. Take a few deep breaths, if you're able. There has to be an explanation for this- there always is.//

Jono had danced this dance on many a Fandom, apparently.

//The best I can suggest, if you're not certain that it's caught you too, is to just talk to people. Perhaps it's changed them, perhaps it's changed you, or neither, or both. But as it stands, my memories feel real enough to me- whether they're accurate for this reality is irrelevant. My physical self reflects what I remember. I'm going to consider it the truth, while at the same time not dismissing the truths of those around me in kind.//

Everything was true until proven otherwise. What other choice was there?

//If multiple realities and alternate timelines are falling into play, we're all right. We're simply mismatched.//

Celia took a long, deep breath, reminding herself that no matter how anxious all of this made her, it wouldn't solve anything to work herself up over it. "Then what happens to us when order is restored?" she asked, more calmly. "Will we just fade away to be replaced by the correctly-matched versions of ourselves? Or is that a change I shouldn't fear, because I may not know the difference?"

These were mostly rhetorical, and she knew it; Celia was sure there wasn't a real answer to her questions, that anyone knew. She was just looking for someone -- anyone -- to tell her it was going to be all right.

//I don't know,// Jono admitted, honestly. //Perhaps we'll all simply go back to where we belong. If this is a case of scrambled identities, we might return to being what we were intended to be. If this is a case of us being up and transplanted into the wrong reality entirely, we might simply go home.//

It was difficult to be reassuring with no concrete answers to be had, and Jonothon hated that he didn't know more about what was happening. He'd sort of just stumbled across it, himself.

//Before I can really come up with any answers for you, I think we'd have to know exactly what's going on, and then draw our conclusions about the best way to go ahead from there. I don't think anyone here is particularly keen on fading out of being... but if this keeps up, it's entirely possible that any one of us will find ourselves being replaced again, too.//

"After that," Cecil picked up, "just relax! After all, compared to the overwhelming terror and wonder of existence, this is really nothing, right?"

"Existence is the easy part," Celia countered quietly. "Drawing it all into question is where I fall apart."

"Well," Cecil pointed out, "either we exist, which is wonderful and awful, or we don't, in which case, what do we have to worry about?"

Yeah, Cecil probably wasn't the one to go to for reassurance.

"We have to worry about not existing," Celia said carefully, frowning. "Which is...wonderful and awful, I suppose."

How she was being drawn into an existential crisis in the middle of this was beyond her, but at least it was a rabbit hole to go down.

"I was thinking more 'nothing', but that works, too!" Cecil agreed. "I mean, really - it's the same worry whether we exist or not, right?"

That was comforting, wasn't it?

When they tag in.

First person to ask him if it hurts gets their arse lit on fire.

He's not quite sure what all the fuss is about...

Edited 2014-03-14 15:32 (UTC)

I would swap in my head for some nifty flames and a Xorn mask if it meant I could either get rid of this barking cough or maybe get some sleep.

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Coping With Change, Friday, Period 3

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