Powers, Identity, and The World; Embracing the Real You - Friday, Period One

[furnaceface]

Once again, Jono and Rinoa's class were going to find themselves meeting in a classroom. And once again, they'd find their teachers standing at the front of the room, looking… about as ready as anybody could possibly look, while teaching this particular pack of students.

//Hello again,// Jono said, nodding once it looked as though everyone had taken their seats. //And welcome back. Good to see we didn't scare you off last week, because this week, we're going to talk about more of the same… you. Last week, we discussed a bit about who you are. This week, we're going to stretch things a little, to talk about who it is you might become.//

There weren't any clairvoyants in the room, were there? Not that it mattered, but that could be an interesting insight to have at one's disposal for this lesson.

“For some people, you’ve got this whole life mapped out until one day, bam, it all changes,” Rinoa said. “And then you’re left wondering whether you can still be what you want, while now having to be what you are. Other people have always been different, and so their dreams and hopes are built around that framework. I can’t play basketball, because I’m too short. I can’t be a general, because the Galbadian army only has men in it. I can’t be a doctor, because I keep failing anatomy.”

It wasn’t just people with powers who had that problem, and it wasn’t just powers that might keep students away from some of their dreams. Reality was messy.

//And me, I can't get people to stop bloody well calling me 'General,' and I would really rather they never do so again,// Jono added, wryly. //Spent half my life thinking I was going to be frontman for my own grunge band, that's sort of fallen through for, er, obvious reasons. But I wouldn't mind perhaps getting up to something over at the Boards - the theatre I used to run - again. Even if I can't sing, it's… a compromise. Sometimes, even if you can't have exactly what you want, at least there's that much.//

“I thought I’d be a librarian,” Rinoa said, shrugging her shoulders. “And now I’m the Sorceress, which makes me into an international diplomat whether I want to be or not. But I’m working on restoring the Great Library in Dollet, and I could pick up an extra shift working in a bookstore here if I wanted to.” Or if she had the free time, which, lately, she hadn’t.

“The point is that maybe you can’t have everything you want, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some of it. Maybe you can start a basketball league for short people. Maybe you can work somewhere else in the medical field that has less strict grade requirements, but still lets you heal people. Maybe you can start your own army. Just because there are limitations doesn’t mean you’re stuck. It just means you need to get creative.”

//This week, we're opening the discussion floor to you lot again. We want to talk about your futures… where you see yourself after high school. Where you would like to see yourself after high school. Maybe your life has been set out for you from this point onward already. Maybe you had a game plan, but like myself and Rinoa, that didn't quite work out the way you would've liked, thanks to your powers, or thanks to some other factor in your life. Open discussion time, for those who care to share… What you want to do, what the probable reality is… and then we can talk possible compromises, or workarounds. Or just clap you on the shoulder and say well-done if things are working out as you'd like. And if you have any suggestions for your classmates for alternatives if what they want isn't shaping up to be what they're going to get, please, share. Maybe we can give some people something to strive for, today.//

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

Discuss!

[furnaceface]

No, really. What do you want to be when you grow up? Any goals or aspirations that you might have trouble achieving? Why not share with the class, and if there's something in your way, maybe the class will share something useful, in turn.

Re: Discuss!

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Anyway, this whole topic sorta stumped her.

She'd mentioned what she was going to be in the future last class. Did she really have to retread the same ground?

"I think I'm good," Karina said, shrugging. "Not much to talk about on my end."

Useful, Karina.

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//Fair enough,// Jono replied, spreading his hands. //Not all class discussions this semester, unfortunately, are going to be relevant to everybody in the room. Everyone's different. S'why we're here, innit?//

That question was meant to be rhetorical. Honest.

//How about this, then- Are there any significant challenges you think you might face on your road to stardom? Nothing worth having comes easily, not really.//

Re: Discuss!

[angelo_wings]

"You're going to be a superstar," Rinoa said. "Do you plan on writing your own music?"

Re: Discuss!

[sarcastic-vamp.livejournal.com]

"I want to be a meta for Disney Princess!" Carmilla said cheerfully, extremely glad that stupid truth thing hadn't lasted into today.

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//And I'm certain your daily conversations with your little chipmunk friends are an excellent start,// Jono snarked, rolling his eyes. //Let's hear you sing, then. I hear that's a requirement, Sunshine.//

If he was going to have one of the snarky ones in his class, so help him, he was going to dish it back when it was dealt.

Re: Discuss!

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Carmilla had just earned her first Very Dubious Look from her roommate.

"Can you do that?"

She was pretty sure not.

Re: Discuss!

[angelo_wings]

"You'll need lots of ball gowns," Rinoa said brightly. "Probably a lot of ribbons and lace. What color are we thinking?"

Re: Discuss!

[not_every_mage]

"When I grow up I want to be not locked in a tower," Anders said acridly, stretching his legs out. These questions brought out the side of him that was furious at his entire world. "Beyond that? I like healing and not being bothered by the Templars. If I could just set up a clinic in some village somewhere I'd be perfectly happy. Maybe move to Denerim for a while if I want to be really adventurous."

He sounded less bitter as he continued. "But is anyone else from a place where jobs really aren't a choice? My father was a tradesman. If I wasn't a mage, I could have joined the Chantry or the army, or I could have been apprenticed to him or one of his friends. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around this notion anyone could do anything."

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//I'm from a place where, generally, jobs are a choice,// Jono noted, //but circumstances being what they are, once I blew myself halfway to kingdom come, my options back in my world were pared down significantly. I could become a sideshow freak, go into hiding in the sewers under the city, or essentially become sucked into life as a soldier for a team of superheroes who, frankly, were rather shite at practical decision making. I took the soldier option. At least it let me keep my dignity. Fandom gave me other options, of course. Many people in this room might find that it does the same for them, as well.//

Sometimes he sort of wished he'd gone the Morlock route, though. Eesh.

//That's why we're having this discussion today. Circumstances, whether we're born into them or we happen upon them somewhere along the way, often mean we can't get exactly what we want. It's the Templars and the tower that are getting in the way of your desire to settle somewhere and heal people?//

Re: Discuss!

[angelo_wings]

"There's always the possibility of not going back to your own world," Rinoa said, lifting her shoulders. "That's the nice thing about going to school in a multidimensional -- whatever the term is."

She bit her lip and sighed. "I'm sorry that we didn't think of selecting jobs as something privileged," she added. "You're right, Jono and I are both from worlds where people get to make those decisions. Does no one get to choose their occupation, then?"

Or was that a right held by a privileged few?

Re: Discuss!

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"I sort of do," Celia offered, looking over to Anders. "Not the same way, but the idea that anyone can do anything is really quite new, here. If you go back a century or two, the options are much slimmer -- particularly for the poor, and especially for women. I don't think the idea of...job opportunity equality really emerged until recently. At least, it's not like that in my own time. I could hope for theater work, or to be a seamstress or maybe work in a factory, with my social standing back home if I didn't have magic on my side. As it is, I'll likely wind up in a theater anyway."

Re: Discuss!

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia actively avoided thinking about the challenge, these days -- now that she had concrete ideas of other paths she'd like to pursue, the knowledge that she didn't have the luxury ate away at her.

"I don't have a choice," she sighed, absently rubbing the scar on her right ring finger. "When I'm older, I'll be forced into a magical competition. I've been bound to it since I was a small child."

She darted a glance at Rinoa with a sad, small smile, and added, "I've tried to get out of it. Doesn't work. And I don't know what'll happen if I win or lose, but odds aren't really in my favor that I'll get to travel or attend university or anything, like I'd want to."

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

Jono's heart was bleeding a little for you, Celia.

//I'm sorry to hear that,// he replied, gently. //Sounds to me as though the best thing to be done now is to prepare for that competition as best as you're able. Is there anything to be done in the meantime along those lines? Travel now, perhaps?//

He didn't know much about the situation, of course. The best he could do was shoot suggestions into the void.

Re: Discuss!

[angelo_wings]

"We only tried once," Rinoa reminded Celia. "I'm only reluctant to try again because of how dangerous it was. There might be other routes to breaking it."

Ones that didn't involve rituals that ended with Celia half-dead, preferably.

"How do you know you can't travel or attend university if you win?"

Re: Discuss!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"My future path has been more or less charted out for me from birth," Elsa noted, smiling wryly. "Arendelle's throne is soon to be my responsibility, and it's one that I'm mostly prepared for. But I have... concerns. I have a secret that nobody else back home knows, not unless you include a small colony of trolls that nobody really knows about, and I don't know how to balance keeping that secret with being the Queen that Arendelle needs."

Re: Discuss!

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa was nodding. "So, you're worried about what you have to be, balanced with what you already are," she said. "What about what you want?"

The other matter was important, and should be discussed, but ... this was important, too.

Re: Discuss!

[tigerundercover]

"I'm actually kind of enjoying not knowing right now," Raven admitted. "If I got back to my time, I'll have a lot of limitations, but if I'm going to be an activist, that just means I'll have more to fight for."

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//True enough,// Jono agreed. //And you'll definitely be going back to a place that'll need someone doing that fighting.//

Re: Discuss!

[angelo_wings]

"There's always the possibility of not going back to your own time," Rinoa said. "But there's something freeing about not needing to know just yet. Being an activist can be pretty fulfilling. I ran away from home to be a revolutionary, at your age."

She hadn't been especially good at it, but that wasn't the point.

Re: Discuss!

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"I was raised to be a soldier. Guns, weapons, fighting, survival." Hanna paused. Not totally a lie-- thankfully yesterday's truths were done now. But easier to understand than 'assassin.' "But the major mission I was trained for has been-- completed. And I don't wish to kill anyone." Else. She'd alluded to some of this last week, although not so directly. "But it seems-- a waste? Of all that time, and effort, to not do something with it. And I enjoy parts of it. Physical effort, planning, infiltration. Just not the final outcome." She looked uncomfortable. "And I do not know who I would work for."

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//I know that feeling,// Jono offered. //There's something about sitting stagnant in the wake of all of that, it can be maddening. But those all seem like things that there are good, real-world uses for. Search and rescue, perhaps? Not everybody with survival skills needs to be a... soldier.//

Or a killer, as the case might be.

Re: Discuss!

[angelo_wings]

"You could always work for yourself," she suggested. "Offer your services for hire. Make it clear what you will and won't do, so you can leave out the bits you didn't like. No killing."

Re: Discuss!

[notamascot]

"I'm going to be a Hawk," Kaylin said firmly. "I mostly am already, except that I can't be one offically till I'm 18. But I already train with them and walk a beat and all that, whenever I'm back in Elantra at least."

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//I know we already touched on this a little bit last week,// Jono said, almost apologetically, //but is there anything that might jeopardize that, besides your age?//