Practical Folklore, Monday 2nd period

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

When the students arrived to class, they would find Jon - a slight man with far too many scars, who looked permanently tired - looking as put-together as he could, in a jacket, pressed shirt, and trousers.

He stood from the desk once everyone seemed to have arrived, and nodded to them. "Welcome. I'm Jonathan Sims, for those of you who don't know me. This is Practical Folklore. Because there are a lot of folk tales and mythologies out there, and a lot of places treat them as fictional - for many places, they may be fictional - but in other places they could be incredibly important.

"The first week of class is traditionally for introductions, and it's early enough I hope you won't be tired of them yet. So we'll be going around and introducing ourselves. I'd like to hear your name or whatever you prefer to go by, your pronouns, where you're from as near as you're comfortable saying, and what sorts of supernatural you're aware of existing in your world."

He breathed deep and sighed. "So I suppose it's only fair if I start. As I said, I'm Jonathan Sims. He/him. I'm from Earth, more specifically England, and from Bournemouth by way of Oxford and London. In my world, all supernatural things we're aware of are a product of relation to or influence by a conglomeration of what's best described as eldritch fear gods. They create artifacts, monsters, and avatars who channel them. There are no benevolent forces."

Another sigh and a nod. "Right. Your turn."

Comments

Sign in!

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Introducing yourself!

Re: Sign in!

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie Gale

Re: Sign in!

[napking]

Gray

Listen to the lecture

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Watch Jon, pass notes, you do you.

Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Introduce yourselves! Name, pronouns, origin, and what your world's supernatural is like.

Re: Class activity

[wildgalegirl]

"Hey, I'm Charlie, she/her. I'm from a town in Ontario, Canada. East Darsden if anyone's heard of it."

She took a deep breath and grinned. "What supernatural stuff do we have in my world? Pretty much everything. There's a full complement of Fae, complete with Gates to the UnderRealm. There are selkie, brownies, leprechauns, corbae, all that good stuff. Rumor has it that there are vampires in the catacombs beneath Paris, but we don't have them in Ontario. The Aunties wouldn't stand for it.

"Most of the Fae stay in their own Courts in the UnderRealm, though the fullbloods love basketball so there are a couple on most of the major teams. Dragons, trolls, goblins, etc. mostly are kept in the UnderRealm by the Fae guarding the Gates. Which isn't to say they don't slack off sometimes and let things through."

Charlie, herself, probably qualified as supernatural being that she was a Gale Girl and all, but that would come up or not as it would.

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"We...I'm sorry, they...your fae play basketball."

Basketball?

Re: Class activity

[napking]

"I'm Gray," Gray said, "and I'm most recently from Echo Bay, California. Uh, that's in Northern California, not...not the warm sunny part. My pronouns are he/him, and my world has...uh, let's see..." He started ticking off on his fingers: "Demons--so many kinds of demons--angels, fallen angels, Nephilim, of course," Of course! "Dragons--ice, water, fire, earth--your various garden varieties of shifters, vampires, witches, the fae...you know, the usual. But the demons and angels and fae don't really live in our world, I mean, they all have their own realms."

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Of course. Er...I'm curious how much they get into your world."

Re: Class activity

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"Illyana Rasputin," Yana answered. "She/her pronouns. I'm from Earth-18133, more specifically most recently our New York City. Before that, I am Russian, and was raised in a Hell dimension by a sorcerer."

"My world has magic, fae, mutants, demons, gods, the works."

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon nodded to her. "And you, um. You take of eldritch beings, apparently."

Re: Class activity

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Name's Connor Temple, he/him is fine, and I'm from London, England," Connor said when it was his turn. "Back home we really don't put a lot of faith in the supernatural. It'susually relegated to stories and religious stuff,or seen as things that only crazy people believe in. UFOs, fae, cryptids, angles, demons, and ghosts, it is all usually seen as fantasy and just stories. Some believe in the supernatural and the fantastical, I know I do after some of the things I have seen, but it is not something widely seen as being 'real' for a lack of better term."

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon nodded. "It sounds much like my world, to most people. If you aren't aware of the supernatural, it seems...well, fictional."

Re: Class activity

[what_big_teeth]

Boy, was everyone else before her's answers making Eleanor feel a lot better about her own, but she still let out a nervous breath before nodding and getting on with her turn.

"My name's Eleanor, she/her? And I'm originally from a place called Winterport in Maine, here in the United States, although I went to school here in Maryland for most of my life.

"Ermm....different school, though."

Very different.

"Oh, and also, it's 1966 back home, not..." Still sort of mind-blowing to say it, "2023. And supernatural things exist in my worls; I know, because my family is full of them. Werewolves, mostly, but also witches and...other things, that are a little harder to define, but my mother's side come from deep, deep within the sea..."

Did she mention that was the side she took from? It didn't seem necessary, but that could just borne from habit.

"But most of the world," she said, "doesn't know about it. We have to keep it secret, be careful about showing our powers off. We're pretty reclusive, because of it, so coming here, where everyone's so open, is..."

Wide eyes gone slightly wider and more bulging, making her look even more fish-like than usual, she shook her head and breathed out again.

"...refreshing."

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Ah, welcome to the future, I suppose." Jon nodded. "I hope you're enjoying it. So you're well acquainted with the supernatural, then. Or, well, I suppose it's all natural to you."

Re: Class activity

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden spent everyone else's turn frantically trying to figure out what her answer was going to be to Mr. Sim's last question. Being honest about the Otherside in a room full of humans was literally a death sentence. But hearing person after person just being like, 'Oh yeah, elves play basketball' and 'I was raised in a Hell dimension' kind of blew her mind.

"I'm Arden Finch, she/her, from The Triangle in North Carolina - Raleigh, to be really specific," she said in her soft southern drawl. "And, like, there are stories and urban legends about, like, elves and witches and everything, but if they actually exist, normal people don't know about 'em. I mean, if I ever met a vampire or a werewolf, they sure never did bother telling me that's what they were." She chuckled a little and shrugged. "If it helps, I do believe in aliens, just because the idea that we're alone in the universe seems preposterous. But if you ask me if any have landed on Earth? Ennnnhhhh...probably not."

There. Every word had been perfectly true.

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Well, I can assure you that aliens exist at least on the island; we've a few here," Jon said. "I can't speak to other versions of Earth."

He sensed she probably wasn't telling them the entire story, though nothing was a lie. But he wasn't about to call her out in front of class, either.

Re: Class activity

[onlyajones]

"I'm Josephine Jones," Jo said when it was her turn, she looked a little confused at the pronouns, "um ...she/her?" she checked to see if she had said that correctly, "I'm from South West England, near Cornwall and the supernatural only exists in books in my world, at least as far I'm aware of," she admitted, since she couldn't be entirely sure of that.

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon smiled and nodded at her; that was absolutely correct. "There is a lot of supernatural associated with Cornwall, from what I know. But hopefully we'll be able to ready you for any you might encounter here or elsewhere."

Re: Class activity

[amicia_the_amazon]

"I am Amicia de Rune, I am from France many hundreds of years ago. We have-- rats. Magic, evil plagues," Amicia said slowly, carefully, thinking about every word. "I do not know pronouns?"

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Er..." Jon called up his rudimentary French. "Bonjour, Amicia. Es-tu 'elle' ou 'il' ou...erm. 'On'?" Look, he hadn't learned gender-neutral pronouns in uni, and the Eye didn't much care about that sort of thing.

Also please forgive his very English accent.

Re: Class activity

[noonedecidesmyfate]

"I'm Belle," Belle said. "She/her pronouns. I don't believe I've been asked that before. I'm from the kingdom of Misthaven. My world has all manner of magical entities. Sorcerers, witches, trolls, ogres, fairies..."

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon nodded. "So, many of the things you'd find in folklore and fairy tales are real in your world. I'm curious if everybody knows about them or if they're covert."

Talk to Jon!

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

He's here!

OOC!

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Finally using my master's degree!