fandomhigh | Practical Folklore, Monday 2nd period

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."

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"Well, it depends. Angels, not much, except for Laz and that's just because he has to. We're beneath them, y'know. Demons aren't supposed to, but they keep trying, and we keep trying to keep them out. The fae come and go as they please, of course.

"Oh, and I forgot reapers! Duh, of course we have reapers." What would happen to dead souls if they didn't?

"Perhaps you could explain a bit more about that," Jon suggested.

"Reapers? They just collect the souls of the dead and take them wherever they're supposed to go next." What...what happened to dead people where Jon was from? "Or something else I said?"

"That and also the others," Jon agreed. "I'm wondering if the fae coming and going is a good thing and if others know of them, and to what extent the others are a factor. You said someone named Laz is required to."

"Laz is...a long story." One that Gray would not be sharing with the class, and in fact he might be shrinking in on himself a little at the thought of Lazarus finding out Gray was talking about him. "Most humans don't know about any of that, I guess...some humans do, of course, but the broader public is pretty good at not seeing what they don't want to see or rationalizing it away or whatever. Uh...the fae are just...they're just another part of the community. But I guess where I live is kind of unique, because a lot of the local community leaders have put a lot of time and effort over the last few decades into making Echo Bay a place where we all play more or less nice with each other." Or else, was the subtext there.

"Except demons. Demons are almost always bad news. I mean, I guess there could be nice demons out there, but I haven't met them." And he had met (and stabbed) a lot of demons.

If Jon's eyes flicked over to Illyana with concern, please ignore that. "Well, I hope Fandom is also a place where everyone plays nicely with each other."

Gray noticed it, but he didn't attach any significance to it. Illyana had said she'd grown up in a hell dimension. That didn't mean anything. Gray had partially grown up in a hell dimension until he was eight.

...his had been a special childhood.

Out loud, he said, "I guess it depends on the weekend?"

"Er...well, yes, there is that. But we don't mostly have control over those odd weekends, so all we can do is manage the...well, the as-normal-as-they-get times."

Practical Folklore, Monday 2nd period

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