Practical Folklore, Monday 2nd period

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Welcome back, everybody," Jon began. "My apologies for last week. This week, I thought we could begin with something a bit more nebulous than the others: witches. I'm aware we have at least some people on the island who identify as witches, and there may be more I'm unaware of. Traditionally witches are women with some form of magical power; beyond that, there are a number of possibilities for narrowing it down."

He shrugged. "Honestly, in my version of Earth, witches were mostly women that knew a bit of science and didn't like being bossed around by the church, and therefor got painted in the worst possible light so as to make it easier to kill them with impunity. It's possible some had actual power, but given the rate of experiences with the Fears, I'm guessing the vast majority did not. Other worlds, of course, may have different ratios of actual power to innocents men hated.

"In folklore I'm aware of, witches are often depicted as old women, generally living alone, and run the gamut from helpful to horrendous. The one rule of thumb seems to be that you don't want to treat them poorly. Which can be generalized to 'don't be a bastard to old women', which seems like a decent rule anyway."

Said the man who pissed people off on the regular. In his defence, he often didn't mean to! "So, let's discuss witches. Are you one, do you know any, does your world have them or stories of them? What other applications can you think of other than to treat people well?"

Comments

Class discussion

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Witches! What's the best way to handle them, and do you have any tips on identifying them?

Re: Class discussion

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"There's probably plenty of people who would call me a witch," Illyana said with a shrug. "But people who practice the type of magic I do call ourselves 'sorcerers.' It tends to be the academic learning approach versus naturalistic styles of magic that separate the two."

Re: Class discussion

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon nodded. "That makes sense. Yes, witches are generally conceptualized as either self-taught or taught by other witches, rather than learning from books or schools. Still, I suppose it's good to know what might apply. I'd be interested in discovering any particular methods of protection from witches you might know of, other than the one previously mentioned."

Re: Class discussion

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"Manners," Illyana said dryly. "Manners, running water between you and them, and staying the fuck away from them in general."

It was possible she still held a few grudges over the coven that ratted her out to Strange years ago. Yes, she loved her life now. But seriously, getting all fussy over a few dead (deservedly) truckers...

Re: Class discussion

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh, so it's not a value judgment or anything?" Arden asked, you know, out of basic normal person curiosity. "Like, nobody calls someone who uses magic a witch or a sorcerer because they did something bad or whatever, just like...the difference how they learned? Neat."

Re: Class discussion

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"I mean, some witches get snide because theirs is all-natural, just like sorcerers can be snobby because they can read twelve dead languages?" Illyana mused. "But it's like someone who plays baseball arguing with someone who plays basketball. It's still a sport, just different rules of engagement."

"If anyone is casting judgements, it's on what kind of magics each person is using -- creation, destruction, chaos, divine, dark, eldritch -- and for what reason...that sort of thing. Most sorcerers are only adept in eldritch. A lot of witches prefer creation or Asgardian."

True! Mostly! Just... witches tended to not like Yana. At all. It was the 'WMD of Dark Magic' Thing.

Re: Class discussion

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden's face had remained completely normal and fine as Illyana had listed off those types of magic, remaining extra normal on 'chaos'.

"What's eldritch then? Just...a way to summarize the kind of magic you can learn in books?"

Listen, she'd never played D&D, okay? Give the girl a break.

Re: Class discussion

[wildgalegirl]

"I mean, some people would call all the Gale Girls witches," Charlie said, "But I just dare anyone to say that to one of the Aunties."

Re: Class discussion

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Not a complimentary term, I take it," Jon said.

Re: Class discussion

[wildgalegirl]

"More just inaccurate, but the Aunties have a thing about it," Charlie said. "And, you know, not smart to antagonize superpowerful people."

Re: Class discussion

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"And since it's difficult to know who might be super powerful, best not to antagonise anyone."

Jon was so, SO bad at that. It didn't mean he didn't know it was a good idea.

Re: Class discussion

[wildgalegirl]

"At least around the Aunties that's the way to go," Charlie agreed

Re: Class discussion

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"What are your Aunties," Arden couldn't help but ask.

Re: Class discussion

[wildgalegirl]

"My aunts," Charlie said. "The family's aunts. The older generation of aunts, I guess. When they accrue enough age and power they become part of the Aunties."

Re: Class discussion

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I mean, that tracks," Arden said with a small huff of a laugh, though the aunties she was thinking about were more the older Black women in the churches back when she'd gone. "What are they before they become Aunties?"

Re: Class discussion

[wildgalegirl]

"Aunts, just like in any other family," Charlie said. "Well, not exactly like any other. All the Gale girls have the ability to charm. We come into our power at puberty usually."

Re: Class discussion

[napking]

"In my world, witches are like you said, humans who can do magic. It tends to run in families, but not everyone in the family will have talent. Usually more women get it than men, I think."

Re: Class discussion

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Like...more a recessive gene or something?" Arden asked, because she liked biology probably.

Re: Class discussion

[napking]

Gray shrugged. "I don't know. I don't really know that much about how witches happen, or about that genetics stuff." And finding out would take effort. He was so much help.

Re: Class discussion

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

YUP. JUST LIKE. SO MUCH HELP.

Arden gave him a wry smile and shrugged. "At least we're in the same boat though," she said.

And then looked a little awkward. "So. Uh. By the way. My friend, Grimm. I don't want, like, any details, but was she...normal? At your brother? And stuff? I mean..." She was just gonna flail a little bit.

Re: Class discussion

[napking]

Another shrug. "I don't talk to Bell that much about his hookups...especially the ones with girls or girl-shaped beings." Gross. Also, Bellamy had been too far away for anything to slip inadvertently across their telepathic bond to Gray or Raiden, although Alastair in the hotel room next door might have had some notes. "I guess it was fine? Lust was definitely satisfied." The sin, not the--well, that too.

Gray couldn't tell if Arden knew or suspected something about Grimm, or was just uncomfortable with the concept of casual sex. In case it was the first one, he wasn't about to out a supernatural to someone who didn't seem to know anything about their world, so...skirting the issue it was.

Re: Class discussion

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

This class was super-dangerous, because Arden really wanted to talk about this because she personally thought Otherside witches were fascinating, but uhh, right. Not for her.

Next semester, none her classes were going to be about magic at all.

"Uhh, I guess in my world, the big black hats would give it away," she said with a shrug. "Best I got."

Re: Class discussion

[napking]

"What about the Wiccans?" Gray asked. "Do you have the Wiccans?" You don't need the 'the,' Gray.

Re: Class discussion

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"As far as I can tell, yes, but they're mostly..." She clearly considered and discarded several different descriptions before landing on the polite, "...enthusiastic practitioners of historical rituals."

Did they hand out awards for diplomacy? Because she deserved one with that answer. But like...look, she still didn't really know the people in her class and didn't really want to alienate anybody with her opinions before hitting even the sixth week of classes.

Re: Class discussion

[napking]

"They're like that in my world, too," Gray agreed. "I just figured that without real witches they'd be the closest thing?" And now he needed to go apologize to a witch, probably.