intheeyeofthebeholding: (Default)
Jonathan Sims ([personal profile] intheeyeofthebeholding) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2023-10-09 07:02 pm
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Practical Folklore, Monday 2nd period

"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?"
napking: (dubious)

Re: Class discussion

[personal profile] napking 2023-10-10 04:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"What about the Wiccans?" Gray asked. "Do you have the Wiccans?" You don't need the 'the,' Gray.
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey in Fast & Furious (Skeptical - Sure Jan)

Re: Class discussion

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2023-10-10 04:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"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.
napking: (hoodie lyfe)

Re: Class discussion

[personal profile] napking 2023-10-10 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"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.
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel (Default)

Re: Class discussion

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2023-10-10 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Right? Even though she was doing it to abide by the Detente, Arden felt the same.

"Probably," she sighed. "Okay, but what do you think is worse: being a real witch and pretending that these cottage core but make it vaguely goth is the actual representation of what you do? Or having to pretend to be that, so you can at least be a witch somewhat openly?"

Arden out here, asking the real questions.
napking: (dubious)

Re: Class discussion

[personal profile] napking 2023-10-10 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Gray thought about it. "None of the witches I've known have pretended to be Wiccans, so probably that?"
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel (Grin - Laughing)

Re: Class discussion

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2023-10-10 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"Good to know," Arden said with a laugh. "I'll put that in my notes for when I write my urban fantasy novel based on this class."