fandomhigh | Dealing With Other People's Trauma, Tuesday 9/2, 3rd period

Dealing With Other People's Trauma, Tuesday 9/2, 3rd period

Stark was standing at the front of the room looking serious. Serious except for the rather absurd hat that he’d woken up wearing and had been unable to rid himself of thus far.

“Welcome,” he said once everyone had arrived. “I know some of you. Not all. I’m Stark. Just Stark, though some people decided to call me James.” It was easier just to go along with that, honestly.

“I don’t usually wear this hat. It just…appeared this morning. The island does things like this, sometimes. You’ll get used to this eventually if you haven’t already done so.” Probably, anyway.

“So. We’ll do introductions in a moment. Always good to start with those especially when there are new people on the island.” He nodded to the new faces.

“But first, a small introduction to what we'll be doing here. Or what I hope we'll be doing here, in this class. The idea of it,” he said, looking around, “is to recognize that we've all had different experiences. Not all of them positive. And that can cause problems.”

Oh, the understatement of it all.

“So we're going to try to not make things worse for other people. We'll try to be kind, when we can. We'll try to learn how to be gentle with others when they need it in certain situations and at certain times.”

Stark paused then and looked around. “I don't know anyone who hasn't been hurt, hasn't been traumatized in some way. It's good to remember that. Now, having said that…i suppose the rest of you ought to introduce yourselves?”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With a hat?

Erasmus Boone

Henry of Skalitz

Arden Finch

Such as it is

Okaaaaaay, this was awkward. Was it made more or less awkward by the fact that Erasmus and Mr. Stark were wearing the same hat? Erasmus really couldn't decide.

Add Arden to the people in fierce hats! She gave Erasmus a sympathetic grin and a small wave. It was rough being the new kid.

Erasmus gave her a little smile and a wave back.

As is traditional among our people.

"If nothing else, please tell everyone your name. Maybe where you're from, or when. If you want to share more, please feel free to do so."

"Hi," Erasmus said with an awkward little wave to his classmates. "I'm Erasmus Boone, and I'm from southern Mississippi, uh, in the present. But I think my, uh, universe is really different, unless any of y'all are also from somewhere that has Fairy Law. Uh. And I'm a necromancer." Just putting that out there.

Edited 2025-09-02 16:23 (UTC)

"What's Fairy Law?" Arden asked. You know. Casually.

"Oh," Erasmus said. "So over a hundred years ago, the fae decided the humans, who, y'know, outnumber all the magical species, were messing up the world too much being in charge, so they stepped in and took over. So now you have, like, your human laws or your werewolf laws or whatever, and then over all of them is Fairy Law. You can think of it sort of like how you have state laws but they're overruled by federal law. It controls things like...issues between species, or how human technology is allowed to develop. Oaths. Oaths are a big one."

Arden winced and then said, quietly, the first time she'd ever said anything like this out loud and in public, "We call our version of that is called the Détente. Though it's for Othersiders to avoid detection from humans."

Wow is the top of this desk fascinating.

"That...really wouldn't work in my world," Erasmus said as he thought about it. Especially not for the witches and the warlocks, hoo boy. "Gaia, I can't imagine how we'd hide--I dunno, pixies, for starters."

Edited 2025-09-03 04:35 (UTC)

"Fae are pretty rare," Arden said, looking very uncomfortable to be discussing this. "Most of them didn't agree to the Détente and retreated to the Summerlands. The ones who agree to abide by the Détente are allowed to live on Earth, and generally keep their tricks and their services for Othersiders."

"I...can't imagine our fae retreating anywhere or agreeing to serve anybody besides their queen," Erasmus said slowly. "I mean, they do have their own realm they mostly live in, that part's the same, but...obviously they decided to intervene in ours."

"They answer to...I think they're called Lords of the Chambers? Or something?" Again, Fae didn't come up that often, so Arden's grasp of their politics were shaky at best. "My best guess is that they knew that with the rest of the Otherside agreeing to the Détente, there was no way they could ignore it, not without having every elf, djinn, vampire, and were after them."

The witches probably wouldn't do much, because they tended to be pretty chill, overall.

...Except for the necromancers. But, uh. Not bringing that up.

Elf was just a slightly derogatory word for fae, so that part was confusing, Arden, but he forgot about that one word later, because, "Someone got the djinn to agree to something? I--wow. I guess that would do it." Maybe. No one really knew how the djinn's power stacked up against the fae, and the impression Erasmus got was that no one, including the fae, wanted to find out. "From what I know of the djinn I can't imagine it, though." Them agreeing to anything, that was. Also because, "No one's seen one in centuries, I think."

Oh nooooo. Elves were very different from the fae. Entirely different species and neither one would appreciate getting lumped in with the other.

"Really?" Arden asked. "That's so weird. There are way more djinn around than fae where I'm from. I mean, they can travel to different planes if they wanted to, so I guess they don't have to follow the Détente if they didn't want to, but that would mean conceding Earth to the elves and they'd rather dance in a meteor shower than do that."

A pause and then she asked, you know, super casually, "What other types of Othersiders do you have? Witches? Weres? Vampires? Demons? Elementals...?"

Okay, well, 'there are way more djinn around than fae where I'm from' was absolutely terrifying, Arden, Erasmus hoped you knew that. "How--how many djinn? There aren't--I don't think anybody knows how many were made, but...not that many, I think?" Twenty-seven. There were twenty-seven djinn total in his world.

"Oh," he said in response to her question. "Gaia. Let me think. Of course we have witches--and warlocks," who were way better than witches, or at least his Pops was. But also they hadn't created the djinn, so they had that going for them as a species. "And werewolves and vampires. All kinds of shifters, really. Pixies, like I said." And one frost pixie-Pallas cat shifter hybrid, but he didn't know about that bit of madness yet. "Ogres, trolls, fauns, sirens, dwarves..." He trailed off, then added, "And necromancers, like me."

Edited 2025-09-03 15:44 (UTC)

Just wait until you found out that Arden's mom was a djinni! And that she had two more on speed dial, even if she wasn't really talking to them right now.

But no Elementals, at least not that he'd listed off. "Warlocks?" she asked. "I mean, I know sorcerers are evil witches that have started harvesting life energy from living beings, and that if witches make a pact with a djinni for soul magic become lich lords and can raise zombies or whatever..." She glanced at him quickly and then away. Look, whatever reason he'd had to make a djinn pact was his business, not hers. ""Pixies, ogres, trolls, and all those other things you mentioned, along with minor demonkin like incubi and succubi, are all just considered fae in my world." She shrugged. "Elves, djinn, and vampires are the major power players. Weres are up there because they're the most numerous, and then everybody else is just..." She shrugged. "Trying to get by, I guess."

Sign In [9/2]

Re: Sign In [9/2]

Re: Sign In [9/2]

Re: Sign In [9/2]

Listen to the "Lecture" [9/2]

Re: Listen to the "Lecture" [9/2]

Re: Listen to the "Lecture" [9/2]

Re: Listen to the "Lecture" [9/2]

Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Re: Introductions [9/2]

Talk to Stark [9/2]

OOC [9/2]