Fandom High School

Ever since setting foot on the island today, Karla had felt...uneasy. Her Black Widow senses were tingling, but not in a way that suggested imminent danger. More like something kept poking her in the back of the neck to make sure she was paying attention, but giving her no insight to what she should be paying attention to. It was incredibly aggravating, to say the least. But what was it? Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for Fandom. Maybe she was just antsy because Decembers were traditionally a fraught time on the island?

Who knew? Until whatever-it-was popped out of the woodwork, it wasn't Karla, much to her annoyance.

"Welcome back to class," she greeted her class. "For those of you who celebrated the holiday, I hope it was a good one for you. For those who don't, I hope you enjoyed a relaxing few days off. Today is our last class together, apart from the exam which I can tell you already isn't going to exist. This isn't the kind of class there's a test for. One day when you're figuring out what you want to do with your life, you'll either be able to use some of the things you learned in class to use or you won't. That's pretty much the best I can do for you. With that in mind, I'd like you all to look back over the classes we've had together and ask questions you might have about the whys and wherefores."

Granted, any question about why she had them do any specific thing was going to be turned around back on them ("why do you think I did?"), but she'd be willing to help them get to an answer, at least.

"Is there anything else you'd like to talk about? Like me to cover in quick detail over the next hour?" She'd had more to say on her way in, but that damn distracting feeling of something happening soon, maybe was making it hard to focus.

"Sometimes you fail."

Karla looked over her class, assembled in the Danger Shop, and slowly shook her head. "That was one of the hardest lessons I ever had to learn. Sometimes you fail, and sometimes when you succeed, the cost is so high that it wasn't worth paying in the first place. For a lot of you, this is going to be a tough lesson to learn--especially here at Fandom. No matter how bad things get here, somehow it always works out in the end. When I was a student, all of reality collapsed. I lost friends, respected teachers, my home. My boyfriend snatched me up and threw me so that I'd escape the great onrushing Nothingness. I survived, but he was taken. I had to say goodbye to some of my best friends as they watched reality unravel before their eyes and then I had to go and add their name to the list of the fallen outside of the school gates." Her voice quavered for a moment; even years later, remembering the last days of the Nothingness hurt. "In the end, it was just a handful of us living in Special Collections--and yet, from that, we managed to jumpstart reality and bring everyone back. Fandom has been invaded, attacked, and changed countless times. Those of you who have been here for awhile likely know what I mean. Those of you who are new will find out. But in the end, we always come out on top."

She smiled wistfully for a moment. "But that's not what happens in the real world. In its own way, Fandom is a happy fantasy where there are very few long-lasting consequences for even the most horrifying events. Things aren't permanent here. On the one hand, that's a kindness. We all deserve a few years where the worst things will fade away, leaving little more then scars and nightmares. On the other hand, it makes going out into the real world so much harder. You go back to places where actions have lasting consequences and the dead don't come back to us on Monday morning with a relieved smile. When you leave Fandom, you will find yourself in positions where you will lose and those losses will haunt you. Even if you can make up for them, there's no going back to the way things were, the way you can here."

Looking at them, Karla tried to meet the eyes of every individual student. "Some of you will be able to escape whatever destinies you've been given. Some of you won't be so lucky. And some of you will try to fight every step of the way and still end up exactly where you said you didn't want to be. But losing doesn't have to be the end of things. It's how you lose and what you do afterwards that matter."

She paused for a chance for people to share their feelings, if anyone was so inclined, and then murmured a command. The classroom image dissolved and the students found themselves in a large building, filled with some kind of indoor tent city. It was filthy in here and it stank; too many people in one space and not enough facilities. People were dirty and dispirited, their faces pinched with hunger and tight with fear. Here and there voices were raised in anger, loud disputes over a bottle of water, a claim to space, the virtue of someone's mother. The floors and walls were made of dirty concrete and the windows were boarded up. Over the echoing din of people, moans could be heard from the outside. "You'll all be alone when the simulation starts," she said. "It's individualized to each one of you. If you make it to the end of the class period without becoming a leader, you win. Ready? Let's begin." And with that, she vanished, as did every other student, leaving each student seemingly alone in a warehouse full of people.

[Incredibly ridiculous amounts of OCD up! Apologies, I didn't expect it to take as long as it did!]

Today, class met in the Danger Shop! So exciting, even if Karla was the only one who was excited about this. Hey, it was her first time on this side of things, forgive her. The room was mocked up to look like a version of Fandom's salle, if the salle on the island came with a craft store, a clothing outlet, and a bunch of desks in the front. No worries, kids. This was all VERY normal.

"So, Parents' Weekend is over, which means that you've all successfully survived the worst planned event of the year." Sure, there might be murder carnivals and reality erasure, but those weren't planned. At least, not by the administration. Though if Karla ever found out otherwise, she was going to demand a raise. "No matter whether you have a family or not, Parents' Weekend is usually a tough time. If you managed to have a decent weekend with--or even in spite of--your family situation, congratulations. If you're not that lucky, please know that I empathize."

She used to get visits from the High Lord of Hell and his obnoxious son. She felt your pain, y'all. And there was a whole section of class devoted to sharing your feelings, if anyone was of a mind to.

"We all have a past that has shaped us, whether its years of listening to our families and having their opinions mold our outlooks, or specific instances that changed who we were. I was nine when my parents were murdered and so much of who I became and the choices I made stemmed from that incident. In fact, that's what started me on my 'destiny', as it were. Odds had always been good that I would one day become Glacia's Territory Queen, but at that moment, I also stepped into the role of Glacia's future savior, too. In a completely political and non-religious way, just to be clear."

This class already had a candidate for 'Most Likely Unwilling Messiah.' Hell's fire, so did Kaeleer. Karla didn't need to throw her hat in that ring, thanks.

"Your pasts are a series of events that have made you who you are. Both the good and the bad alike have affected the people you've become and without them, you wouldn't be the person you are now. The problem is, even if the bad events are still bad events. You might not like who you are now, or you may not think that what you've gotten out of your past is worth all the hurt its caused, and dealing with family can bring all that right back up to the surface. Even in normal families, there are secrets and hurts and lies that can lead to their own traumas."

"So, today, we're going to let some of that out. As you can see, there are plenty of wooden practice dummies available. You're going to rifle through the moddable supplies and make your dummy resemble an element of the past. For me, I made this one." She gestured to one of the dummies that was already dressed in Edwardian-style clothing, padded on the inside to make the dummy look a little more rotund. There was a piece of paper that said 'Hobart' that was attached to the forehead. "You might wish to make ones that look like parents, ex-friends, or people in power from your own world. You might also take a slightly different approach, as this is personal and you may not want everyone in the room to know what you're carrying with you. Or you might not be comfortable with beating the stuffing out of an effigy of a real person, especially not one you're kin to. 'Deception' might be better for you, or 'poverty' or 'religion.' My fiancé might have dressed his dummy up in a lab coat and called it The Mutant Cure, or like a politician and called it The Mutant Registration Act. Those choices are just as valid as my dummy uncle. This is for you, so as long as you have some strong, personal connection with your effigy, make it whatever you want. Once you've finished setting up you dummy, grab a weapon from the walls and start working some of those frustrations out. I would suggest the bats and clubs, as the dummies will last longer, but that's up to you. And if you feel like finishing with something a little stronger?"

The Hobart-dummy shattered into a cloud of splinters and Karla grinned. The Danger Shop wasn't entirely like having her Craft back, but it was still fun.

"Do your thing. Catharsis is beautiful."

"So, I was going to save this lecture for a few weeks, but it seems that the fates have conspired on several fronts to make this topic fit very well today." And if her eyes happened to rest on one or two students in particular, she'd just say that it was solely coincidence. Really.

( The Magic of Friendship! )

"Morning," Karla said, giving her class a wan smile. It was hard to be convincing when you were on your third straight day of roiling nausea. Not throwing up, just sourceless, endless nausea. "Now that introductions are over, we can start digging into the meat of this class." Bad choice of words there, Karla.

"Destiny is an intimidating topic. Even if you're thrilled about whatever is waiting for you, it can be scary because you're talking about something that can set the tone for your whole life even if it doesn't take up your whole life. Not having a destiny can be just as scary; while you have more freedom to decide what you want, there's more uncertainty, too. Sometimes it's comforting to know what's waiting for you; even if you hate it, it gives you something to work against. Every week, we're going to spend the first part of class just talking about how you're feeling about things." She wrinkled her nose--that actually sounded way more touchy-feely than she'd intended. "I don't mean we're going to sit in a circle and hug our problems out, but sometimes it's just good to talk. Whether you're working towards your destiny, against it, or just figuring out what the Hell you want to do with yourself after high school, this is a chance for you to ask questions, get advice from myself and any other students, or just bitch that your parents are sending you college applications and you're only a sophomore."

( Cut for the teal deer )