What's the deal with humans in the setting?

[Anders48]

Title. I've been interested in writing a fanfic involving a Cubi of human descent showing up at SAIA (he would have died with the rest of humanity, but that would invalidated a Fae vow made to his parents so he just got yanked out of the timeline instead). The only issue is that I'm not quite sure what the other races believe about humanity in the setting.

Beings apparently consider them more scary than most types of creature, even though their stated abilities wouldn't allow them to do anything to beings that beings weren't already capable of doing to each other, so I'm not sure what this would be stemming from.

[Tapewolf]

My guess would be that the magic immunity is what makes them so scary.  Even Beings use spells a lot for self-defence (think Devin in Abel's Story) so having something that's completely immune to all your spells and enchanted stuff, that's going to be scary.  Especially if humans in Furrae also had the same "Conquer everything!  Exploit all resources!" tendency that we have.

I would not be surprised, given how the dragons in DMFA seem to operate, that some of the higher-ups had the human race eliminated because they were afraid that a magic-immune race could one day threaten their position at the top of the tree.  (Note that the Weres can also do this, and they've nearly been exterminated also)

IIRC there are rumours of surviving humans hidden away somewhere - that may or may not be true, but it's worth considering.

[Cassi-kun]

My theory is that most other Cubi, at least, would react with something along the lines of "you're obviously just shape-shifting to look human" and be annoyed if he pressed the issue too hard

[Starcat5]

My theory is that most other Cubi, at least, would react with something along the lines of "you're obviously just shape-shifting to look human" and be annoyed if he pressed the issue too hard

Cubi #2: "No no, clearly he is a Were who was never taught how to shapeshift."
Cubi #3: "Oh like you know how Were shapeshifting even works!"
*The conversation derails further from there, the Human in their midst momentarily forgotten* 

[Anders48]

My theory is that most other Cubi, at least, would react with something along the lines of "you're obviously just shape-shifting to look human" and be annoyed if he pressed the issue too hard

Well for obvious reasons the 'human' (ex human?) in question is going to be too busy being traumatized by the destruction of his entire civilization to really press much. That said, he's also too traumatized to really hide his human heritage, and his paperwork was filled out by a Fae who explicitly said he was raised by humans and that they had yanked him out of his native time and place before sending him to SAIA. So while not everyone might believe he's actually part human, at least some (I. E. Fa'lina, etc.) will have hard evidence that he is. Also he's at a school full of mind readers with a lot of time on their hands.

Cubi #2: "No no, clearly he is a Were who was never taught how to shapeshift."
Cubi #3: "Oh like you know how Were shapeshifting even works!"
*The conversation derails further from there, the Human in their midst momentarily forgotten* 

With your permission I'm thinking I might include the ancedote in the fic. But yeah, I already know that not everyone would believe he's actually part human. Where I'm drawing a blank is what sort of reaction there would be from the ones who do know he's partly human.

As a side note right now I have it so that he isn't actually from Furrae. Though the main upshot of that is just that he got to live through a really bizarre version of the Cold War before everything went to hell, with the implication that this might have been part of a Fae 'long game' that never managed to reach compilation.

PS. Is there a point where I stop having to answer verification questions to post? it's starting to get really annoying.

[Tapewolf]

PS. Is there a point where I stop having to answer verification questions to post? it's starting to get really annoying.

Looking at the configuration, I think it should ease off after 5 posts.

[Anders48]

After mulling it over a bit, I'm thinking that 'humans' (or at least people would be considered humans in another setting) still exist in some remote Were communities but only as a result of Were genetics 'skipping a generation' similar to Biggs and Wildy. Since the species categories in DMFA seem to be as much sociopolitical as biological, this means that humanity can be considered extinct (as a cultural and political entity separate from the other species) while still having some people who are stuck in human form throughout their lives. Presumably to a lot of Beings humans are still semimythical entities associated with the most isolated and remote Were clans, which is why they get the reputation they have in the comics.

For the protagonist specifically, the loose concept I had was essentially a Call-of-Cthulhu style 'investigator' who ended up in the DMFA setting by cosmic accident/nepotism. I'm not sure the original idea I was discussing at the start of the thread is the best way of accomplishing that, but I still like the idea of SAIA having to deal with someone who alternates between trying to anchor everything in his idea of the 'real world' ("With the way everyone's talking about predestination, I'm thinking 'Cubi' must be an acronym for something like 'Calvinist Union of the British Isles'. By the way, do the costumes ever come off...or...?"), Thomas Ligotti-style rambling about the inherent pointlessness/malevolence of existence, and personal anecdotes that range from 'vaguely disturbing' to 'utterly surreal insanity' ("After I'd spent a few months living on the streets, I started noticing the people who didn't have faces. But even though they didn't have faces, I could somehow tell they were watching me.")

Putting this together, I'm thinking that the overall impression might be a bit 'were who doesn't know how to shapeshift' for students who haven't really integrated into Cubi society; however, for everyone else at SAIA he would probably mainly be seen as a cautionary tale about raising Cubi without properly socializing them. Or something.

[samidare]

I can see them thinking he's a were, although I suspect magic immunity in general might make the locals of SAIA a bit jumpy.

[Anders48]

I can see them thinking he's a were, although I suspect magic immunity in general might make the locals of SAIA a bit jumpy.

Well they'd know he isn't a were anymore than Dan is a being or Mink is a mythos; he's cubi. He doesn't have magic immunity for the same reason. Sure, he thinks he's human, but he also thinks that the totality of existence is evil and out to get him; he isn't exactly right in the head. Half the time he also thinks the rest of SAIA is human, and that all the talk about creatures versus beings is actually an elaborate metaphor for sectarian differences. Humanity figures into it in the sense of being part of the protagonist's cultural identity, but not in the sense of them actually having any of the abilities of a DMFA human

Of course, the idea of a large community of humans persisting in that fairy-tale realm known only as Harry S Truman's America might be pretty concerning in and of itself, but that's less of a hypothetical Cubi attitudes towards humans deal than a hypothetical Cubi attitudes towards parallel universes deal, which might be better suited for a different thread. For what it's worth, I only think a Cubi would get really worried if they basically decide that he's wrong about the faceless people but right about the nuclear arsenal. Otherwise they'd come to the conclusion that his home community is too consumed with its own issues to be a big threat to Furrae.

[ProfesseurRenard]

Of course, the idea of a large community of humans persisting in that fairy-tale realm known only as Harry S Truman's America might be pretty concerning in and of itself, but that's less of a hypothetical Cubi attitudes towards humans deal than a hypothetical Cubi attitudes towards humans deal, which might be better suited for a different thread.

Your "hypothetical 'Cubi attitudes vs hypothetical 'Cubi attitudes" dichotomy has me a bit confused here.

[Anders48]

Your "hypothetical 'Cubi attitudes vs hypothetical 'Cubi attitudes" dichotomy has me a bit confused here.

Typo. I meant to write that it had more to due with hypothetical cubi attitudes toward/knowledge of parallel universes, which seemed more like a question for the Project Future forums. Presumably if you went back far enough there's at least one cubi who thought fleeing to that specific parallel universe was a good idea, but that obviously isn't indicative of mainstream society.

[ProfesseurRenard]

Your "hypothetical 'Cubi attitudes vs hypothetical 'Cubi attitudes" dichotomy has me a bit confused here.

Typo. I meant to write that it had more to due with hypothetical cubi attitudes toward/knowledge of parallel universes, which seemed more like a question for the Project Future forums. Presumably if you went back far enough there's at least one cubi who thought fleeing to that specific parallel universe was a good idea, but that obviously isn't indicative of mainstream society.

Thanks for clearing that up.