Editing Skeptic (section)

==Creation==
Skeptic at it's root means to doubt, this "doubt" covers a wide range of responses to stimuli. Both things in mundane reality or, relevant here, magic. Religiosity and "rationality" are not prerequisites or obstacles in the making of a skeptic they can have personal beliefs completely unrelated to factual reality.<ref>Sharon wasn’t engaging, so she switched tacks.  “What’s this conspiracy then?  Are you a flat earther?”<br><br>“No.  I believe in science and sociology.”<br><br>“Vaccines?”<br><br>“I believe in science, and the science raises questions.  I think corporations have been sketchy for as long as there have been corporations.  Being worried about what they’re putting into your body when we don’t know what happens over generations is just sensible.”<br><br>“Secret cabal controlling the world?”<br><br>“It’s not a secret, hon.  The information is out there, people just don’t want to believe it.  The same names keep popping up, and a lot of those names are the sorts who wouldn’t have gone from being scattered refugees to some of the most powerful men in the world if there wasn’t ''something'' going on.  They organized.”<br><br>“Maybe they’re good at what they do?”<br><br>“Or maybe they collaborated and gamed the system, shook hands and made deals, and schemed their way to where they control entertainment and media.”<br>[...]<br>“''Who are you!?''” Sharon raised her voice, shifting her grip on the gun.  “Tell me or start saying your prayers.”<br><br>“You’d really shoot an unarmed kid?  And prayers- you’re religious?”<br><br>“Of course, and of course.  Last chance.  Who are you?” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/10 Excerpt] from [[Back Away 5.3]]</ref>

An acclimatized or adapted Skeptic is a person whose [[Innocence]] has been tested but not broken and has emerged stronger for the experience, a analogy could be drawn to immune responses.<ref name=":2">''The Innocent enjoy protections from Others and practitioners, but Skeptics often turn these protections to weapons. There are many ways a Skeptic can come about, but these ways can include indoctrination or acclimatization. The indoctrinated skeptic may be brainwashed or otherwise augmented with doubt as a fundamental facet of who they are. Some are raised with daily lessons or a worldview and given no room for any other way of thinking, others are given drugs and reshaped, and yet others are starved, torn down to nothing, then rebuilt from the ground up.''<br><br>''The acclimatized take a gentler road. When Innocents find themselves faced with the practice or with Others, they will instinctively reach for ways to soften the blow. If there is room for doubt, they often capitalize on that room, then build on that capital. Excuses are clung to, they question their own memories or accounting of events, and may liberally revise these memories and accountings, until they return to comfortable reality. With enough repetition, they can form a comfortable bubble around themselves, where anything extraordinary is dismissed.'' - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/17 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers]</ref> They use their imagination to concoct alternative explanations for anything they encounter that's tied to practice or Others and can pull on those explanations again when they encounter similar circumstances.

Indoctrinated skeptics are 'artificially' created by things like total psychological de- then reconstruction, pharmacological intervention or simply how they've been raised or taught.<ref name=":2"/>

Other methods presumably exist.<ref name=":2"/>