Aware

Those termed Aware exist on an arguably broad spectrum between the false binary of 'Innocent Human' and 'Awakened Practitioner'; an Aware has had interactions with magic but is still partially or wholly ignorant of the larger supernatural world.<ref name=bc>Matthew frowned. “Like the girl you freed from confinement yesterday evening, she’s not quite innocent, but she’s not awakened either. The term is aware. It’s a fragile state, and being the person or people that shatter that fragility and drive her into this world means that she’ll be vulnerable to Others, without the benefit of Innocence, and you’ll be karmically responsible for much of what happens to her as a result.”

“What does that mean? What happens?”

Matthew answered, “The aware tend to run into Others and get entangled in Other things as they go through their daily lives. If there’s a stray spirit in their neighborhood, or a goblin in the part of town they pass through, they’ll cross paths. Because they’re more open, paths of least resistance, or because the dangerous Others can sense vulnerability. There are ways to deal with it, but it requires a lot of attention. Some families have Blackguards, the aware who are kept unawakened because it’s useful to have a liar. Witch Hunters also count.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.9</ref>

Particulars

It takes a lot to shatter innocence to make someone Aware, otherwise they explain away what happens.<ref>“Is this okay? Are we in any danger with Awareness? With the arcade?”

“Everything I’ve read says it takes a lot to shatter Awareness. Like, the Dossiers? With Clem? She got like, I dunno, twelve magic items before she really clicked to it. Even me, at the clearing, surrounded by Guilherme, Alpeana, the Choir, singing from nowhere, goblins? Back when we awoke?”

“Yeah.”

“Took me a lot of sustained pressure. So long as there’s a reasonable explanation, innocents cling to it. Or find it. And the universe helps that along. Coincidences happen to help, y’know, clear away the evidence. Karma doing its thing. Keeping the system intact.”

“Hmm,” Avery sighed. She relaxed a bit. “Feels bad, testing things.”

“Probably not the super best thing for our karma in the short term, if we’re testing things and forcing karma to pick up the slack. But… so long as we help it along, I think we’re ok. And it really should help, if we have connections. Not just between us and the innocent, or Kennet and the innocent, but… undercity and overcity, Other and human, blah blah.” - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.7</ref> Once it does happen, awareness can change over time,<ref>At [Jeannine Preston's] forehead: ‘Value 89′
Other text appears on her cracked face, but is restated later.
An eye with a three-quarter circle appears at her shoulder.
Text:’Bound by THREE vectors. Secure’
Text down her body:

Alone in this world, as she
will always be. Her Aware
ness is at 25%, and has held s
teady there for five decades

[...]

Depicted Right: Clementine in Alexander’s spirit sight. Pale, a plate on her forehead that bears the number 4. A collar reads ‘Bound-2 seals-breaking. And she has the eye at her neck, only a silver there. A halo with a seven pointed yellow star in it appears behind her head. - 7.3 Bonus Material: Borrowed Eyes Comic</ref> but even a small amount counts toward their protection from the magical world.<ref name=15z2>Ann adopted a soothing tone that had to be as comforting as sandpaper to Thea. “Dealing with Aware means risks, as much as it can give an advantage or a greater prize. One of those risks is karmic. Things go against you if you threaten someone with innocence, and that doesn’t change much if they only have a fraction of the usual amount.” - Excerpt from Playing a Part 15.z</ref>

These greater or "Complicated Aware"<ref>Let Slip 20.9</ref> may have some magical, Other traits (just not enough to render them non-human.) As with Others,<ref name="PL7.6"> My last was a pretty little Fae thing, challenged herself by working her way up in human society. For them, it’s like swimming up a waterfall, because our world isn’t for them. She made it as a patron of the arts, picking musicians and funding them. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.6 </ref> the Aware have trouble truly participating in normal human society and gaining benefits from their talents.<ref>“Their lives were in shambles. Roberto fell in love with Angie and tried to be better for her, and ended up in kid jail. A lot of the time, these weird cases will pop up where Aware will cause a ton of problems, including problems for themselves, and because they face problems when it comes to actually doing stuff… this is a whole complicated concept-”

“The Aware run into resistance if they try to climb the rungs and become a politician or make a billion dollars with their talents,” Lucy said.

“Yeahhh,” Yadira said. “So you know that much. But not even top rung stuff. Even like… if Roberto became a car salesman and he used his asshole power to become the top seller at the biggest car dealership in his city, wherever he is, that’d draw too much attention. So he becomes the top seller at a place where there’s enough other crap going on people don’t pay him a lot of attention, and he doesn’t make that much money. So a lot of Aware will find themselves in similar places on the social ladder, and in the same neighborhood in a town or whatever, and then they crash into one another. And they may not survive those crashes.” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.3</ref> Thus, operating on the fringes as they do, they'll meet other Aware who are in a similar position,<ref>“Aware are common, then?” Verona asked.

“Nah. But like I said, they find each other. It’s a small world, when you’re out on the fringes. - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.3</ref> as well as Others and practitioners.

Those Aware on the more 'Awake' side of the spectrum would be more easily targeted, relatively free of karmic backlash, but would also more easily inconvenience or kill their tormentor.<ref name="lesAw">“I’ll build on what I was just saying, I think we run into lesser Aware more than we think we do. If you’re an Other lurking enough around non-practitioners, you’ll find one in ten or one in twenty might trip you up, depending on where you go and how much you should be there. Want to go after a villain of a man or a kid who throws rocks off a bridge? Way’s mostly clear. Mostly, because some are Aware.”
[...]
“Kids and the sick?”

“No, no. Those are still innocent. Their eyes are open but there’s no guarantee they’ve seen anything or been given any nudges or powers. No, some of those people who trip you up? There’s something that makes them different. Usually it’s a little something. A kid you can’t ever seem to sneak by because he’ll pop up awake. A lady with fifty cats and a good idea what they’re communicating. And it’s almost always minor. The Aware are weak. They’re easy pickings for any pickers, directionless, and so busy trying to keep afloat they can’t do much of anything, except ruin some days or ruin some lives along the way, usually.” - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.7</ref>

There is speculation that 5-10% of the population exists on the more innocent side of the spectrum, having some minor Awareness under the right conditions.<ref name="lesAw"/> Those that get a Label and as such are listed here have a 'major' awareness; such that it impacts their life.

Aware tend to get stuck into patterns based on awareness such that their behavior is arguably 'locked in' and they are trapped in it.<ref name=15z1>“I had to capture the children,” Thea said. “They were Aware or close to it. I would have managed that Awareness, drained some power, and let them go. Bodies are inconvenient.”

“Geez,” Avery said. “Like, putting everything about capturing kids aside, hmm, how would you manage Awareness? It’s kind of relevant. I know some Aware in Winnipeg.”

“There are ways. If they’re developed into their patterns, it’s not so possible,” Thea said. - Excerpt from Playing a Part 15.z</ref> They can end up on the fringes of society where they can meet other Aware in a head-on collision,<ref>“Died?” Avery asked, surprised.

“Pretty sure. My parents were evasive about what happened to her, but from what I picked up, she wound up struggling to make it on that weird level Aware end up, just barely a part of society, and an Other got her.
[...]
Seb ran into another Aware and it ended in a four-way shootout.” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.3</ref> other possibilities exist. On a related note they'll also collect items that intersect with their particular magical specialty.<ref>“We’re- Yes, okay, listen, if it winds up being more stressful, talk to me about it.  I know Daniel can have his moods, but he’s so good at finding things of value and uncovering patterns.  You’re good at finding things too.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.a</ref>

Awakening allows an Aware to use their talents much more easily but it also removes the defenses and guardrails that their remaining Innocence has afforded to them so that blowback from their practice could well kill them.<ref>“We can revisit the subject of awakening later. Puts things in an awkward spot. You’re protected by innocence. It kind of sands off the sharp edges of a lot of stuff you’re doing. If we gave you an awakening, you’d get a lot more options, things would get more predictable, but less easy, less of the built in protection. It’s a very easy leap to go from being Aware, like you are now, to being Awake, then doing what you’re used to doing, and getting obliterated.”

“Do special talents like hers or Kevin’s carry over?” Verona asked.

“Some. Again, more predictable, but less easy. Practice flows naturally that way, you’d understand things in that department more easily, improvise in that area more freely. Like me and handling omens and other negative forces.” - Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.1</ref> Practitioners have also studied the Aware, much like how they study Others, to gain insight into magic.<ref>“I really want to study your approach.  A lot of practices have gained something by studying the Aware and the Others and how they engage with the same ideas,” Nicolette said.  “It’s why I’m taking these notes.” - Excerpt from Wild Abandon 18.a</ref>

It is entirely possible for an Aware to become an Other: Hags<ref name=":3">Night Hags were Others, sometimes Aware or Innocent, but most often Practitioners, who subsisted off of nightmares, prolonging their own life and well being. Hags of other types subsisted on different things, but they tended to be Heartless to start and became Other. As the Night Hag got stronger, it got better at crafting and magnifying nightmares, and more thoroughly destroying the victim to get a bigger meal. - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.2</ref> and Horrors<ref>The Fervid Horror will crop up here or there in pockets, primarily as an artifact of subculture and niche religion or cults. Individuals, often non-practitioners, may intentionally seek out the rituals that others would consider broken or disrupted, intentionally becoming horrors, folding space and distorting reality, while distorting themselves in mind and body at the same time. Oftentimes this may be an effort to reach out (so to speak) to their god by opening the way to that deity's realm, over a drawn out series of rituals, an effort to produce a desired physical transformation (such as weight loss or artificial beauty on the outside at the cost of becoming twisted inside), or both (drawing out angel wings by way of distorted or combining flesh).

Fervid Horrors are often very fragile and some may even die if exposed to the innocent who run against their faith or beauty, leading them to stick to shadows or hide the distorted parts of themselves, at least from those who aren't of like mind. Often have a spark of divine power and/or the ability to invoke awe. - Wildbow from Discord</ref> are just some examples.

See Also

• List of Aware
• List of Sargent Hall Tenants (Special Aware)

References

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