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>

Formation

Those Aware on the more 'Awake' side of the spectrum would be more easily targeted, 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>

An who is Aware has but they are not , and may be (which 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>

These greater aware 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 practioners.

There is speculation that 5-10% of people will have some minor Awareness under the right conditions.<ref name="lesAw"/> Those that get a Label and as such are listed here below have a 'major' awareness; such that it impacts their life.

Aware tend to collect items that intersect with their particular magical specialty.^{[citation needed]}

Aware to get stuck into patterns based on awareness such that their behavior is locked in and they are trapped in it.

References

Formation

See Also

References