Fic: The Way Things Were… Or Are (Shaman Snippet)
The Way Things Were… Or Are (Shaman Snippet)
Cross: BBC Sherlock
Warning: Frank biological discussion of a canon abortion.
Summary:The Shifters and Shamans ‘verse is a dark world and every one has their secrets.
There were things that Emily Prentiss knew about being a Shaman that she would never tell the rest of the team. She knew they wouldn’t judge. Some of it wouldn’t surprise them. Some of the information would offer depth to profiles, but since it had never been necessary to catch an Unsub, Emily kept the information to herself.
Hotch probably knew anyways and he wasn’t sharing either.
The first background of a Shaman was their IQ. None had ever had an IQ lower than 119 and none had ever had one higher than 140. So geniuses of Reid’s caliber didn’t have a chance of developing Shaman gifts but neither did the average college dropout. Shamans had the same general intelligence level as someone with a Masters, or an MD, JD or PhD. Some geniuses had attempted to become Shamans but had failed. There was a rumor going around the Shaman world that some genius in England was leaving behind a trail of Shifter bodies in his failed attempt to achieve Shamanism. It wouldn’t work, no matter how many bodies the genius dropped, because he was too old.
That was the other unspoken truth in every Shaman’s background: they had personally killed a human at a critical time in their physical development, normally between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five years old. The stronger the will to live in the victim killed, the stronger the Shaman would be. Tradition stated that Shifters had the strongest will to live.
And thus started the quiet war between the Shifters and the Shamans.
Emily didn’t like thinking about the activation of her powers. She had agonized over her choice and had decided to have an abortion. (Biologically a parasite, Reid’s voice echoes in her head, but one with the capacity of being nothing but human.) The next morning she had faint green auras filtering through her fingertips. Emily had flipped. Immediately, her mother had recognized the shift in Emily’s supernatural status and had arranged for her to return to the States for training. Her mother had never asked who had died for Emily powers to awaken. (Who had died for Emily’s mother’s extensive Shaman powers to awaken? Emily would never ask.)
Emily still had nightmares about the layover in England on their way home, where a quiet young man with an umbrella -only a year or two older than she- had looked at her and knew that she was a new, weak Shaman and had offered to ‘schedule a rendezvous’ with a Shifter serial rapist. Her powers would have greatly increased if she had accepted. Emily never regretted declining the offer. Even as a teen, she had seen the attached strings. Sometimes, after Shaman cases or family arguments, Emily wondered if her mother had told the umbrella man to make the offer.
Historically, there had always been whispers of governing bodies arranging for strong-willed victims for the Shamans. Half of the little wars in Europe’s history could be traced to some village capturing a high ranking person as a sacrifice to their Shaman. Anthropology had found evidence that most of the Inca’s human sacrificing priests had been Shamans. Even in America, the native Indians would capture an enemy’s Shaman for their tribe’s Shaman to dispatch. If the historical record is to be believed, the Native American Shamans were the strongest. (But why kill one’s own kind when there are always Shifters or enemies available?) During WWII, Germany had preferred offering POW’s and political prisoners to their emerging Shamans. Every publically recognized Shaman in the United States had joined the military at the age of eighteen and had been in a skirmish resulting in a casualty by the age of twenty. Emily had been encouraged to join the CIA/Interpol team and had killed in the line of duty by the age of twenty-four. If the information of the method Shaman powers activated somehow leaked to the public, that would be the kill officially on her record.
Emily didn’t know how many other official first kills were lies and didn’t care to investigate. There were secrets Emily didn’t want answered. She was certain that the Shifter rapist that had been offered to her had not ‘gone to waste.’ And if her team knew that Emily preferred not to socialize with other Shamans, they would attribute it to the discrimination she faced in their midst for her weak powers.
It was a secret she would keep.
Cross: BBC Sherlock
Warning: Frank biological discussion of a canon abortion.
Summary:The Shifters and Shamans ‘verse is a dark world and every one has their secrets.
There were things that Emily Prentiss knew about being a Shaman that she would never tell the rest of the team. She knew they wouldn’t judge. Some of it wouldn’t surprise them. Some of the information would offer depth to profiles, but since it had never been necessary to catch an Unsub, Emily kept the information to herself.
Hotch probably knew anyways and he wasn’t sharing either.
The first background of a Shaman was their IQ. None had ever had an IQ lower than 119 and none had ever had one higher than 140. So geniuses of Reid’s caliber didn’t have a chance of developing Shaman gifts but neither did the average college dropout. Shamans had the same general intelligence level as someone with a Masters, or an MD, JD or PhD. Some geniuses had attempted to become Shamans but had failed. There was a rumor going around the Shaman world that some genius in England was leaving behind a trail of Shifter bodies in his failed attempt to achieve Shamanism. It wouldn’t work, no matter how many bodies the genius dropped, because he was too old.
That was the other unspoken truth in every Shaman’s background: they had personally killed a human at a critical time in their physical development, normally between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five years old. The stronger the will to live in the victim killed, the stronger the Shaman would be. Tradition stated that Shifters had the strongest will to live.
And thus started the quiet war between the Shifters and the Shamans.
Emily didn’t like thinking about the activation of her powers. She had agonized over her choice and had decided to have an abortion. (Biologically a parasite, Reid’s voice echoes in her head, but one with the capacity of being nothing but human.) The next morning she had faint green auras filtering through her fingertips. Emily had flipped. Immediately, her mother had recognized the shift in Emily’s supernatural status and had arranged for her to return to the States for training. Her mother had never asked who had died for Emily powers to awaken. (Who had died for Emily’s mother’s extensive Shaman powers to awaken? Emily would never ask.)
Emily still had nightmares about the layover in England on their way home, where a quiet young man with an umbrella -only a year or two older than she- had looked at her and knew that she was a new, weak Shaman and had offered to ‘schedule a rendezvous’ with a Shifter serial rapist. Her powers would have greatly increased if she had accepted. Emily never regretted declining the offer. Even as a teen, she had seen the attached strings. Sometimes, after Shaman cases or family arguments, Emily wondered if her mother had told the umbrella man to make the offer.
Historically, there had always been whispers of governing bodies arranging for strong-willed victims for the Shamans. Half of the little wars in Europe’s history could be traced to some village capturing a high ranking person as a sacrifice to their Shaman. Anthropology had found evidence that most of the Inca’s human sacrificing priests had been Shamans. Even in America, the native Indians would capture an enemy’s Shaman for their tribe’s Shaman to dispatch. If the historical record is to be believed, the Native American Shamans were the strongest. (But why kill one’s own kind when there are always Shifters or enemies available?) During WWII, Germany had preferred offering POW’s and political prisoners to their emerging Shamans. Every publically recognized Shaman in the United States had joined the military at the age of eighteen and had been in a skirmish resulting in a casualty by the age of twenty. Emily had been encouraged to join the CIA/Interpol team and had killed in the line of duty by the age of twenty-four. If the information of the method Shaman powers activated somehow leaked to the public, that would be the kill officially on her record.
Emily didn’t know how many other official first kills were lies and didn’t care to investigate. There were secrets Emily didn’t want answered. She was certain that the Shifter rapist that had been offered to her had not ‘gone to waste.’ And if her team knew that Emily preferred not to socialize with other Shamans, they would attribute it to the discrimination she faced in their midst for her weak powers.
It was a secret she would keep.