...Wait. That's a joke, apparently. But he'd still rather make sure the situation is clear.]
Okay, I get you're joking, but to make sure we're all clear: No, Chip is not a werewolf, it is just me. And, yes, that's why my teeth don't fit in my mouth right.
You are not at all wrong. It feels a little silly to tell someone in a position like yours about how much scrutiny I've gotten used to being put under, but, I'm sure you can imagine. Kind of changes even things like childhood scuffles when the other kid's parents' first thought is to demand to know if you might have BITTEN their kid and given them an incurable disease. So, I just try to avoid conflicts where I can.
The key point is that most curses don't self-modify. Nobody has made any intentional changes to the structure of lycanthropy in centuries as far as I know, but its effects have continued to drift; some have suggested that the fact that it's become complex enough to mutate on its own means that it's closer to a magic-based virus than to any other known curse. I'll grant that there's some merit to that line of thought, but, even if it's drifting, it's still structured like a curse.
Besides which, I could personally do without that particular shift in public perception. You're right that "curse" is a more loaded word in a lot of ways, but calling it a disease just means the people who would be avoiding us, or MAYBE trying to break that curse, will instead pretend to be sympathetic while insisting on trying to "cure" us. The only change that classification has brought about so far is a thin veneer of good intentions.
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Date: 2021-01-01 10:11 pm (UTC)...Wait. That's a joke, apparently. But he'd still rather make sure the situation is clear.]
Okay, I get you're joking, but to make sure we're all clear: No, Chip is not a werewolf, it is just me. And, yes, that's why my teeth don't fit in my mouth right.
You are not at all wrong. It feels a little silly to tell someone in a position like yours about how much scrutiny I've gotten used to being put under, but, I'm sure you can imagine. Kind of changes even things like childhood scuffles when the other kid's parents' first thought is to demand to know if you might have BITTEN their kid and given them an incurable disease. So, I just try to avoid conflicts where I can.
The key point is that most curses don't self-modify. Nobody has made any intentional changes to the structure of lycanthropy in centuries as far as I know, but its effects have continued to drift; some have suggested that the fact that it's become complex enough to mutate on its own means that it's closer to a magic-based virus than to any other known curse. I'll grant that there's some merit to that line of thought, but, even if it's drifting, it's still structured like a curse.
Besides which, I could personally do without that particular shift in public perception. You're right that "curse" is a more loaded word in a lot of ways, but calling it a disease just means the people who would be avoiding us, or MAYBE trying to break that curse, will instead pretend to be sympathetic while insisting on trying to "cure" us. The only change that classification has brought about so far is a thin veneer of good intentions.