Building relations within the supernatural community can only be a good thing. And I think support groups would also be a good idea, if we can train people to run them. I try to keep an eye out for people who are having problems, but I'm busy enough with Torchwood work and I can't be everywhere.
I think part of the problem of distrusting those with "monstrous" appearances is a problem of proportions. Murderers make up an extremely small part of the total population of the city, but with "monsters" (not counting Behemoths), the ratio is nearly the opposite. Reported monster attacks vastly outweigh the number of peaceful, sentient non-humanoids that come through the Rift, so people start to generalize. Fear of monsters is actually a very rational fear, especially for those among us who are not well-versed in protecting themselves; however, people need to remember that there are always exceptions to the the rule. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, most of the non-humanoids prefer to live elsewhere, so there aren't often visible reminders of these exceptions. I myself have never met any of them, only heard of mentions of them in the archives.
I think we are ready to start working on outreach to non-supernaturals, if people wanted, but as I said, we need to do it carefully. We need to build friendships slowly with them first, before telling them about the supernatural world. And the thing is, once we get a few 'normal' people on our side, it becomes easier, because they can also convince other people they know that supernaturals are not a threat. Even if they only tell one or two people, thats one or two people that we might not have been able to reach on our own. It's an exponential effect. But as I said, the key words here are slowly and carefully.
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I think part of the problem of distrusting those with "monstrous" appearances is a problem of proportions. Murderers make up an extremely small part of the total population of the city, but with "monsters" (not counting Behemoths), the ratio is nearly the opposite. Reported monster attacks vastly outweigh the number of peaceful, sentient non-humanoids that come through the Rift, so people start to generalize. Fear of monsters is actually a very rational fear, especially for those among us who are not well-versed in protecting themselves; however, people need to remember that there are always exceptions to the the rule. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, most of the non-humanoids prefer to live elsewhere, so there aren't often visible reminders of these exceptions. I myself have never met any of them, only heard of mentions of them in the archives.
I think we are ready to start working on outreach to non-supernaturals, if people wanted, but as I said, we need to do it carefully. We need to build friendships slowly with them first, before telling them about the supernatural world. And the thing is, once we get a few 'normal' people on our side, it becomes easier, because they can also convince other people they know that supernaturals are not a threat. Even if they only tell one or two people, thats one or two people that we might not have been able to reach on our own. It's an exponential effect. But as I said, the key words here are slowly and carefully.