Expert snuggler wrote:It's something oddly absent. By now, one of the people the Inner Circle has told that there is no Santa Claus should have broken down and started slow-motion suicide by bottle.
They've had some freedom to pick people out for the reveal with being able to handle it as a qualification. And where they haven't had much freedom, they've generally been doing it with people who would not have been where they were and needing to know without being pretty tough-minded: Sharleyan, Seahamper, Irys, Nynian [!], Sandaria.
Heck, the people who've had what felt to them probably as the hardest times with it - Sardaria, Yardley - look to me like they really
wished they
couldn't believe it rather than had doubts in their head. They're not happy learning the Writ's a lie and the archangels bad humans, but they're not enough willing to swallow that these friends are demons or demon-worshippers and that's the alternative.
I'm sure if they picked people out randomly to suffer a cold Reveal, they'd have all kinds of unfortunate responses. Care has taken them a long way, and luck's been there to take up the remaining slack so far. As the Inner Circle widens, they do have a wider (pardon) circle for mutual support when it's hard to take. Maikel Staynair's quite a good listener, and he's got a friendly, open theology. They've got going for them too that they're not simply a conspiracy or a socially isolated group of coworkers: they're friends, there to help.