fandomhigh | Constant Vigilance 2, Session 10. Friday November 17th, Period 4

The Doctor was sitting in the chair behind his desk, juggling apples.

As everyone entered the classroom, they'd find an apple at each of their desks. Once everyone arrived, the Doctor dimmed the lights and projected a bizzare figure with a big metal unit over its chest and tubing everywhere.

"That, ladies and gentlemen, is a Cyberman. One of the earliest models, and the first I encountered. They are not a race of robots, as inside there are bits and pieces of what was once a person. There are from the planet Mondas, a twin planet of Earth that was knocked out of its original orbit. One thing led to another, and there's more about that in the packet I have for you."

The Doctor did, in fact, start passing out a packet.

"The thing is, that as technology improved, their look altered as well. This clunky design gave way to another, and another, and then we had something more like this." The Doctor hit a button on the projector and the shape changed to a sleeker, more silver looking thing. "So, what do I have to say about the Cybermen?"

He paused and thought for a second.

"I'm not going to judge them, quite yet. At least not to you. I have a question to pose to all of you. The Cybermen were created to remove the imperfections of the Mondas race. In order to survive, they said. Furthering the species. Though now, they sort of forcibly improve all the other humanoid species they come across, as well. Assuming they don't kill you on sight. Now, there's a lot of thinking you can do on this subject, lots of moral posing, etcetera. Now I want you to do just that. Pair up, and talk about this."

He cleared his throat. "Is giving up things such as certain emotions, physical sensations, a few pounds of flesh... is that progress? Is that an acceptable cost if you'd then live effectively forever?" The Doctor smirked at the class. "Well? Would you?"

[ooc: ~~Wait for OCD~~ OCD up up and away! Go forth and talk!]

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He's being a bit vague today.

"Tried it, didn't like it. S'why I'm here."

"What, immortality?" the Doctor quirked an eyebrow.

"Eternal youth." Pippi corrected him. "Same thing right?"

"Not quite," the Doctor said. "Though very similar."

"How different?"

"Well, in your case, I'm assuming eternal youth was very youthful indeed," the Doctor said. "One experiences life differently based on exteriors, fact of the universe."

Pippi nodded agreement to the first part but looked at the Doctor as if he had eyes on stalks when he said the second.

"Huh?"

"The world treats a young girl differently than it treats a young woman or even an old woman," the Doctor said. "Life as a child, ad infinitum, does not give one the same experiences as you would as and adult."

Okay, that she gets.

"Boy you ain't kiddin."

"Speaking as a man who's had eight other faces than the one I wear now, I know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Where do you keep them?"

The Doctor pointed at his head. "They're all in here, now."

Re: Ask the Doc a Question

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"We had a thought. A question," Stark said, waving a hand in the general direction of where Cameron was still sitting.

"Yes?" the Doctor asked.

"Do you know," Stark started to ask. "Did any of them, any of the Cybermen, did anything ever go wrong so that they knew what had become of them? Did any of them ever realize that they weren't themselves anymore? Realize what they'd lost?"

"Some of the people of Mondas did realize things were going wrong," the Doctor said. "Though usually the parts that cause that doubt end up on the cybernization room floor."

He was very grim.

"Oh," Stark said quietly, trying to suppress a shudder. "But after everything was done, after they were completely turned into something other than what they were, they wouldn't just suddenly realize that they weren't themselves anymore, that they weren't even really people? Because knowing what had happened," and now he did give a little shudder, "would be horrible. Because it would be too late."

"If the process was complete, they wouldn't know better," the Doctor said. "And those I've seen, who'd only been partially processed... they all died. Some in suicidal efforts."

Stark considered that for a moment, then nodded.
"Death is better, sometimes."

"Only when it saves another," the Doctor said.

"Only then?" Stark was entirely unconvinced, but then he was Stark. "There are other times."

"When death is better than living? Hardly," the Doctor said. "What do you suppose these conditions are?"

"You think the, what did you call them, 'partially processed' people should have had to stay that way, trapped? Sometimes death is kinder. But then," Stark said, reaching up to tug a bit at the strap on his neck, "I'm Stykera. Not going to have the most conventional views of death, usually."

"What views on death do you have, then?"

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