fandomhigh | Good Omens...And Bad: Prophecy in Theory and Practice, Lab Thirteen

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prophecy

Good Omens...And Bad: Prophecy in Theory and Practice, Lab Thirteen

As the students enter the classroom, they may notice first of all that there’s a spread of scones, muffins, danishes, cinnamon rolls, and other breakfast pastries. Accompanied, of course, by coffee, tea, hot cocoa, and cider. The second thing they may notice is that the room has been decorated with twinkling lights, sparkly paper snowflakes, and fresh evergreen garland.

Aziraphale is sitting in his chair, looking very pleased to be back.

LECTURE: “First off, let me just tell all of you how much I missed being here for your last couple of classes, and especially how sorry I am for missing the pageant. James has videotaped it, however, and I want you to know how very proud I am of you all.” He eyed Marty slightly for a moment, then continued. “Now, today is our second-to-last lab. We’re going to do some rune-casting, and then I want you to take the remainder of the period to work on your final projects, which will be due next Friday. Also, since I myself have missed a class and a lab, I’m forgiving any absences during the time I was away. However, I do expect to see you all in both classes next week.

“Now, let’s move on today’s topic: runic divination.”

Aziraphale gave a brief lecture on the subject ~~which I am too tired to write~~ and passed around handouts for the lab exercise. “Please use this material to do a casting for yourself or your lab partner.”

Handout #1 (use to create your own reading)
Handout #2 (use to generate an automatic reading)

HOMEWORK: “Please remember that at the beginning of the term, you were all told that there would be a class project required as part of your grade. This project is due next week. There will be a drop box outside my office each day where you can hand your project in, or you can bring it with you to next Friday’s lab.

“I’ll be in my office briefly after class today if anyone needs to see me, or you can catch me here after class.”

Syllabus
Class Roster
Classes Linkdrop
Lab Partner List

[ooc: I'm back, yay! *glomps on class* ~~Please wait for~~ OCD is up. Begin.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For asking questions during the lecture, or talking after class.

"Sir, you're back!" If it weren't for the fact that Nadia would feel very awkward trying to hug Aziraphale in a class room, she would totally be hugging him. She redirected the aborted movements to adjusting her shoulder brace, instead. "We missed you."

Normally, Aziraphale kept a proper distance in the classroom as well. But in this case, he was quite pleased to be almost-hugged, and he smiled brightly at Nadia.

"Yes, Miss Santos, I am. And very pleased to be back as well. I missed all of you, and I hope I won't be taking any more of those trips anytime soon. How have you been?"

"We didn't have any extra trolls. Did Dr. Wilson tell you what happened to Bel?" Did Dr. Wilson know about what happened with Bel? Good question. "Oh! And this thinger attacked on the band trip, so we gave it to Bigfoot as a thank you for saving Dave and being such a fan."

"Yes, James told me about Belthazor," Aziraphale replied. "But...er...you had an attack on the band, and a Bigfoot, and...who is Dave?"

Because that entire statement made no sense to him, no matter which way he turned it about to look at it.

"Dave is the name of our van. He broke down on the drive back to Fandom, and we split up to go find help, and our group found this little thingy that ripped up our shirts and destroyed my brace, but Zero thought it was cute and wanted to take it to a vet so we brought it back to the van, and the other group found Bigfoot, who wanted our autographs, and fixed Dave so we could keep going, so we gave the thingy to Bigfoot instead of Zero bringing it home because I didn't want it in the van."

So...apparently whatever it was that made odd things happen in Fandom was contagious.

Aziraphale shook his head, chuckling softly. "I can't decide if it's that all of the students here are just naturally the sort who attract trouble and strange happenings, or if there's some sort of force created when you all congregate, that draws these things in. Well, I do have to say that I'm pleased no one ended up in jail, at least."

"Not this time, anyway," Nadia replied cheerfully. "And, yeah, I'm not sure which it is, either, but it does tend to keep things interesting. I think maybe it's just that we all know what to look for to see the weird things, and don't assume we're hallucinating or drunk."

"And that does probably keep you out of a fair amount of trouble," Aziraphale agreed.

Although, knowing the power of mortal ability to rationalize, it was possible that their acceptance of all things strange was part of what got them continually into trouble.

"Will you be staying in town over the holiday, or do you have someplace to go?"

"I'm staying here. Walter, Pippi, Pip and I are going to do a boat trip at some point, but that's it. I don't really have anywhere to go home to, you know?"

"I rather have a tendency to think of this as home, these days." Aziraphale smiled. "James and I are staying as well. So if you find yourself at loose ends, stop by and visit with us. He's promised to do a great deal of cooking, and I assure you that there'll be enough for the entire island when he's finished."

Nadia grinned. "I'd hate to interrupt your holiday celebrations. But I might take you up on that offer."

Aziraphale couldn't resist. He didn't figure it would send Nadia into a fit of flailing to think about what adults might do in the course of 'celebrating'.

"Well, we can't very well celebrate all the time," he replied, with a little grin. "You're always welcome, my dear."

Re: Talk to the Professor

nadiathesaint - 2006-12-15 18:19 (UTC) - Expand

"You wanted to see me, Mr. Phale?" Marty asked as he approached after class.

[Reaction time will be slow for a while]

"Yes, Mr Blank, thank you."

Aziraphale waved for Marty to sit down, and looked solemnly at him. "I'd like to hear your side of what happened to Belthazor."

[ooc: No worries!]

Marty nodded and went over his visit to California in Thanksgiving; his conversation with Veronica Mars; witnessing Bel's actions over on the mainland and then the subsequent de-powering of Belthazor. ~~Summarized because I really don't want to type this out again, sorry~~.

"I know I did some questionable things with regard to not talking to anyone about what I was going to do," Marty said when his story was done. "But I couldn't let Bel's demon side come to harm another person."

Aziraphale listened closely, and then nodded once Marty had finished.

"To be completely honest, Mr Blank, it isn't the risk you took that bothers me. It's that you felt you had the right to carry out what amounts to a sort of execution. I do understand that you wanted to protect the people you felt were in danger. But Belthazor is a victim in all of this as well, and what you've done has harmed him, and put him into a frightening and vulnerable situation. And it hasn't solved the greater problem, which is the threat still posed to Belthazor and his loved ones, as well as the witches who are being targeted."

"Belthazor isn't dead," Marty said flatly. "The girl he killed is. What happened to her was an execution. Trust me when I say that I know the damn difference. Bel can sugar coat his excuses all he wants but the bottom line is he's responsible for a girl's death. If he can't control his demon side that would put more people here in danger. And if he's told you about his father being held captive, do you really think his father wants to be saved at the cost of innocent lives?"

Marty stood up from his desk and gave Phale a cold look. "Belthazor had plenty of options to take before he killed that girl. He could have taken that potion I used. He could have gone to the principal, which he didn't. He could have told his girlfriend, which again he didn't. He did nothing. Someone died. Now that we actually know what the problem is the threat can be stopped. We don't a demon who can't control himself to do that."

"Actually, Mr Blank," Aziraphale replied in a cool voice, "Belthazor did talk to someone about it. He talked to me. And we were working on finding a solution. Perhaps his father wouldn't want to be saved in that way, and perhaps it wasn't fair to the woman who was murdered. But do you know for a fact that's the way his father feels? Do you know that the witch who fell victim to Belthazor's demon would have wanted this to be the result of her death? It isn't that simple, to say that you see a wrong and you take steps to make it right. What you've done is taken it upon yourself to judge and then to punish. I know that your intentions were good, Mr Blank, and you know that I hold great stock in a person's intentions. But it doesn't mean that your actions weren't just as wrong, in their own way, as Belthazor's were."

"What I did wasn't any different than what we did to Angelus last year," Marty replied. "And for all the research we did to stop him he almost killed two more people. I did what I could with the information I had available. I'm sorry about his father and his plight but Bel had more options than you to take advantage of to fix his problem."

Aziraphale shook his head.

"It's quite different, Mr Blank. Angelus -- Liam -- had been taken over by an invading force, a demon that was controlling and suppressing its host. Belthazor was born half-demon, and now he's lost something that was intrinsic to his very being."

He sighed, and took a moment to try and see things from Marty's point of view. "I do know that you believe you did the right thing. And I suppose your conviction is something that should be respected. But I can't condone it, Mr Blank, and it disappoints me that this was the only way you could see to help Belthazor. At least, I hope it was done in an attempt to help him as much as to protect others, as misguided as it may have been."

Marty looked down at the floor in quiet anger and perhaps just a little ashamed at Phale's disappointment.

"I've had this conversation several times this week. I know I should have done more to alert the school and others of what happened but I firmly believe what I did was the right thing to do to save other lives," Marty replied. "Being human doesn't mean he's helpless. Just because he can't throw fireballs or teleport doesn't mean he can't solve the problem he still has. I think those of us who aren't human seem to be forgetting that."

"And those of you who are human seem to be forgetting that for someone born otherwise, suddenly becoming altered that drastically may very well feel a great deal like dying themselves," Aziraphale snapped in reply. "There's an awful lot of talk about tolerance and acceptance around here, but the fact is that there shouldn't have to be any tolerance or acceptance. Human -- mortal -- isn't the 'normal' to which the 'abnormal' among us need to be compared."

His eyes closed briefly, and he took a breath, realizing that he was beginning to sound a great deal like someone whose example he'd been very careful not to follow, quite a long time ago.

"Mr Blank. I am sorry that the reaction to what you did has been difficult for you. And I am also sorry that I can't say you don't deserve it. But it's done, and can't be undone. All I can hope is that we can find a way to help Belthazor's father, and do something to help Belthazor regain that part of himself that he's lost."

Marty glared at Phale and pulled out his cell phone.

"That wasn't the point I was making," Marty replied sharply. "I've have friends here who are aliens, from other worlds and God knows where else."

He held up the pictures he took on his cell phone of Bel in demon form killing the girl for Aziraphale to see.

"I don't care where they're from. This is not something to be tolerated or accepted. I'm sorry Bel's father is in danger and that Bel has lost a part of himself. Bel is still alive and has options. She doesn't."

"Can we agree that this part of him murdered someone innocent?"

"No."

Aziraphale gave Marty a stern look. "We can agree that Belthazor killed this girl. Not some 'part' of him. The entire person. You can't cut out the part of a person you don't like, who does things you don't agree with, even if those things are reprehensible. This wasn't the answer, Mr Blank. I agree that something had to be done. But it shouldn't have been this, and it shouldn't have been done by you."