Keeping Your Wits About You... [Monday 2nd Period 10-11] Class # 6 Danger Room!

[dr-jwilsonmd.livejournal.com]

Sometime over the hectic weekend the students had been handwavey instructed to come to the Danger Room on Monday. Set up in a sort of 'waiting room' there was a spread of classic English tea sandwiches laid out today along with the usual coffee, tea and water.

Wilson was looking a bit amused as he sat in an overstuffed chair and sipped on his coffee.

As soon as everyone had gathered into the Danger Room, Wilson stood up and walked towards an unassuming little door.

"Good morning."



"I hope everybody had a wonderful Homecoming, it seemed to be a lovely weekend and I know I had a good time saying hello to some old friends."

Crossing his arms and his ankles, he grinned at the class.

"Well, today we have a guest speaker, sort of. Actually he's going to be a guest Adversary for you all. Today's lesson is about how you handle a situation when you know you're going to lose the battle but you need to win the war. Only not with a real war or battle mind you, because that would be mean."

Reaching over for his coffee, he took a sip and then set it back down.

"One by one, you'll go through that door, sit down and engage the Adversary in a game of checkers. Now, were you to win the game of checkers, you would get a rather important bit of information without hassle. However, since that's not the object of the exercise, I'll tell you now that actually winning the game of checkers is about one million to one odds against you. So, how else can you come up with to get the information you will want from this man? Uh and let me say right here and now, I do not suggest or encourage or even condone a violent approach. This is about your wits, not the size of your fists."

Grinning at the class, Wilson reached for a clipboard.

"Okay, you'll go in as I read off your names. Oh! I almost forgot. The bit of information. The Adversary knows the essay question that makes up your Midterm. Yes, your Midterm will be one, very detailed essay question. If you get the question from him, you'll have a leg up on know what you need to study and being able to start early on the particular points you want to put in your essay to help get the best grade possible with the least amount of stress to you. So, good luck."

With that, he began to read off the list of names.

[ooc: Please wait for The OCDs are up and ready to go! Just to clarify, no violence guys just crafty witty type witting. Have fun! :D]

Comments

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dr-jwilsonmd.livejournal.com]

[ooc: The Student Tags in and then the Adversary will pick up the thread.]

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Beauty was a little uncertain about what to expect when Wilson called her name. An adversary who was unbeatable at checkers, but who had information she needed to get by either winning or outwitting? It made her a little uneasy.

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

As it should.

The man sat across from her, surveying the checker board with a sort of vague interest. "Miss Huston."

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

"Sir," Beauty replied politely, as she hadn't picked up on the hint to the man's identity that Wilson had provided in his lecture.

Since she knew already she wasn't going to win the game, she figured there was no harm in going for the direct approach. "Will you tell me the information Dr. Wilson wants me to get from you, please?"

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

Lucifer smiled politely and shook his head. "Where would be the fun in that, Miss Huston?"

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

"It would get me a good grade," Beauty pointed out. "And...then you wouldn't have to play checkers with me. Do you have to play it with each one of us? Doesn't that get dull?"

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

Lucifer shook his head, the hint of a smile on his face. Barely there afterthought of a polite look. "No. There is a subtle difference with each of you that keeps it at least amusing."

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That was an interesting kind of answer. Beauty studied the board for a moment, and then shrugged and moved one of her pieces into play. If she couldn't win anyway, and the man didn't mind playing, she might as well enjoy the game.

"If I can't get the answer by beating you at checkers, is there another game I could try? Or something I could give you in return for the answer?"

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

Lucifer chuckled. "That is a dangerous suggestion, Miss Huston.

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Beauty tilted her head at the man across from her. "I don't think suggestions are dangerous at all, sir. It's only if you actually do the thing that's being suggested. Right now we're only talking about possibilities. And this class is supposed to be about using my wits, so if I can't do that through playing checkers, I've got to find some other way to do it. And I'm pretty sure if I don't even have a chance of beating you at something as simple as checkers, I'm not going to be able to trick you into giving me the answer."

Okay, maybe using her wits would entail not making deals with mysterious adversarial types. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

"I beg to differ Miss Huston. When you offer me something for an answer, you leave it open to something you do not wish to happen. " He smiled darkly. "Not all creatures in this world would turn you down. Many would simply take what they wished and leave you with perhaps an answer. If they felt in the mood to be kindly."

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

"Except sir, that I only asked if there was something I could trade for the answer, I didn't actually offer to do so." Splitting hairs, perhaps, but Beauty had a feeling that these might be important distinctions. "And I guess it would require some trust on my part, that you'd hold up your end. But I've also got to trust that you aren't cheating at checkers, too."

She shrugged her shoulders. "For that matter, I've got to trust that you'd actually tell me the right answer if I did beat you. Unless the entire exercise is pointless because you can't be trusted, then the only way to do this successfully is by assuming that you'll play fair. Maybe not always, but right now."

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

"That is a lot of trust to be placed in a stranger, wouldn't you say?"

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Beauty narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Sometimes you don't have any choice but to trust in strangers. It could turn out badly, but it doesn't have the chance to turn out well if you don't even try."

She was pretty sure this wasn't getting her any closer to passing the exercise, which worried her a little. But there were principles that had to be defended.

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

"Then you find a way to always have the choice," Lucifer replied with a lazy sort of calm that one might find in a predator just after a meal. "A limitation of options is a sign of poor planning."

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Beauty leaned her chin on her hand for a moment, thinking over what he'd said, and then nodding slowly. "It is a choice, trusting someone. I mean, even if you say you haven't got a choice, you really do, I suppose. You could choose to give up whatever it is that you want, if trusting someone is what you have to do to get it."

She studied the face of the man across from her. "I could choose to trust you, or I could choose to give up and accept that I can't have the answer I want. Or...I could choose not to trust you, and do something that's probably stupid, like try to trick you, or beat you in the game. Knowing it won't work doesn't make it not an option, right?"

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

"But if you are forced into the option, is it truly trust?"

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Beauty didn't care for the direction the conversation was taking, and it probably showed in her body language. "You can't be forced to trust someone. You can be forced into a situation where you have to decide whether or not to trust someone, but that isn't the same. If I choose to trust you, it's because I want to, and even if it's a very intelligent choice, it's still mine."

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

"How isn't it the same?" He asked, leaning forward slightly.

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

"Because no matter what the alternative is, I can choose not to trust you," Beauty replied earnestly. "Even if...trusting you meant I'd be saved from falling from a cliff, and not trusting you meant I'd fall and die, I can still choose not to trust you. It means I'd choose to die, and maybe that's not a pleasant alternative, but not having pleasant choices doesn't mean not having them at all. Life doesn't always give you good choices, sometimes it gives you ones that you'll hate no matter which you choose, but that's just how it works."

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

"Life?" He laughed. "Choices and situations are of your own making. If they bring you to a point where you come to an end, you deserve it."

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Beauty set her lips in a thin line and glared silently for a long moment. Yes, he was probably right, but she had a blind spot when it came to certain personal experiences.

"Sometimes," she said very softly, "People make foolish choices and don't mean any harm by them. They don't pick the consequences that come with those foolish choices though, so no, sometimes, you don't deserve what happens. Not always."

Then she looked down at the checkerboard. "It's your move."

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

Lucifer pushed a piece forward. "A foolish choice deserves harsh consequences. How else would you expect to learn from them?"

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

"Do you think trying to do a kindness for someone deserves to be punished by having your life taken away from you?"

Beauty pushed her own piece another space. She was definitely not in the right mindset for playing checkers even against a mortal opponent. It was very likely she wasn't going to pass the assignment.

Re: The Challenge - Beauty Huston

[dawn-bearer.livejournal.com]

Lucifer moved again, in position to take her piece. "Death is a tricky thing, Miss Huston. Not nearly as permanent as you'd like to think."