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

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]

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"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."

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?"

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

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."

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

"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."

"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."

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."

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

"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.

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."

"I wasn't talking about death. There are other ways to steal a person's life."

She moved again, frowning at the board, and finally remembering that there was supposed to be a point to this exercise. "What do I have to do, to get you to tell me the answer?" she asked softly.

Lucifer's face never softened, never looked as if he might pity her. It was not in him to act in such a way.

"Learn."

Not the answer she was expecting, and Beauty's hand hovered over one of the checkers as she looked up.

Then she bit her lip, and nodded. "Teach me."

He shook his head. "It can not be taught as you wish it, Miss Huston. It can only be learned through those 'punishments' as you put them."

Ah. Beauty had been kind of afraid of that. Still, it wasn't really a surprise, was it? It was something she should have known already, and she was a little ashamed of herself.

"Yes sir, that makes sense. I will try, although I'm a little too stubborn sometimes."

"Stubbornness can be used to your advantage, Miss Huston. All you need do is focus on the correct target."

Beauty quirked the corner of her mouth in a little smile. "Like getting the answer to Dr. Wilson's assignment?"

Lucifer nodded in agreement. "A question. How would you survive an invasion, trapped alone within the dorms?"

Beauty furrowed her brow. "Is that a question from you for me to answer, or is that the information I'm supposed to get from you for the assignment?"

At this stage, she wasn't prepared to make any assumptions.

At least she was learning. That was what Lucifer had hoped for.

"A hint for your exam, I believe."

Beauty nodded then, and smiled a little. "Do you want to finish the game?"

"We already have, Miss Huston."

Beauty flushed a little, and nodded, smiling sheepishly. "Of course. Then I'll be on my way, so you can play with the next unwitting victim."

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

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