So You're a Fugitive From Justice, Tuesday, 3rd Period

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"If you're on the run, odds are that you're eventually going to end up in a fight," Zayne said. "No matter how much you try to avoid it, somebody will eventually catch up to you and your fight or flight instincts will somehow be reduced to just fight or give up."

"And when your life is on the line in a fight, there may very well come a point where you need to decide to put someone else's life on the line in response. It might be that time is desperately limited, or you're fighting too many people or people who are too strong for you to justify pulling your punches, or you just might not be too concerned about their well-being in general. End up in enough fights and eventually you'll end up in a situation where killing someone is an option. Maybe even the best, most reasonable option."

( In which the peace-loving hippie asks if you'd kill someone. )

[OOC: Obviously, this class on questioning potential lethality as opposed to directly risking one's own life is kind of a Big Topic. If your character won't or can't participate in analyzing their own potential on the subject, that's absolutely fine.]

Polar Opposites, Tuesday

[badnewsandwit.livejournal.com]

"So, I heard on the ra-di-oh that you lot had children running around the island this weekend," Alistair began. He'd spent most of the weekend in his apartment, doing... very important... adult things. Yes. "We thought that it might be relevant to start thinking about children because of it, since it's on your minds, after all."

"And children, of course, must be educated," Morrigan supplied. "Be it by their parents or selected tutors, which is why you are all here."

"But what education you get can depend strongly on where you come from," Alistair segued. "A carpenter's son is likely to learn a carpenter's trade. Nobles will get any number of tutors, whatever their fathers can pay for. And of course, there's the ever-popular 'send them to the Chantry' option."

"Of course, here, you simply choose if you send them to a 'public' or a 'private' school, or tutor them at home," Morrigan continued. "Birth, it would appear, still matters, as it determines where you can go, and if you can pursue education past a basic level."

Had Alistair developed a slight twitch? "And isn't that lovely?" he drawled. "Some of you might not even get the chance to be lectured at by priests."

"No matter where you are, apparently some people care about money, status, and parentage," Morrigan added. "Personally, I feel 'tis just one more way the Wilds are superior. You learn or you die, and no one cares who spawned thee." Unless, of course, you were Morrigan and people stayed away because your mother was possibly a DRAGON, but details.

Details? "Oh, because your mother doesn't frighten everyone into submission," Alistair retorted.

"Are you scared of my mother?" Morrigan asked, delighted. "'Tis not as if she's noble-born and can order your head chopped-off. Or do you think she shall feed you to her apostate-demons? Let me rephrase, then; no one cares who sired thee, and 'twil get you no special privilege out in the Wilds. Point of fact, I think Wilder-folk might actually enjoy eating nobles and Chantry priests, just to scare the rest of them off."

"I'm not scared of your mother, I'm saying people probably ran off when they saw you or kicked things your way because all they had to do was take a look at your nose and realized you looked exactly like the most unpleasant, gnarly old woman in the woods," Alistair clarified. Oh, Morrigan. Whatever.

Morrigan's hands instantly twitched, as she suppressed the urge to cover her nose. "What a horrid thing to say," she snapped. "I look nothing like my mother. I suppose that must be your education and breeding showing."

"Uh-huh," said Alistair flatly.

Debate public vs. private schools, people, before Alistair ends up a toad again.