fandomhigh | Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 3, Thursday, 1-20

Today, class was meeting in the Danger Shop, which was only because Alex's students might want to speak with individuals themselves. ~~and so I can play with NPC icons~~

"Last night was a busy one, in your country," she said, once everyone had filed in to a replica of their usual classroom. "You asked the patrol guards to keep their eyes open for any suspicious or questionable activity, and they found a fair amount. The official tally is on the blackboard."

The tally, on the blackboard, was in no particular order and read as follows:

• Two men engaged in a barfight; both were injured, one seriously.
• An alleged would-be burglar entered the home of a resident. The resident fired a gun at the presumed burglar. The presumed burglar is in critical condition.
• A homeless man stole several food items, at gunpoint, from a grocery store.
• A woman discovered her husband in bed with another woman, and stabbed him.
• A CEO hired an assassin to kill the CEO of the company's chief competitor; the hitman succeeded.
• Two adult siblings engaged in what both claim was consensual sex.
• A woman has been printing and mailing out a newsletter which insults you and spreads lies about your regime.
• A man gave a prostitute money in exchange for sexual favors.

"The patrol guards placed these people in separate cells. This is where the real fun starts. None of what happened last night was, technically speaking, illegal. We haven't instituted a formal rule of law yet. That doesn't mean we can't punish any or all of those people, if we see fit to do so, but it does remind us that we might want to put together some laws, and announce them to the populace at large. The populace won't automatically follow all of your rules, but it's nice for them to at least know what's against the law, and what punishment is assigned each crime.

"Leaving aside the issue of retroactive legality -- this is a thought experiment, so we can do that easily enough -- which of these people broke the law last night? What mitigating circumstances do we want to take into effect, when issuing punishment? And what exactly are we going to punish our citizens with? Death? Exile? Imprisonment?"

Alex nodded to the doorway on the side of the room. "We can summon anyone you like, for you to speak with, in case you'd like to get a clearer view of the facts of these cases. Next week, we're going to talk big picture, putting down rules and coming up with guidelines, instituting a police presence and determining the fate of criminals. This week? We're going to handle just these cases. Who broke the law, what law should we have in place to guard against that behavior, and what punishment should the guilty receive?"

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"I would like to speak to the person who has been spreading lies about me, please," Medusalith requested.

The woman who entered the room was glaring before she even sat down. She gave the chair nearest to Medusalith a disgusted look.

"I'd rather stand," she said, chin held high. "Or are more of your goons going to beat me if I don't sit down?"

No one had beaten her. She had, in fact, forcibly been placed into handcuffs, but there weren't any bruises, despite her best efforts to resist hard enough to create them.

Medusalith opted not to comment on the lack of visible bruises or abrasions. Yet. "Will you please tell me which of my guards beat you, that I may punish them properly? That was inappropriate. Do you require medical care?"

"The tall one," the woman said. "He called me a bitch and hit me with his nightstick. I wanted to take pictures but they confiscated my camera. I don't want any of your medical attention. You'd probably have the doctors poison me."

Clearly, this woman was going to be friendly and civil about this.

Well, Medusalith certainly couldn't argue that the woman was a bitch... "Your camera will be returned to you." You know, after it had been searched. "And I am not in the habit of poisoning people. Where were you hit?" If it had been the head, that might explain a few things...

"Across the back," the woman said. "And my stomach. They were trying not to leave marks. The swelling's gone down, now, so you can hardly see it."

Which was totally not backpedaling. At all.

"Are your fascist thugs going to attack anyone who prints information that isn't government-sponsored propaganda?" she asked.

"Fascinating," Medusalith said. "I didn't know that you could hit someone with a club so as not to leave marks. And I'd be curious as to know how you know what my guards' motivations were."

She paused to make a note before looking up and saying, "Certainly not, but we are trying to build a government of stability and prosperity, and if someone is trying to destroy that by telling lies about the government, we have to look into that and try to determine why they are so unhappy. So." She leaned forward. "Why are you so unhappy?"

"I'm not lying," the woman said, eyes narrowing. "I don't like you. We don't even know you. You swooped in here and just took over when you don't know the first thing about us. You've set up your cronies in a sorry excuse for a puppet government and the true people of this country don't want or need you here."

"Would you prefer to go back to how things were before?" Medusalith asked, genuinely curious. "It is my understanding that the situation was...not good."

The woman did, at least, look somewhat chastened at that.

"It was bad," she agreed. "But some of us were working on it. We were trying to make things better. We could have handled things ourselves, without needing outsiders to come in and make decisions for us. Maybe it would have taken longer, but we'd be free."

"And you feel that you are not free now?" Medusalith asked. "Leaving aside that, at this very moment in time, you personally are being detained. All I have done is try to help this nation."

"No, you haven't," the woman said, her voice more plaintive than angry. "You don't know the first thing about us. I don't feel free. This isn't our country any more. It's yours. And you're going to do whatever the hell you want with it, and I don't like it. I don't like the way your guards patrol the streets. They might be keeping the peace, but it feels like we're in some kind of fascist dystopia. Like the thought police will be coming next."

"You know an awful lot about me and my plans for someone who's never met or spoken to me before today," Medusalith said, carefully neutral. Even her hair wasn't moving.

"I have my opinions," the woman said, firmly, "based on my observations. I have a right to both."

"You are entitled to your opinions, certainly. You are not entitled to spread dissent and foment rebellion when that is exactly what I am trying to help this nation out of," she said. "Additionally, I am entitled to my opinion, which is that this nation needs help and I am trying to help it. I have previously been unfamiliar with the concept of including others in governance; I am learning to be otherwise. I ask for patience. I regret that you have none."

"By 'patience' do you mean censorship?" the woman asked bitterly.

Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 3, Thursday, 1-20

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