fandomhigh | Being a Proper Sea Dog, Friday, Period 3 [Session 3]

Today's class again met in the Danger Shop, and again Hook had programmed a three masted vessel for the activity of the day.

"There we are, there we are. Everyone here and ready?" Hook said, after the class had gathered. "Jolly good job with the rope work last week. Jolly good. You all got up and went straight into things, and for that I applaud you, at least figuratively."

He paced back and forth on the deck a bit, as he spoke.

"As for today, the activity on the syllabus is an exercise in following orders. Which is simple. On the sea, there are instances where you'll have to put your own mind aside and follow orders so that you and the rest of the crew survive. Originally I had something rather harsh planned for today, but given recent events I've decided that would be bad form. Instead, I'm going to test your limits."

He opened a large chest on the deck of the ship, which contained several frilly pink dresses (including one frog-sized). He also gestured to a barrel which was full of dead, whole fish (and one sardine).

"Everyone is to pull on a dress, grab a fish, and slap another student across the face with it. Not hard, mind you, I don't want any permanent damage. A slap, not a wallop. If you find that too difficult, I can provide other orders, if you really feel you can't follow them."

He snapped his fingers. "Chop chop, get to it. This is an object lesson. Don't object to it unless you're ready to present a very good case for why you should mutiny."

And perhaps that was part of the object lesson as well.

[ooc: ~~OCD first, plz.~~ Up and ready to go!]

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"Allow to rephrase then," Rilla replied. "I will not beat anyone with an imaginary fish, either."

Having suffered that humiliation once in her life already, she wasn't at all anxious to relive it. "And I shan't be putting on an imaginary dress that might disappear at any moment."

"No one is asking anyone to disrobe before putting on the dresses," Hook pointed out. "And what, may I ask, is the problem with lightly slapping a student with a fish?"

He wanted reasons, really. He was looking forward to objections, but he needed to hear why.

"Because it's needlessly humiliating," Rilla replied, "as well as providing punishment when no transgression has occurred. All it proves is that you are capricious and cruel, which we have probably already noted."

She wrinkled her nose. "And wearing one dress atop another is silly. I already have one on that is quite serviceable."

"Is it cruel of me to ask, or is it cruel of your fellow students to willingly agree to such a demand?" Hook asked. "I tell you this, I get no joy out of making you children uncomfortable, no. I'm conducting, as you'd say, a psychological experiment my dear Rilla."

"It's cruel for both," Rilla decided, disagreeing quite strongly that Hook was getting no pleasure from this exercise but for once wise enough to hold her tongue. "And I don't remember agreeing to be experimented upon when I signed up for classes."

"Oh, quite right you are, Miss Blythe," Hook said. "You didn't agree to that at all. But if I were to phrase it as I was testing to see which students would blindly listen to what a teacher would ask, and to see those who would object, would you not say that as a teacher, I am allowed to test the students?"

"With fish," Rilla said dubiously.

"You're focusing too much on the fish," Hook said, shaking his head a bit. "The test is about the ridiculousness of the orders."

"I've found a great any things on this island to be ridiculous," Rilla admitted.

"I've found a great many things on this island to be ridiculous," Rilla admitted.

"And what have you done about it?" Hook asked, curious. "Do you only speak out against pirates?"

"There's generally no one directly in charge of the ridiculousness," Rilla replied, "like cockroaches the size of my hat, or things raining from the sky or giant stinky bogs..."

Hook sighed. "I'll forgive this because you're young," he said. After all, she was probably barely older than Pan was, back in the day. "But you're quite blind to the point of all this, at least the ridiculousness you so wish to decry. Miss Blythe, the point of ridiculous orders is to see who is smart enough to know that they are ridiculous. While your manner is far from eloquent, far from eloquent indeed, I think I glimpse what could be a potential fire in your proverbial belly. I did not want you all to slap each other with fish. It'd be if I ordered you all to decide one student to fail the class, but everyone else would receive A grades. If you all went through with it, choosing your sacrificial goat as it were, that would not be what I wanted."

"Then why would you ask it of us?" Rilla replied, frowning.

"To see who has the moral standing to say no," Hook said, simply. "And who thinks it's better to just follow the order."

It was as simple as that, really

Rilla didn't really understand at all, but she nodded sagely nonetheless. "Very interesting."

Being a Proper Sea Dog, Friday, Period 3 [Session 3]

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