fandomhigh | Care and Feeding of Hirelings, Period 2 [Session 3]

Today, the workshop met in the classroom again, as Hook was enjoying the learning process unaided by computer. After his cozily small class had gathered, he grinned and gestured with his hook.

"Today we talk about how to discipline those under you. It's important, one of my favorite subjects, in fact, because it's something one must use quite carefully. Too strong a punishment can irrevocably rattle the morale of those others in your employ. Too weak, and they will start to walk all over, all over, all over you. So the key is to make the punishment fit the infraction, of course. You are the law over your little helpers. Judge, jury, and executioner."

He laughed and pulled down a screen. He had an old-school overhead projector set-up, and he was going to be using it to project some information.

"My personal favorite method is not, as you'd think, walking the plank. No, I had the boo box." A smile spread across his face, way too happy about that fact. "A coffin like box with a little hatch to drop in scorpions, spiders, anything that might get a scare out of the offender. It really kept the rabble in line, I tell you." He drew a helpful illustration on the overhead as he spoke.

"Your fellow Fandom High students think forcing people to wear peg legs or leaving people stretched out under the hot sun without without are suitable punishments. Young Hank Venture believes himself a fan of keelhauling. Today we'll say you have two unruly helpers. One has done something wrong, but not on purpose. Let's say... he accidentally broke your favorite sculture. Then there's another helper, wh o was caught stealing money from your treasury or piggy bank or what have you."

"Both are deserving of punishment, and I need you to state how you'd punish them. I'm always a fan of creative and just punishments, so don't hesitate to apply a little imagination."

[ooc: ~~OCD coming!~~ Open and ready for business!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Two crimes, two different punishments? Or perhaps you think them deserving similar punishment...

Before Karla was going to be proposing anything, she needed to know the severity of the crime. "How much was the thief trying to steal?" she asked. "Did he say for what reason? And how trusted is he?"

"Let us say, for purposes of the exercise, that he was hitherto known to be a good man, but he was stealing enough that it would make a difference to you, and more than he could possibly need for any sort of starving family scenario," Hook said.

"Well, if he was trying to feed a starving family, it would probably have been a lot easier to approach my Steward with a request," Karla said. "But I just wanted to see if he offered any defense at all."

Hmm. Stealing enough to make a difference to her would be a lot. "First thing is to find out exactly what he's doing with the money--if he's got a problem with cards or ponies, that's one thing. If he's making some kind of bid for power or something, it's going to require a different punishment entirely."

"So you're saying motive plays an important role?" Hook said, intrigued. "It is not the crime itself that matters most?"

"Absolutely," Karla said. "If he's stealing because he just wants the money, that's one thing. But if he's stealing because he's trying to...bribe my people, make deals with my enemy, weaken me somehow, well, that's something entirely different."

"Then how about you propose separate punishments for those two different scenarios, hmmm?" Hook said. "Which one brings Madame Guillotine into play?"

"If he's just stealing, then he can work to repay everything he would have taken," Karla decided. "There are plenty of miserable jobs that need doing and all that hard work is good for the soul, I hear. It'll give him plenty of time to think about why he's an idiot too, while everyone else gets to watch him do the worst jobs and be thankful it's not them."

"As for the second case..." Karla paused for a moment and shook her head. "I have no time for traitors. He would die. And I would do it, because the offense is against me."

"Good," Hook said, resisting the urge to pat Karla on the head like a toddler. "Perhaps they'll have a proper queen, after all."

Hey, he'd jumped to some odd conclusions based on his radio stint and the first few classes.

If he'd tried, she might have bitten him.

"How kind," she drawled.

"Oh, child, do try to keep the sarcasm to a low level. It has a tendency to sour one's disposition entirely," Hook remarked.

Care and Feeding of Hirelings, Period 2 [Session 3]

Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!

Re: Propose Your Punishments!