fandomhigh | Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period

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Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period

"So, one of the problems of fairy tales is that they are sometimes contradictory in the messages they try to teach," Cindy said, as students filed into the Danger Shop, set up to look like a vast forest with a single path winding through the middle. "Some of them try to tell you that so long as you follow the rules and work hard, everything will be okay. Others make a point of life's unfairness, where people even decent people get the short end of the stick and children die for getting dirty. While most of them stress how important it is to be kind to those you meet, no matter how lowly or common they appear to be, some show how easily kindness can be repaid by cruelty. Sure, most of those usually end with the bad guys getting their comeuppance, but most of those endings seem tacked on at the last minute. It's the suffering that gets most of the attention."

Of course, part of that could be blamed on sheer human nature and what people found most interesting to hear about, but that was a lecture for a different day.

"So, today, we're going to experiment with the arbitrary nature of fairy tales," Cindy continued, and please ignore that little grin she can't quite get rid of. "Your job is to deliver this basket--" and with the click of a button, there were a stack of picnic baskets by her feet "--through the woods to Grandmother's house. Stay on the path and don't forget--" She clicked another button and stopped biting back the grin. "--Your little red hood."

[Many thanks to

furnaceface for helping me iron out the OCD!]

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The forest itself is quite pretty, with birds singing and a river splashing somewhere ahead of you.

*Just a few yards down the path, there's a large spiderweb spun in a bush. Caught in the web is a small ant. "Help me!" it cries out to you in a small voice. A big, brown spider is busy trying to wrap it up in silk. "Go away!" says the spider. "This is my dinner!"

You can either stop and free the ant--though the spider looks like it might try to bite you a few times first--or continue on your way and let the spider eat.

*A little while later, you hear small cries of pain. Around the bend, you see a fox with its foot caught in a trap. It looks almost out of its mind with pain; if you help it, you will almost certainly get scratched and clawed? Do you free it or walk along?

*Ah, you've finally caught up to that river! There's a small footbridge that spans a river that looks rather deep, filled with rocks and water plants. You check under the bridge for trolls and don't find any, but you do see a fish with a hook in its mouth, caught by an unattended fishing pole. "Hurry, hurry!" the fish calls. "The old man will be back soon to fry me up for supper! Let me go before it's too late!"

The pole doesn't look very sturdy, so if you want to free the fish, you're going to have to wade out there and get soaked. Or you can keep walking and stay nice and dry.

Three encounters, several options. Make your choices!

As Raven followed the path, of course she freed the ant. The spider did bite her once, but she simply healed the small wound. She knew it was the spider's nature so she didn't scold it, but she wasn't about to let the poor ant suffer when it was calling to her for help.

And of course she freed the fox. She sent it calm and soothing warmth at first so it would not scratch her, then pried open the trap and freed its paw. "Let me heal you, little one," she said, taking its injury into herself before it scampered into the woods.

And of course she freed the fish, not minding that she got wet doing so. She didn't relish depriving someone of their supper, but the poor thing was suffering, and there was no way she could ignore that.

Chloe's choices were made for her before she could even think about it. This happens when one of your best friends was a werewolf and you never knew what other people you would meet -- and she didn't want to deal with angry creatures as ghosts when she could have helped them from becoming ghosts.

It was enough to make your head hurt, really.

She freed the ant from the spider web and when she got bit by the spider, she had several curses that popped out of her mouth. She'd have to go to the clinic and get that dealt with if it turned out to be a real spider.

When she saw the fox, she moved carefully towards him, talking to him in a gentle voice. She only got clawed twice before she managed to get him freed from the trap.

The fish was the hardest one. Chloe couldn't swim. Like, at all. However, she couldn't just leave him there. So, being very careful so she didn't slip and go under the water, she made her way to the bridge to help the poor little fish.

As Warren went along the path, he couldn't help but frown a little. The ant and the spider were certainly a dilemma. The ant had a voice. So it had a mind. And spiders... well, they needed to eat, too. Either he was condemning the ant to a quick death by spider, or the spider to a slow death by starvation. He took a deep breath, and then powered on. Spiders ate ants. That was the way of things. And it helped, a little, that because this was the Danger Shop, it wasn't a real ant being eaten. A little.

The fox was an easy call. Warren was more than strong enough to pry the trap open, and his healing factor meant that any claws or teeth that found his skin were of little consequence anyhow.

... But damn that fish. Did everything here talk? He was soaked to the knees by the time he got it out, and by that point he was feeling guilty for freeing the fox and the fish, but not the ant. But the old man could eat vegetables, right? And the spider couldn't, so...

Logic wasn't serving him very well today.

The ant was...problematic. Creatures that could think and speak deserved to live, but what did you do when those creatures ate each other to survive?

"Couldn't you eat something else, like an ant that doesn't talk?" Cally asked the spider. "Or...how about a sandwich?" From the basket. And it was more like a strip of deli meat and a few crumbs, but since that alone was twice the size of the spider... It wasn't quite as deliciously struggly as an ant, but it still interested the spider enough that Cally could free the insect without getting bitten.

The fox and the fish left her with fewer conundrums, especially since she could just leave the rest of the sandwich beside the fishing pole for the old man; it certainly wasn't the only goodie in the basket.

Claudia was a bit torn on the ant issue before finally shrugging. "Sorry, ant. Spiders gotta eat, too."

The fox was an easier decision, though it took Claudia a little while to find the sticks she needed to open the trap from a distance, so as not to get scratched.

As for the fish. . . . Well, old men had to eat, too, but he wasn't right there reminding Claudia of that fact. He'd just have to catch another fish later.

When they happened upon the spider and the ant, there was really no deliberation on Firekeeper or Blind Seer's part. Creatures needed to eat, and that was that. So they left the ant for the spider.

The fox, on the other hand... whoever trapped it should have come back immediately to claim it, Firekeeper reasoned as she pried the trap free. An intimidating growl from Blind Seer kept the fox from nipping at either of them.

And then the fish presented a similar dilemma. Really, humans should be more attentive to their traps. Getting wet didn't bother either wolf.

Juliet freed the ant, cooing to it as she did, and immediately regretted it. She managed not to get bitten, but the spider web was sticky against her skin.

The fox was harder to decide about. It was totally adorable, but did she really like foxes enough to free one to make a point? She loved fur! She was frozen there for several minutes, trying to decide.

Elphaba of course could not just simply choose one animal over another. She squatted down to look the spider at eye-level, and spoke.

"In such a deep forest, you choose to eat such a small, helpless creature?" she asked.

The spider looked up at her with something close to curiosity. "It is what fell into my web. I am hungry, I will eat. This is the way of the forest. Are you suggesting I should eat some other small creature?"

[I looked up spider pics for you. LOVE ME.]

"Can you not eat the multitude of leaves, the mushrooms, or even the flowers?" Elphaba said. "Something which does not cry out in fear and pain?"

"No," the spider answered immediately. "I was not formed to eat such things. I am not a bee or an ant or a worm. I am a spider and spiders ear other creatures. Perhaps in turn, I will be eaten by a bird or a lizard and thus the circle continues."

That was true, Elphaba reminded herself. A spider didn't have much choice in what it ate. "Then it would be wrong of me to steal food from you," she said. "Though I ask you do not make the poor ant suffer."

Just because it was the way of things, didn't mean she liked it.

"I will not," the spider promised and quick as lightning, struck out at the spider with its fangs. The ant went still and the spider began wrapping it more tightly in silk. "I will wait till you go to feed," it decided.

See? Polite spider!

"I wish you a good day," Elphaba said, before going along on her way.

And on her way, she got herself properly scratched and soaked as she helped both animals in danger. She wasn't about to leave them at the mercy of people.

Mercy left the ant and the spider to themselves. Circle of life and all that. The fox she saved, a well-placed little growl letting it know she was a bigger predator and it should stay still. She did wade into the water to free the fish, but left something from her basket by the fishing pole.

Squall sighed grumpily. Why couldn't people ever help themselves? Why was he always stuck having to save everyone?

So he saved the ant, his leather gloves protecting him from the spider's bites -- but he also tried to damage the web as little as possible, so the spider could catch and eat something else. Hopefully, something that wasn't sentient.

The fox's yelps bothered him, so he cast Sleep and Cura on it, but he didn't free it. It hadn't asked for help, and what did he care about some random animal?

As for the fish... well, it too had asked for help. Grumbling, Squall waded out and released it. "Next time, don't get caught," he admonished.

Okay, so the ant and the spider could both talk, so siding with the sentient one wasn't a choice here. Alex decided that it wasn't fair to deny the spider its dinner--it had as much right to eat as anyone--and went on his way.

When he reached the fox he bent down and used his powers to take its fear away so he could help it without getting bitten. He freed the fox and continued on.

The third one made him hesitate. On the one hand, the old man had to eat, too, but on the other, the old man wasn't here, and he'd just left the fish in pain. That wasn't cool. Alex waded into the river and released the fish from its hook.

Scully found it not easy to ignore the ant; but was enough of a biologist to allow a spider to eat it.

She couldn't do the same thing with the fox, hurting. She looked around for a stick to pry open the trap, and asked, "What's your name?"

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Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period

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