http://bugofjustice.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] bugofjustice.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2006-02-07 06:57 am

Advanced Criminal Justice, Class 9, Period 1, 02.07.06

[OOC: This is, obviously, all about the events of last Friday. Tick only knows about Aeryn and Angel being involved due to the radio, and Alanna due to office hours. But she's not in this class. For everyone else, he's just making assumptions based on injuries, scratches, etc. So, really, the Support Team could end up completely under his radar. Ping me if you catch any continuity errors in this whole big thing. There shouldn't be any, but you never know).Class Info Post.]

The Tick was sitting at his desk when his students walked in. He was watching them all very carefully as they entered. Bruises, scrapes, bandages, arms in slings... It wasn't tough to figure out what half of his class had done last Friday. Lockheed sat on his shelf. He had the look of a snarky dragon who had been warned not to snicker at anyone today. To the students, he probably just looked disappointed.

After everyone had taken a seat, Tick stood up and began a lecture.

"First things first, the quizzes looked good. Be happ about that. Second, we do have a new police force in town. They seem well-trained. If you have information on the location of villains who have been kidnapping, assaulting, and generally scaring the bejeezus out of people, then egads, tell them! Tell our security officer! Tell me!"

"I had to get that disclaimer out of the way. Looking around the room, it's pretty clear that a lot of you spent some time on Friday engaging in vigilantism. I'm not going to say that's wrong. After all, I'm a superhero. In the Store of Euphemisms, if you go into the 'Vigilante' aisle, you'll find that 'Superhero' is the best seller and the most expensive product on the shelf. It's a shiny word. People like it. But all it does is describe someone who takes Justice into his own mighty blue hands with some style! It would be hypocritical of me to throw out a blanket statement on the Rightness or the Wrongness of hunting down villains! And yet, here we are."

"I could tell you that you have no right doing it. That you - well, most of you - are just kids, incapable of understanding what you tried to do. I could tell you that you didn't realize how much danger you were in. I could tell you that stuff, but I won't. I don't even believe any of that is true! Well, except for referring to you as 'kids,' and Angel gets a pass on that. Anyway! It's not that you didn't know, or didn't understand! The radio was talking about some mysterious 'study group' all week long, then referred to a study group again on Friday. You planned! You broke up into teams behind the two people I would pick if I were looking at an all-school superhero team! You were very smart about it!"

"You could have been smarter. See my earlier suggestions about alerting the town troopers or myself."

"We know the what, it looks like we know the who, we have a general idea of how, and obviously we know when. None of that concerns me right now since everyone is relatively okay. What concerns me is the why. Why did you do this? Why did you go out and risk your life? Why did you do that instead of alerting authority figures? Ask yourselves this. They're personal questions, so I can't ask you to share your answers with the class. If you'd like to, though, the floor is yours."

"Remember this, though. The why is the most important thing when it comes to vigilantism. The why is what separates Justice from Vengeance. If you truly did this in the name of Justice, because it was thwarting evil, because you felt deep down in your heart that it was Right, then I could probably tell you that I'm proud of you. If you did it for Vengeance, because these fiends made you angry, because you just plain wanted to kill some vampires... Well, then I hope you're able to learn something in this class."

"There is no mandatory discussion on this lecture today, but I do hope you'll be willing to share your thoughts with the class."

"This week's Metaphor of the Week is music."

"And this week's extra credit is an old favorite of mine. I think it's something we may need after the seriousness today. Bring in something whimsical for the class!"

"On Thursday, you'll receive an assignment for an essay. More info then, I'm just warning you now. And thank you for not getting yourselves nearly killed on the day of my class."

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