Philosophy of Choice [Monday | Period 1]

[not_in_the_book]

"You're walking down the street," Ronan said, and around the class the Danger Shop took the appearance of a city street. "It's late-ish -- say ten o'clock. You're on your way to a club, or just leaving the theatre. Maybe you're meeting friends for coffee, or you just had dinner with your parents.

"And across the street, you hear someone shout for help. Looking over, you can see something going on in an alley across the street. What do you do?"

Ronan made a small gesture with his hand, and somewhere across the street, behind the crowds walking down the other sidewalk, a small scuffle began in the alleyway; someone screamed.

"If you're like most people," Ronan continued, "the more people who are around, the less likely that you'll help. This is called the 'bystander effect'."

The screams continued. "So," he said, raising an eyebrow at the class. "Are you going to help, or not?"

[Wait for OCD is up!]

Comments

Sign In

[not_in_the_book]

Bystander-ly!

Re: Sign In

[forhisfriends.livejournal.com]

Simon Bellamy

Re: Sign In

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

Toby Logan

Listen to the Lecture

[not_in_the_book]

Or not. But you might miss something.

Cross the Street

[not_in_the_book]

There's a man mugging another man; nothing major, but you might be able to step in and distract the assailant long enough for the victim to get away. Or if you're fight-y, he's not going to be hard to take down.

Re: Cross the Street

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

Toby studied the scene for a minute, reaching out instinctively with his telepathy to try and read the mugger- only to remember moments later that this was a simulation and the man in question didn't actually have any thoughts to read.

Still, Toby figured he could run interference long enough for the other guy to get away- he and Kenzi had pulled a similar move a few weeks ago, when they'd stumbled across a stalker after her ex-boyfriend.

Re: Cross the Street

[nothornlessrose.livejournal.com]

Cassidy managed to hold herself back to examine the situation from a tactical point of view. After that, she stayed where she was, but reached out with Craft to shove the assailant. She was hoping she could get him away from his victim so that she would be able to shield the victim.

If that didn't work from where she was, she would move closer and shove him herself.

...

While yelling.

Re: Cross the Street

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Surreal didn't even wait for the lecture to end before she was moving, running directly at the mugger, not even really stopping as she grabbed his shoulder with one hand and aimed a punch at his kidneys with the other, even as she dropped.

With her momentum, he'd hopefully go sailing over her head, and land - painfully - on his back on the pavement.

Not that she was going to let the mug-ee run away, and she snagged him by the back of the shirt. "Now then, boyos, who's going to tell me what all this is about?"

Re: Cross the Street

[myownface]

Sparkle was not going into that alleyway for love or money, screw you. That was how you got your ass killed in Toronto, okay?

He did look around to see if there was a payphone or something so he could place an anonymous call to the cops, at least. He had no love in his heart for the boys in blue, and they weren't particularly fond of him in turn, but hey, maybe he wasn't entirely the cares-about-nobody little shit that people made him out to be.

Re: Cross the Street

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy gave a yell and continued to whoop as she ran full tilt toward the mugger figuring he'd take off.

Re: Cross the Street

[richieryan.livejournal.com]

Richie had spent a little too much time with Duncan MacLeod, World's Oldest Boyscout. While his first instinct was still to keep his head down, he didn't.

"Hey!" he called out, taking a few steps towards the altercation. "You need help?"

He didn't get too close. But a lot of times, guys like this, if they knew someone was watching and things might not go their way, they stopped and ran for it.

Re: Cross the Street

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Sholeh wasn't going to run in and save the day. Sholeh was small, scrawny, and encumbered by skirts. What she was going to do was stand on the walk and call for help, making sure to actually look people in the eyes while they passed.

Debrief

[not_in_the_book]

"So," Ronan asked, "why did you help? Or not help?"

Re: Debrief

[forhisfriends.livejournal.com]

It had been an easy choice for Simon. It wasn't hard to turn invisible and interrupt what had been going on in the simulation.

"Why wouldn't I have helped? I could."

He had a hero mindset, and a superpower. There really had been no other choice.

Re: Debrief

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

These weren't really easy questions for Toby. But then, he figured that was more or less the point of the class.

The nature of his ability meant he'd always been sympathetic to other people's problems, but until he'd come to Fandom, he'd never actually been able to look beyond keeping himself one step ahead of the kinds of people who might want to hurt him to the idea of helping other people out.

As long as the cost to himself wasn't too high, of course; he wasn't quite sure he agreed with the whole idea of selfless heroics.

"Because I was there, and he looked like the kind of guy I could manage to hold off, or at least distract," Toby said finally. "If he'd been bigger, or looked like he'd put up more of a fight, I don't know if I would have done the same."

Re: Debrief

[nothornlessrose.livejournal.com]

"He was in trouble," Cassidy said after a moment. "He needed assistance and no one else seemed to be willing to step in."

Said the one who had kept herself shielded because she knew what would happen if the wrong people found out if she didn't.

Re: Debrief

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

"I dislike bullies." Really, Surreal didn't have anything else to add.

Re: Debrief

[myownface]

"Yeah, right. I'll just walk into an alleyway alone after fucking dark, without knowing if that guy has a knife or like a gun or something, knowing he's already trying to kick up shit with some other guy. Because, you know, maybe I want to get killed tonight."

Sparkle spat on the roadside and shook his head. He was starting to look like maybe he wasn't entirely certain if he was the only sane person in this class, here.

"I called the cops. They got guns, they got backup, let them deal with violent assholes who go around jumping guys in the dark."

Re: Debrief

[walkswithcoyote]

"I think I'll always try to help however I can," Mercy said.

Re: Debrief

[richieryan.livejournal.com]

Because Mac would be disappointed and give him judgmental looks and lectures.

"Because I could," Richie said with a shrug. "It sucks being the guy in trouble with nobody there to help." And he was trying to be a good person.

Re: Debrief

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"I'm not really useful in a situation like this," Sholeh said, squirming a little uncomfortably. "Running in and trying to stop something would probably have just gotten me hurt, on top of whatever else was going on. So I didn't go." She peered up at Ronan. "Was that wrong?"

Speak to the TA

[not_in_the_book]

When she pings in!

Re: Speak to the TA

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba herself would simply have set the attacker on fire. That would have gotten him to stop...

But she was there, ready to do her TA-ly duties.

Speak to Ronan

[not_in_the_book]

He's being enigmatic. Or... something.

OOC

[not_in_the_book]

I'm at work for the rest of the afternoon, and should be around this evening to catch any pings!