Want to be a Hero?, Friday, 4th Period

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara had her class meet her in the Danger Shop this week, in front of a simulation of the preserve.

"We're going on a quest this week," she announced with very little preamble. "I'll be leading you through one end of the preserve to the other, with the aim of making it there by the end of class. If we make it in time you get cake."

Considering that just the week before, she'd had them meet outside the actual preserve, clearly there was nothing to be at all suspicious of here.

Comments

Sign In - WtbaH [01]

[wrongkindofsith]

In the woods!

Re: Sign In - WtbaH [01]

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four

Listen to Cara - WtbaH [02]

[wrongkindofsith]

Clearly this is going to be an easy class!

Re: Listen to Cara - WtbaH [02]

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeah, Cara didn't seem like the type who would shy away from taking them for a walk through the real woods in the preserve. Kathy spent most of the introduction eying the trees and figuring out how she could best use her powers in them.

Call it a hunch.

Walk through the preserve - WtbaH [02]

[wrongkindofsith]

For anyone who'd care to get their mingle on before Cara inevitably springs some kind of ambush on you.

Re: Walk through the preserve - WtbaH [02]

[livebytherules.livejournal.com]

Will figured this wasn't going to be some leisurely walk in the woods but he was going to enjoy the whole thing was it was leisurely.

Re: Walk through the preserve - WtbaH [02]

[thegc161kid.livejournal.com]

Alex expected that this wasn't going to be a simple walk through the woods, so she was keeping an eye out just in case.

Suddenly... - WtbaH [02]

[wrongkindofsith]

The class had been walking a short while when a woman burst of out of the undergrowth and flung herself at the group, sobbing. "This woman here has a problem," Cara said, after several minutes muted conversation with the woman. "Apparently a number of her friends just been captured by bandits, and she would like our help to go rescue them. Now since we're already on a very important quest, I think we should just keep going on our way, but if we were on a real quest I couldn't give you detention for disagreeing with me, I would like your opinions on how we should proceed. If you happen to disagree with your classmates, feel free to let them know."

Re: Suddenly... - WtbaH [02]

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"I think we should try to help her," Four replied. "How many bandits were there?"

Re: Suddenly... - WtbaH [02]

[tigerundercover]

"How time sensitive is our main quest?" Raven asked.

Sorry, lady, but if the world was ending by the end of class or something, your friends would be screwed, bandits or not.

Re: Suddenly... - WtbaH [02]

[not_every_mage]

"We need to rescue her friends," Anders said. Like the good video game character he was. "We can't know something terrible is happening and ignore it."

Re: Suddenly... - WtbaH [02]

[justwantedfriends]

"I think we should at least consider helping her? If it won't take too much time away from our original quest that we'd fail it." Weren't side quests a huge part of questing anyway?

And then... - WtbaH [02]

[wrongkindofsith]

After dealing (or not dealing) with the bandits in a manner that was surprisingly easy though time consuming, Cara led the class on their merry way, but all too soon, they came upon a swath of burnt trees. Several blue lights (mysteriously the exact same number as students in the class) hung near the ground, chirruping mournfully.

"So those are night wisps," Cara said. "The only ones left after someone burnt their home down. There's a safe place they can rebuild their numbers, but they're far too weak and delicate to make it there on their own, so they need help getting there. It's quite far out our way, so we might not make it to out of the preserve before the end of class if we do decide to help." The choice was theirs, cake or death.

"Also you'd need to talk to them on the way to keep their spirits up. They're sensitive."

Re: And then... - WtbaH [02]

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was already heading to one of the wisps, holding out her hands to it. "It's okay," she murmured. "We can help you find you new home."

She looked up to her classmate. "If we leave them here, they could die."

No cake was worth that.

[Leaving shortly, will pick up most pings on Monday.]

Re: And then... - WtbaH [02]

[tigerundercover]

"What do they do?" Raven asked, crouching down to get a better look at the spark things. "Other than glow and chirp, I mean."

Re: And then... - WtbaH [02]

[not_every_mage]

"I was looking forward to that cake," Anders sighed, but reached to take one of the night wisps nonetheless. "Is it safe to run holding them?"

What now... - WtbaH [02]

[wrongkindofsith]

After finishing their very chatty escort mission (or not taking it at all because they hated tiny blue fairy-creature), the class was actually making good time on getting through the preserve when they stumbled across a small child in homespun clothing standing in a clearing, clearly distressed. It took very little prompting for the child to reveal that their small flock of a half-dozen sheep had gone missing, that their family relied on the wool, milk, and meat to survive, and had no money to replace the beasts.

This time, Cara just crossed her arms, leant against the nearest tree, and raised her eyebrows. If you listened veeeery carefully, a faint baa-ing could be heard...from the tree-tops.

Re: What now... - WtbaH [02]

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy glanced up--and up and up until she spotted a bit of dirty white fleece in the green.

"How'd your sheep end up there?" she asked.

Re: What now... - WtbaH [02]

[tigerundercover]

Oh for --

"Can anyone fly? Preferably someone with super strength?"

It was easy enough to climb up to them, if not, but if Raven didn't have to shift her hands into climbing claws, she'd rather not.

You thought chipping regular nails sucked, try it with ones that you had full control over -- and thus full sensation in -- every cell of them.

Re: What now... - WtbaH [02]

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"Fish gotta swim, sheep gotta climb," Four offered with a little grin.

Re: What now... - WtbaH [02]

[not_every_mage]

Anders sighed. "Right. Someone has to be able to fly. Or at least jump really high. Or -- I wish Barry was in class. He could invent a machine that would pull the sheep down somehow."

He'd grown up with sheep. Nasty, stupid sheep. He didn't fancy climbing a tree after them, even though he knew he would.

Re: What now... - WtbaH [02]

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Surreal was being a very very good TA, standing half-a-step to the side and behind Cara, and NOT LAUGHING at the looks on the student faces as they discovered where the sheep were.

Not that she was biased, mind you, but sheep in trees was never NOT going to be funny.

Listen to Cara some more - WtbaH [02]

[wrongkindofsith]

Having finally made it though the preserve with minutes to spare (possibly now all smelling of sheep), Cara switched off the simulation, revealing a table with cake. "I suppose you're wondering about today's exercise," she said. "It's relatively easy to take up a heroic quest. Something or someone's causing a problem, so let's go and fix it. The problem is that you're very unlikely to only have one problem at a time, and it's entirely possible that while trying to fix one problem, you'll come across more, and find yourself having to choose."

"Today they were all choices between not putting yourself out, or not helping someone in need. Easy enough considering your answers about what makes a hero last week. But what would you have chosen to do if instead of cake waiting for you, it had been someone you were trying to save. Or many people. Would you have stopped to find some lost farm animals if the fate of the world hung in the balance?"

"Discuss it with each other, or enjoy your cake, or both."

Re: Listen to Cara some more - WtbaH [02]

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was only too happy to have some cake, even though she definitely had a sheep-like fragrance about her. "I...think I need more context," she said, after wolfing down half of her slice. "How long do I have before the world ends? Before the person I'm trying to save is beyond rescue? We could have pointed the sheep out to the little kid and had his family come and rescue them, but could we just have let the wisps die? Or the girl's friends stay kidnapped? Those scenarios don't have a good end, either."

[Again, any pings will likely be answered Monday.]

Talk to Cara or the TA - WtbaH [02]

[wrongkindofsith]

Who already have cake, since Cara understands the importance of bribery.

Re: Talk to Cara or the TA - WtbaH [02]

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Bribery was totally important! It kept Surreal from using her Craft to put increasing numbers of fake-sheep in fake-trees!

OOC - WtbaH [02]

[wrongkindofsith]

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