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

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

Cara had her students meet her at the same spot in front of the preserve where she'd held class the first week.

"Calling yourself a hero, means that sometimes you need to be the bigger person," she said, without much preamble "Sometimes this means making alliances with people you consider enemies, or giving people who've done you wrong a second chance. Sometimes this means behaving in what most people would consider to a dangerously naive and trusting way." Sometimes these options were exactly the same thing if you asked Cara, but that was one of the many reasons why she didn't consider herself heroic.

"So today, we're going to discuss what you'd do if presented with choices and why. If you feel your classmates are being either too harsh or too forgiving, feel free to press them on it. Try not to be too rude about it." That was her job.

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Making hard choices.

Kathy Li

Scott McCall

Evan Sabahnur

Anders

Four

Will West

Raven Darkholme

Alex Mack

Who cannot believe what she's saying.

Scott was... only kind of listening today, let's be real. The werewolf thing was still really new, and tonight was a full moon, and he just couldn't focus on things like school right now.

The toughest decision Evan had really needed to make this morning was whether or not it was worth coming to class when he was still stuck as a dog.

Being Evan, the answer had really been something of a no-brainer. So here he was, ears perked forward, wondering how he was going to contribute to the class discussion when all he could really do was bark and whine.

Being a dog sucked.

You happen to be stranded far from home or allies with an enemy. Despite a lack of personal grudge, it's your sworn duty to kill them, however they point out that you have a mutual, more powerful, foe and suggest you two make an alliance instead. What do you do?

Oh god, Cara. The narration apologizes in advance for Kathy today. Also: always.

"Why is it my sword duty to kill them?" Kathy asked, barely five seconds into the scenario. "I don't kill people! Maybe as, like, a last resort in self-defense, but why would I have sword to kill someone? That denies either side agency or the chance for change!"

If Cara didn't kill her, Surreal would eat her alive. ~~not-dirty~~

Cara may have been wishing she could throw rocks at people's heads again. "Because you've sworn to follow orders," she said. "And your orders were to kill them."

"You don't have to follow orders that are morally reprehensible," Kathy argued. "That's why, 'I was just following orders' is not a recognized defense anymore. In fact, if your orders are terrible, then you have a moral obligation to disobey."

Pulling her shoulders back and refusing to be cowed she said, "Didn't we say that's what being a hero means? To do the right thing, even when it's hard?"

Even if Mord'Sith ~~brainwashing~~ training hadn't been involved, Kathy had clearly never seen what happened to people who'd thought refusing Darken Rahl's orders was a good or even survivable idea.

Besides "Simply fighting and killing an enemy is not morally reprehensible."

Ahahahaha noooo. Kathy was firmly arguing from a position of 21st century privilege.

On the other hand, if Cara brought that up, she'd probably ask what heroes were doing following a leader who literally didn't take no for an answer.

"But we're not fighting right now," Kathy pointed out. "In fact, if I were to attack this person with the intent to kill, I'd be a murderer, not a hero."

Cara was really starting to regret foregoing the class on torture.

And she'd never claimed to be a hero.

"How do you know you're not fighting them?" It's not like Richard had refrained from stabbing her before he'd decided to try talking her around. "Suggesting you stop fighting each other and fight someone else instead does require you to be fighting in the first palce."

"The scenario just said I'm stranded with an enemy and he suggests we form a temporary alliance. We don't have to be physically fighting one another to be on opposing sides of a conflict." Kathy was going to be stubborn about this. "And it's entirely possible that if I've sworn to murder everyone on that side just because someone told me to, I'm on the wrong side of this conflict."

Please don't murder her, Cara, though the narration understands why you might be tempted to.

Cara sincerely hoped Kathy was never in a life or death struggle, because she doubted she'd be long for this world if she were.

"So you'd agreed to an alliance," Cara said, because continuing this line of discussion went nowhere good. "That's all you needed to say."

Hey now. Kathy's future held lots of zombies. Totally different kind of life or death scenario there.

Kathy still had a lot of feels about the idea of being 'sword to kill' a whole group of people, but she sensed that arguing further would only inch her closer to the edge of Cara's temper. Instead she just nodded and said, "I guess I would. I wouldn't trust him, but I'd at least hear him out."

"I go for the alliance," Anders said pragmatically. "It would serve me better in the end, and if need be I can always slaughter them in their sleep once our mutual enemy is dead."

"Alliance first," Four said, "unless they also have a sworn duty to kill me. Because I'm not putting someone like that behind me and expecting to come out alive."

A former enemy turned travelling companion you dislike and distrust turns out to have killed a number of people close to you, including family members. Your immediate attempt at vengeance fails, but then you end up in a position of life and death judgement over them on an unrelated matter. The people who put you there would be pleased with, are even eager for, a guilty verdict, however you come to believe they're not. What now?

"So they're guilty of murder," Anders said thoughtfully, teasing the situation apart. "Just not the murder -- or whatever -- they're charged with right then. Is there any chance it would come back to haunt me if I kill them?"

Cara didn't know, she still wasn't entirely sure why Kahlan killed her. "Would it help your decision to know what they were charged with?"

Anders shrugged. "Certainly couldn't hurt," he said.

"Being a member of a group of people not particularly liked in that land." Which was one way of describing the Mord'Sith. "Amongst the village's specific grievances against the group is the taking of a dozen odd children over the years."

If Cara was being slightly vague, it was only because she wanted to see how deeply Anders was going to consider things, certainly not because she was picking words carefully to avoid giving away too much.

"But the person before me isn't really part of the group and didn't have anything to do with the kidnappings?" Anders checked, wanting to make sure he was following Cara correctly. "Then I won't kill him or her. Personal vengeance is one thing, but it's wrong to kill someone just because they're part of a minority. I wouldn't want to encourage the other people there in their feud in that way."

"They are a member of the group." Since he'd taken the high road, Cara almost felt bad about correcting him. "Which is enough for the villagers them responsible for the rest of the groups' actions. Justice by proxy as it were."

"As for their actual involvement in the kidnappings, they were one of the children."

"Justice by proxy." Like when all mages in a circle were punished because one mage had turned to blood magic. Anders was sparing Cara the lecture, but it was clear from his tone he didn't think much of the general idea.

More calmly, he continued, "And they almost certainly didn't choose to join the group to start with, unless they were by the side of the road with a 'kidnap me now' sign. I still have to spare them. I'll get vengeance for my family later."

Or he'd end up saving them when the family member came back from the dead and tried to get vengeance for themselves, leading to a great deal of awkwardness all around.

Cara's life was rather odd if she let herself think about it.

A person you have a history with, but are now on opposite sides of a conflict with, comes to you for help rescuing a third party. Common sense would suggest it's a blatantly obvious trap, but the third party is otherwise helpless. Do you trust them?

One of whom will insist until they're blue in the face these are all purely hypothetical scenarios.

The other may or may not be willing to call her on that.

Edited 2014-06-13 16:34 (UTC)

"The Other One" was willing to let Cara bullshit the students all she wanted, but Surreal was NOT going to lie if they came to her and asked what in Hell was going on.

...

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

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