fandomhigh | Constant Vigilance #3: Friday the 28th, Morning. A Classroom.

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vigilance

Constant Vigilance #3: Friday the 28th, Morning. A Classroom.

Circle of chairs and the wooden desk, as usual. The holo-projector remains on the desk, in all it's strangely cobbled together glory. Once everyone has taken their seats, the Doctor clears his throat.

"We'll start with a bit of a fun activity, what I asked you to prepare for. Going around the room, give me your historical event, and I'll give you the details of how I was involved, as I most likely was, on some level. There's some oranges in it for people who are particularly clever, so I hope you properly thought this out. Let's begin, shall we?"

After the activity, the Doctor was standing and fiddling with the holoprojector controls.

"This week, we go to the opposite spectrum from last week. Plants are a thing of nature, now we go to what intelligent life creates. Machines, specifically robots, cyborgs, and the dreaded Artificial intelligence. Things that only people could have inflicted on the universe." He hit a button, and the holoprojector produced a projection of a large metallic being. Shaped vaguely like a pepperpot, with an egg whisk and plunger attached. Looking rather like this. Sure, it didn't look that intimidating, but the Doctor looked very grave when he eyed the hologram.

"I'm not a religious man, but I pray to every god in the universe that you never have to face one of these. I thought they'd been eradicated from the universe, but they proved too bitter and hateful to go away so easily. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a Dalek. Anagram of Kaled, the race that they were before they turned into--" The doctor hit a button, and the head of the Dalek casing opened to reveal the mutated thing inside. "That. Now, this is what the Kaled race would have become, after centuries upon centuries of nuclear warfare had taken its toll on their planet of Skaro. But the whole process was accelerated by a madman named Davros. He created the Dalek casing in his own image, to house his vision of the future. Ruthless, inhuman, things of pure hate. But enough of the history lesson. You want to know what to do when you meet one, don't you?" The Doctor stepped around the desk with a pointer, and instantly directed everyone's attention to the eyestalk. "If you're lucky, you might catch it off guard with a shot to the eyestalk. If you're lucky. But that won't kill it, oh no. You'll blind it, turning it into a spinning shooting whirlwind of chaos. No, your best bet with a Dalek is three simple letters. Run."

The Doctor pointed at the whisk like arm. "This is its main weapon. Multiple types of fire, from the standard extermination ray which will scramble your innards to jelly in a split second, to simple blasts of electricity to shock you to death. The other arm should not be disregarded, simply because it looks like all in can do is unclog a toilet. There is enough strength and manipulation in that suction cup to suffocate and break your face in mere seconds. Now, of course, when I talked about shooting it, I was referring to your standard, run of the mill, isn't this quaint projectile fire of this modern age. If you happen to be from a time with concentrated energy weapons, you might fare better. Again, aim for the eyepiece or the grille. Taking out the creature inside should be your real goal. But again, your best bet with a Dalek is flight. Run as fast as you can, get away, flee. They'll kill you, or worse. There's no negotiating with a Dalek. It hates all inferior beings, and to it's muddled mutant mind, it's superior to everything." He paused. "Any questions on the Dalek?"

After answering any questions the class had, the Doctor pushed a button and the hologram shimmered into a more humanoid looking thing. Tall and hulking, pale silver feature, and a head that seemed equipped with its own handlebars. Rather like this.

"That is a Cyberman. Simple name for a simple brain. Again, these aren't pure robots. You'll find that inside all that, there's pieces of a person inside. ~~They're more machine now, than man. Twisted and evil.~~" He pulled out the pointer and gestured. "The Cyberman operates on one simple principle, make the world a better place. Sounds good, right? Well, consider their vision of a better place. Their perfect world is one without free will, without individuality, without life and beauty. They think they're the next step in intelligent evolution, so they make sure to turn everyone they can into one of them, willingly or not. They operate entirely on logic, so they are utterly predictable. This is your chief weapon against them, being able to think creatively. Bullets are usually useless, higher powered weapons can be useful, however. If you luck out and it doesn't shoot you on sight, grind a bit of gold into it's respirator plate, that's this bit here." He pointed. "The one flaw in their design, that somehow hasn't been fixed yet. The gold dust clogs their system, causes them to suffocate and shut down." The Doctor then began pointing at various bits of the Cyberman, indicating how exactly it can hurt you. "Intense strength allows it to crush flesh and bone with its hands, and it can punch through even the thickest metals if it needs to. Some are equipped with killing beams in the forehead, right there, but most carry various high energy rifles to do their ranged killing. Note that their weapons are usually strong enough to kill them, so disarming one and turning its gun on it... that might just work. With Cybermen, again, you don't want to rely on brute force. Outwit them, set traps, or best of all, run like hell. Face a Cyberman only if it is endangering the lives of others, and in that case, stop them at all costs."

He shut off the projector and set down the pointer. "Any questions about the Cybermen?"

After answering any questions the class had on that subject, he smiled. "Now I want you to pair up and discuss what you think is proper ethics when creating and dealing with robots and artificial intelligences. Talk about Cybermen and Daleks, if you like. There's a packet of other types of robots, cyborgs, and etcetera. Feel free to grab one and discuss those, too. Group yourselves, this week if there's an odd person out, form a trio or come and talk with me. Assignment for next week is very simple. Bring back the name of a creature you want to know more about. I'll personally respond to each of those. Not during class time, but I'll write up some info for everyone. Got it? Good. Now go and have a little fun with your partners, eh?"

[ooc: Up early as I might end up sleeping in tommorow. ~~Wait for OCD.~~ Up and ready to go!]

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Cedric looks through the packets and starts comparing Cybermen to Dementors in his head.

"Why do I feel like the only non-evil alien in the world?" Isabel asked. "Aren't there any nice fluffy bunny types out there?"

"Of course," Cedric says. "Evil just seems to get more attention paid to it, unfortunately."

"True. All that desstruction and mayhem they spread, it's really just a ploy for attention." Shaking her head Isabel looked through the packets. "God, even the abominable snowman is an alien?"

"It would appear so," Cedric says, tapping his finger on his desk. "Alien or not, still frightening."

"They are. But these things?" She pointed at the picture of the Movellans. "The only thing they might inspire fear in is someone having a bad Seventies flashback." Isabel pushed the packet aside, still shuddering at the tackiness. "Have you seen Jack by the way."

"I don't know," Cedric says, smiling at the picture. "I think it's kind of nice."

"And no, I haven't seen Jack lately," he says. "It's been one of those weeks."

"Remember, I'm still fixing you up for Halloween," Isabel grinned wickedly. "Dreadlocks are always an option."

"Oddly? I get that. I haven't seen Greg since Monday," she said. "The radio said he was sick so I stopped by to check on him last night. And for once the radio had it right. He is pretty sick."

His smile falters at at that. "Really sick? Has he gone to the clinic?"

"Not that I know of. Sam was sitting with him last night. She said he'd taken some tylenol. It's probably just a summer flu," she touched Cedric's wrist. "I'm sure he'll be fine in a few days. We'll just have to look after him until he is."

"Right right," he says, scratching the back of his neck. "I should go to see him tonight. And Sam? Is she all right?"

"She's fine," Isabel assured him. "Jack was sleeping the whole time I was there so she and I got to have a nice ~~still to be completed~~ talk."

"All right," he says, looking away and then trying to laugh it off. "I'll bore him out of his illness with stories from back home."

"You'd better. He needs to be healthy before it's time for our trip," she pointed out. "And you have to tell me stories about Hogwarts. I'd like to hear."

"I promise to tell you about Hogwarts," he says. "Though, we had no robots so it might be unexciting."

Isabel thought back to some of the details Xander had mentioned from his Willow's letters. "But don't you have friendly ghosts? And odd creatures? Robots are boring."

"We do have ghosts," Cedric says. "Nearly Headless Nick was always fun to scare the new students with."

"Nearly Headless Nick?"

"Nicknamed that for exactly the reason it sounds like," Cedric says. "He had a head but it was just attached by the barest of...essentials for lack of a better word."

"It gives a new meaning to the term hanging on by a thread doesn't it?" Isabel snickered. "What about monsters? Anything scarier then the Kandyman here?"

He thinks for a moment before saying, "I had to fight a dragon during the first TriWizard task."

"You did?" she asked, impressed. "I'm thinking he wasn't made of Jello."

"No, he was quite the real dragon," Cedric says and laughs. "Nothing robotic about him."

"Fire breathing and all? Why did you have to do it? How did you do it? Because I'm sure it was a lot more heroic then what Greg and I did," she said. "Jello dragons aren't robotic. They're made of Jello or gelatin if you want to talk in non brand specific or trademarked terms. Basically? We had to fight dessert."

"It was the first task," he explains. "We were to retrieve a golden egg that the dragon was guarding. That golden egg held the clue to our next task. I was able to use a combination of spells and speed to retrieve my egg."

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