idolpro | Princess Maker 1.5: AlcheME!

[ When you insert the key and open the door, you'll find the room inside looks like the living room of a mansion. There are several doors, but one in particular stands out to you: it is ornately decorated, the very door's wood itself carved beautifully with gold etched in to make luxurious patterns depicting what looks like the sky and the wind blowing through the grasslands. Though the door is closed, you can see through it—as if it's somewhat transparent.

The room is painted baby blue and a gold-plated cradle sits in the room. Inside, a baby cries—high pitched and noisy. That child, your charge—you're her nursemaid, so you go to her and rock her to sleep. ]

-

[ Slowly, the scene changes, fading in and out with various silent scenes—the baby sits up, trying to climb out of her cradle; a little toddler dressed prettily with expensive clothes beams pleasantly; a tantrum, thrown by the little girl who's distressed; the little girl holding a puppy, pleased as punch; then the wall becomes opaque. ]

[ In the middle of the open doorway, a young girl at the age of 11 sits on a chair, smiling at you. A long-haired, pure white cat is curled up beside her.

This is your little girl. you couldn't help spoiling her, honestly—after all, she's a noble too, and she should like to become a princess as well. She deserves it! But you also know, with how her family history has gone, she's going to have to work to get to the top. Still, you have faith in her—she's your girl, after all. Fortunately, when she goes to the Lost Continent, she won't be alone: you, as her longtime caretaker (her third parent, really, or her first, if you consider how her family's left her care entirely to you), may accompany her to her new school. You'll be her ally, her support, her greatest weapon; you'll be the one who determines her success . . . or her failure. ]

[ Of course, you're not the only one that thinks your charge deserves the world, and you're not the only one that thinks your charge could bring about great change to the world.

You've been a follower of The Great Z's doctrine for some time now; she will come to liberate this country, and she is well on her way, but she recognizes that her reach could be farther. If her words could take root in the Lost Continent—wouldn't that be grand? And your charge could be the first hook.

You may have subtly or not-so-subtly implied as such to your local revolutionary leaders, and soon enough, you heard back: The Great Z entrusts the task of guiding that child to you. Just a little after that, a mysterious benefactor sent word to your employers, declaring that your charge would be sent to the Lost Continent with them as her sponsor.

The Great Z must be smiling, somewhere. She's surely blessed you . . . and you won't let this blessing go to waste. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, if we could catch the person who really did it...that would fix the problem, right? For everyone!

That's one way. But I think it would only solve one problem, and we have quite a few to deal with.

Get rid of people who would make more problems?

...Get rid of them how, Venus?

Jail? Exile? Other stuff?

Other stuff sounds sketchy to me young lady.

This is all very extreme for 11 year olds, you know. Don't forget that you're children, Venus. If you do bad things right now, it's the time to learn and be encouraged to do better. You kids have to make mistakes before you can learn from them.

Even bad adults can surprise you and do good things if you give them the chance. But if you just jail or exile people without any understanding or support, you never give them the opportunity to do good. Some people need a hand held out to them.

But we were just going to have the adults do stuff, mostly...so we're not being bad, even if it's bad things the adults end up doing. Right?

Venus. If you have someone else do bad things on your behalf, you still have responsibility to it.

What do you mean bad things the adults were going to do?

I dunno? You said jail and exile are bad, right? So those would be bad things the adults were going to do. Isn't that what adults do to bad people who do bad things?

There's different degrees of bad, Venus. Do you know what disproportionate retribution is?

Two big words?

Disproportionate means making something much larger in comparison to something else. Retribution is punishment for wrong doing.

Disproportionate retribution means punishing someone beyond what's reasonable for the thing they did wrong. Do you understand? It's like if you didn't do your chores, so we put you in jail. Do you think that would be right?

Is not doing chores bad?

We ask you to do chores to teach you responsibility and the value of hard work. We think it's important that you know how to take care of yourself. Do you think those are good things?

Well, they're things that it's good to be able to do, but they're not good. Um, because good is stuff like...stuff you do and not skills you have.

Really? Lots of things can be good in different ways, Venus. Being skilled in something means you've worked hard and put a lot of effort into it. Putting effort into things is something good you do.

The point is, if you did something that was only a little bit bad, a lot of punishment like jail is disproportionate retribution. And disproportionate retribution is very bad.

Um, I think I get it.

That's good. So then, what do you think should happen, if they catch the person that did it, and they're a child who still needs time to learn from their mistakes?

...Um, smaller jail?

...Perhaps I need to start from the top.

But if it's smaller it's less bad than regular jail!

Are you sure? That sounds much more cramped.

I guess I don't know how jails work?

Well...

[Reaching for some paper and doing a quick sketch of a jail cell]

See this? This is what a jail cell looks like. When people commit crimes that are really, really big, and they're found guilty after a trial, they have to be put in this room to make sure they don't get out and do it again. The time they have to stay in there depends on how bad they were.

I've got another big word for you Venus, it's rehabilitation. Do you know what that is?

No?

Re: DISCUSSION

fleurescence - 2020-09-27 15:03 (UTC) - Expand