fandomhighdorms | Room 141, early evening

"Hello, Cam! Come on in and ask your questions, chum!" Tick said.

"Evening, sir." Cameron smiled and held out the cookies for the Tick. "Thanks for agreeing to do this."

"Not a problem, Cam! I'm always happy to help a student out!" Tick said taking a cookie. "Please, have a seat." He motioned toward the table in the middle of the room. The table looked worthy of a gathering of superheroes discussing the thwarting of impending doom.

The chairs were also very comfortable.

"Thank you," Cameron said as he set down at the table where one day the destiny of Fandom might be decided. "I know that in class we've discussed the topic of fighting crime and how to bring Justice, but I was thinking that due to your experience you have to have some experience about what starts crime. What do you think puts people up to doing criminal things? Is it because of the way society treats them? Or is it a strictly personal decision?"

"Well, there are any number of reasons. Sometimes a person might have a bad reaction to the way society treats them, sure. Or they might be simply trying to survive. But a lot of times, it turns out that the person is just a big jerk! Not always, but that's the kind of person who usually becomes a supervillain, and they're the people who I primarily deal with."

"Yeah, but doesn't that mean then that they're just born that way? Because usually there's a reason why people become jerks."

"Some are born that way. Others become jerks because they have a pig for a leg. It takes all kinds."

"A pig for a leg?" Cameron blinked and looked confused.

"His right leg was a pig. A living pig. So people called him Pig-Leg. He took this personally, turned to evil, and called himself The Deadly Bulb. He turned over a new leaf when the pig saved his life, though. Good for him." Tick nodded, completely seriously.

"Okay," Cameron stared at the Tick. "I think that answers that pretty much covers the first question."

He jots down some of the answer, trying to make it make sense but failing miserably. "Uh, next question. In class we had to put crimes in a certain order as we considered them to be the pravest. Most people ended up with either crimes against a person (like murder) or crimes against the state (like spying and sabotage) on top of the list. Which one of those two do you think is the worst?"

Tick flashed back to the past several weeks and answered very briefly. "Crimes against a person."

Cameron wrote it down and frowned, he needed a bit more than that. "Why? Isn't it so that if the state gets damaged, there is no one left to protect the person?"

"It's become a personal issue recently," Tick said, hoping Cameron would get the point.

Cameron did and quickly skipped to the next question which took a completely different route. "This is more about laws. Do you think that religion and justice go together? Can and is religion allowed to influence the law in a country and is the law allowed to restrict and control religion?"

"Huh. I haven't really ever thought about that. Honestly, this question is a bit too political for me. It's pretty far beyond what I actually know. I mean, sure, law and religion influence each other in lots of places, but I couldn't say whether or not it should in general." Tick shrugged.

Cameron nodded. "Okay. Do you think civilians should be allowed to carry weapons or should that be it be restricted to the the law enforcers?"

"Huh. That's not much of a problem in The City. Too many superheroes to care about weapons, I suppose. Personally, I prefer people to have as few weapons as possible because bullets kinda hurt. But then again, there's so many superheroes in The City that they're kinda pointless for most civillians."

"So in my own experience, I'd say they're somewhat unnecessary."

"What about here in Fandom? There's a weapon ban inside the school, but do you think it has served its purpose?"

"Remember, the weapon ban is inside the school. Nobody has been hurt in the school. I think that's a pretty good track record."

Cameron nods in agreement."Okay, I had one more question which is more about punishment. Does the reasoning behind crime matter when you put someone to trial? Should someone be punished less because their intentions weren't purely evil?"

"Of course. If somebody steals a loaf of bread because they're poor and starving, they should be punished less than someone who steals a loaf of bread because they're a jerk! It's not always as simplistic as that, but the basic idea holds. Somebody who really wants to kill somebody and then hid should be punished worse than someone who accidentally killed somebody and didn't confess right away. Intent is important."

"I agree," Cameron nods and then considers it. "Could crime ever be compared to a spoon, sir? Or are spoons too keen for that?"

This question was much easier for Tick. "Crime is more of a fork. Pointy. Dangerous. You stick it into meat. But it can do nothing against a Mighty Spoon of Justice!"

Cameron grins. "That's a reassuring image, sir."

"The curved face of the spoon deflects Evil like a shield, Cam. Remember that!"

"I will, sir." He got up from the chair. "I think I should have enough now. Thanks for taking the time to do this."

"You're welcome, Cam! Have a good night!" Tick said as Cameron left.

Room 141, early evening

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