Ethics [Thursday, September 13]

[sith_happened]

"Today we discuss lying," Anakin said as he closed the classroom door precisely on time. "Everyone lies. 'Of course that doesn't make your butt look big.' 'You like her, I like her.' 'I'm totally okay with you moving on.' 'Everything's fine, why do you ask?' It's how the world goes around because no one wants to be trapped in a conversation where someone whines at you for hours on end about how awful their life is."

He looked around the room. "Trust me. Everyone's life is terrible. They're just not telling you about it. Be grateful."

He reached onto his desk for a piece of paper. "Today we're conducting an exercise to see how well you pass this particular social ritual, then we'll discuss whether you think it is necessary. We're playing two truths and a lie. I'll tell you three things about myself and you have to decide which one is the falsehood. Then you'll all tell three things and we'll see how well you can either read each other or keep things hidden."

He gave them a small smile. "I'm very good at this." He schooled his face to absolute neutrality, put his mental blocks up to bar the Jedi in the room from gaining an advantage, then recited: "I've never been beaten in one-on-one space flight combat. I'm not afraid of anything. I named my children after people I met in Fandom." His eyes challenged them to call him out. "Who's next?"

Comments

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

"I've never been beaten in one-on-one space flight combat. I'm not afraid of anything. I named my children after people I met in Fandom." Which one, based on what your character knows about Anakin, seems not to fit?

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[irulan-atreides.livejournal.com]

Irulan assessed what she knew of Anakin, he was a brilliant pilot so there was merit to his boast about never losing and his attitude about certain things reminded her of battle hardened Saudukars so she could also believe that he feared nothing so that left...

"You lied about naming your children after the people you met in Fandom."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

"And what makes you think that?" he asked, still not giving anything away in his expression.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[irulan-atreides.livejournal.com]

"You were my flight professor, not only were you a good teacher you were a brilliant pilot," Irulan began, ticking off the reasons one by one, "based from your stories and your countenance I deduced you are not a person who scares easily or at all. As for the third, I have no clue to your private life but it could be possible that your children have similar names to the people in Fandom but it could be coincedence... so it is a choice between the second and the first and I chose the third."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"How can someone not be afraid of anything?" John asked, rather than taking a guess.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

"When they have absolute faith in the Force and what they're doing, a Jedi can be fearless," Anakin said firmly.

He was thinking of Obi-Wan rather than himself.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Can be," he repeated. "But I don't think people with family can ever be fearless."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[solo_sword]

Jaina had had every intention of keeping herself just that much more guarded, because after her conversation with Luke, she wanted to at least try and listen objectively. That third thing surprised her, though, and also might have broken her brain a little trying to figure it out if her brain wasn't already a veteran of wars with Fandom timeline weirdness.

"The second one," she said.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

"Why?" Anakin asked.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[solo_sword]

What Jaina said was, "Because in order to care about anything, everyone has to be at least a little afraid of it, or of losing it, or what it represents."

What Jaina didn't say was, "Because I know how you came back."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[jedi-qui.livejournal.com]

Qui-Gon tilted his head to the side and regarded Anakin. "Everyone is afraid of something," he said.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

"But fear leads to anger, which leads to hate and the Dark Side," Anakin countered. "Surely I've purged the fear by now."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[jedi-qui.livejournal.com]

Qui-Gon shook his head. "You can't pick and choose your emotions. What you can choose is whether to be controlled by them."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

With most people, lies were so easy to see through, depsit how good people where in guarding their expression, but Anakin gave nothing away, not even to her. "There's always something to fear," she said quietly.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

"It doesn't necessarily follow that you give in to it," he replied just as quietly.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

"No. Keep an eye on it, make sure it stays in place. Still there though," she said, trying to make sure none of the things she feared came to close to the surface. "Can't stick your head in the ground."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"To live without fear is to not live," Aravis said quietly. "I don't believe that's true."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

"Explain what you mean," Anakin said softly, moving closer.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"Everyone is afraid of something, as small as it might be. No matter how much confidence you have in yourself, in your abilities, everyone is afraid of something. It might be spiders, or it might be battle. It's not natural not to fear anything and anyone who says they have no fear at all is fooling themselves," she replied softly. "Sir."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[key-of-heart.livejournal.com]

"The second one," Sora nodded. Because everyone was afraid of something.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

"Really," Anakin said flatly. "Do I look like I'm afraid of anything?"

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

"That's FOUR things," Sokka said, having mistakenly counted 'I'm very good at this' as one of Skywalker's statements. "...So... the fact that you were going to tell us three things was the lie?"

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

Anakin frowned, then ran through a quick Jedi recall exercise. "Oh. 'I'm very good at this' wasn't part of the exercise." He smiled. "That's just true."

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[mrodneymckay.livejournal.com]

Rodney considered the options. "I don't know anything about your dogfighting skills or your personal life, but everyone is afraid of something," he stated confidently.

Re: Two truths and a lie: Anakin Skywalker

[sith_happened]

"Really," Anakin said flatly. "If I told you that I was spoken about on the news as the Hero Without Fear for much of a war, would you reassess?"