fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, September 13]

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ethics

Ethics [Thursday, September 13]

"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?"

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Aravis shrugged. "Were you really a war hero?" she asked curiously.

He nodded. "Not that there is much heroic about war," he said, "but my partner and I--Jedi work best in pairs--were known across the galaxy." He smiled. "Children would act out our exploits and invent their own."

So that kind of famous.

Aravis raised her eyebrows. "You'd like my friend Bree. He's been on the front line of nearly every Calormene battle in the last few years."

"It starts to wear you down after a while," Anakin said. "After a lifetime..." he shook his head. "There's conflict in your home country, then?"

"In Calormen? Yes." She nodded. "Rebels in the west. Those have taken lives for several years now, and there was war attempted on Archenland and Narnia recently, but that was ended swiftly."

"I am sorry to here of the discord," Anakin said, and he meant it. "What are the rebels so upset about?"

Aravis shrugged. "I don't really know. They seem to act without meaning. They're anarchists. We send soldiers. They fall. There isn't a home in Calavar that hasn't lost a son or brother."

Anakin nodded, looking straight into her eyes as he read her emotions. "Including your own. I am sorry."

"My brother. He was sixteen," she said, nodding. "A boy with dreams of heroism. I don't think he was prepared for what he saw."

"You never are. The stories tend to leave out the mud and the fear and terrible food and what it's like to talk to someone one minute and have them be gone the next," Anakin said softly.

Aravis nodded again. "Or the harshness of the desert, or how victory tends to be lessened when there's a scimitar through you," she replied, self-consciously touching her shoulder.

Anakin moved a chair closer, then gestured for Aravis to sit back down. "Shoulder wounds hurt like fire, don't they?" he asked.

"They really do," she agreed, sitting. "It's healing nicely, but I'm not allowed to do anything fun until it's better."

"And what do you consider to be fun?" Anakin asked with a small smile.

"Sparring, riding, physical movement...."

Anakin's eyebrow quirked up at that. Force help him if he had to give out more Gavin-type advice.

"How long did the doctor tell you to stay still?" he asked.

"My nurse at home didn't want me to travel on foot until I was better, but we talked her out of it. At the moment, though, it's not really worth it to me to make Seely worry. I'd never hear the end."

"He wants to put you in a plastic bubble, huh?" Anakin asked. "Did he see you get hurt?"

"He may have," she shrugged. "We were in the same fight."

Anakin nodded. "He might never be ready to see you back with a weapon," he said quietly.

"He's just going to have to get past that, then," she replied, frowning. "I don't like sitting out."

"I understand that," Anakin said. "I think it might depend on the circumstances. What were you two doing when you were hurt? Border patrol?"

That didn't feel right to him.

"Escaping from a pack of heavily armed guards," she replied casually. "Who wanted to kill me or take me back home."

He'd been inches from locking Padmé in her room for the rest of her life under similar circumstances.

"I take it neither option was particularly appealing," he said dryly.

"Considering going home meant that the others would all die and I'd have to marry a man four times my age...no, not really."

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