Ethics [Thursday, January 17]

[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 any psychics in the room from gaining an advantage, then recited: "During a war at home I was known as 'The Hero Without Fear.' I named my children after people I met in Fandom. I've never been beaten in one-on-one lightsaber combat." His eyes challenged them to call him out. "Who's next?"

Comments

Re: Two truths and a lie

[the_merriest]

"I listened," she shrugged. "How come ... how did people not see the sky?"

Re: Two truths and a lie

[raspberryturk]

Reno was quiet for a moment, considering how to explain the plates of Midgar before he grabbed his unused notebook and held it a few inches off of his desk with one hand.

"Okay," he said, keeping a casual, conversational tone. "Here's the city of Midgar. You got your sky up here, and there are people livin' on the notebook, here. We call that the plate. Up there's the minority, yo. The people who kiss enough ass or whatever to be able to warrant livin' on top." He lifted the 'plate' a little and tapped on the desk with his free hand. "Down here's everyone else. Under the plate, zoto."

Re: Two truths and a lie

[the_merriest]

"That's awful," she said softly. "Why ... why would they do that?"

Re: Two truths and a lie

[raspberryturk]

"Like you said last night," he replied with a shrug, "it's a bit of a trade-off. Midgar was huge, and if it hadn't been built up before it was built out, there's no way that the electricity would have been able to reach all ends of the city. Plenty of other reasons for doin' it the way they did, I guess. Maybe they always intended for it to be a rich city, and then everyone who wanted to be where the wealth seemed to be shuffled in underneath anyhow. It's been around a lot longer than I have, yo. I don't pay attention to details like that."

He dropped the notebook on the desk. The plate. On the slums.

Re: Two truths and a lie

[the_merriest]

She flinched when it landed, instinctively. "Isn't that dangerous? Couldn't it ..." She gestured, vaguely. "What if something broke?"

Re: Two truths and a lie

[raspberryturk]

"It's a risk you take when you choose to live under a giant piece of metal," Reno said, his voice very, very carefully neutral. "Never know when somethin's gonna let go."