fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, April 3]

Today the desks in Anakin's classroom had been pushed along the walls and replaced with cushy pillows and blankets.

"Today we talk about sloth," Anakin said, holding himself even more carefully and clearly uncomfortable with the very idea of relaxing. The students were certainly not expected to be held to the same standard.

"Originally, sloth was described as 'an uneasiness of the mind'," Anakin continued. "Apathy. Melancholy. Joylessness. And importantly, the decision not to do anything about it."

He shrugged. "The modern view understands that the mind is slightly more complicated than that and sometimes it is impossible to will yourself not to be sad. Instead, this sin focuses on the failure to utilize your talents and gifts."

He made eye contact with each student. "In a place filled with as many talented people as this one, I can view it as almost criminal to not live up to the potential each of you has. Today, pair up and talk about what your plans for the summer are, and how what you will be doing will be helping you in what you might think of as your greater destiny."

He waved at the blankets. "Or embrace your inner sloth and take a nap. Being tiny this weekend can be tiring."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Eve wasn't thrilled with this. But she was going to be a good girl and not a brat. Which was why she took a couple minutes after class before going to talk to him.

"You wanted to see me?"

Anakin nodded. "You're encouraging someone to learn dark powers. You might imagine this would flag an ethic teacher's attention."

"I'm encouraging my daughter to learn how to utilize the abilities she has from her father's side of the family," Eve said.

Anakin stared at her. "Dark powers," he repeated.

He'd killed a man for offering an similar opportunity to his son.

How to explain this without giving herself a migraine? Or without giving him a migraine?

"Darker powers, sir," she said as respectfully as she could manage. "Our magic is divided up as witch magic and sorcerer magic. Witch magic is healing spells and defensive spells, that type of thing. Sorcerer magic is offensive spells and illusion. Witches and sorcerers don't get along -- well, her father and I did pretty well but that's a story for another time. My point is, witches naturally classify sorcerer magic as darker magic because of that."

She shrugged. "And she has to learn it and practice it because witches are better at witch magic than sorcerer magic. If she doesn't practice it, she's not going to be any good at it. If she's not any good at it and she tries to use the ice spell to freeze an opponent long enough to get away or a barrier spell to keep enemies from reaching her, it'll fail and she'll be caught."

"That makes much more sense than what I was getting from her," Anakin admitted, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "My universe...is a little more clear cut. Aggressive, self-serving use of the same neutral gifts is of the dark side. You can understand why I was a little put off by the blasé nature of her announcement."

"That makes sense to me, too," Eve said. "Because your reaction didn't seem right. But that makes sense."

She shrugged. "And yeah, not gonna lie, there are some less kind spells that she'll probably be learning. But I want her to know them and know how to use them so that she knows how to pick them apart, how to counter them. And our spells go in sort of... steps, I guess you could say. So while you might not want to use the gamma-level sorcerer spells unless in dire circumstances, the alpha and beta-level spells that you have to learn in order to master the gamma-level one? Could be useful."

Edited 2008-04-04 02:00 (UTC)

"Knowledge is neither good or evil," Anakin said, "only the application. And teenagers learning that kind of thing..." He frowned. "You add in a predisposition to think of everything in italics," he finally concluded. "It's not the most stable place to be working with dangerous anything."

Eve stifled a laugh. "That's why she's not going to be working with dangerous anything alone. There's her boyfriend, who isn't magical like we are but can run for help. And there's her brother, who's a sorcerer and already knows most of what she needs and wants to learn. Plus there's me." She shrugged. "I'm older than eighteen, if you really want to get all technical about it."

"The boyfriend might be a liability," Anakin commented. "Especially if he doesn't understand what he's watching."

"Which is why we're going to educate him as best we can," Eve said. "And we'll make sure he knows what could potentially go wrong. We're taking this seriously."

"What could go wrong?" Anakin asked.

"That depends on the spell. It could be something as simple as the spell just not working because she doesn't have enough experience or it could be something as complicated as the spell doing something completely unexpected -- especially if it's a witch spell. Witch spells are verbal and things can go wonky if you don't say the words properly."

Anakin looked unhappy. "We've had students here read the wrong spell and ended up turning pets in human beings, or giving other students detachable limbs. Is there a way to limit the...wonkiness?"

"Yeah -- teach her the words properly." Eve quirked a smile. "I may look like a teenager who doesn't know what she's doing, but if I hadn't been killed, I'd have turned forty-four last month. I'm an adult, sir. Well, a reasonable approximation of one. And I know more about magic than my daughter ever will -- including the darker aspects. And you can damn well bet I'll teach her to pronounce the words properly."

Anakin smiled. They were closer in age than he'd admit.

"And skip over the bits she won't really need to know?"

Not that he'd done that with Luke. Really.

Ethics [Thursday, April 3]

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!

Re: Talk to Anakin!