fandomhigh | Destiny & Free Will, Week I [Monday, Period 4]

Ghanima had decided to hold class outside by the pond next to the school, since there was no reason to keep her students cooped up in a classroom today. She'd tacked a note on the classroom door, and was now waiting the students assembled, sitting on a rock as they found their way to her and took seats on the grass.

The moment everyone arrived, her eyes snapped from the pond to the children seated (or standing) around her. "Good afternoon," she said in a clear voice that carried effortlessly. "This is Destiny and Free Will. If you are in the wrong class, please consider this your opportunity to leave. Although it is entirely possible that if you are here, then you are where you are supposed to be, no matter what it says on your schedule. I am Lady Ghanima Atreides. You may address me as Miss Atreides, Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or some variation thereof. Be warned, however, that I do not answer to Lady Atreides. Lady Atreides is my grandmother, and I have no desire to claim that title from her."

"This class is designed to look at the differing opinions on predestination and freewill from a variety of religious, temporal, and philosophical schools of thought," she continued. "Regardless of any personal experiences you may have had on this topic, I expect everyone to maintain a respectful and open mind towards the subject matter and your classmates. Mocking destiny is a dangerous pastime, and not one I will permit during class hours. What you do on your own time, however, is your business."

She waved the stack of papers sitting in her lap at them. "This is your syllabus. Be aware that it is subject to change at any time, unless a particular class is predestined to happen, in which case the syllabus is moot anyway, isn’t it?" The smile she flashed the students was decidedly impish.

"For now, I would like you to go around and introduce yourselves, and state for the record whether you believe in destiny, free will, or are currently undecided."

[~~Wait for the OCD, for that is your destiny!~~ OCD is up and destiny is assured. GO FORTH.]

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There were a handful of people in the class who would know, or at least be able to guess at, the odd look that crossed Tahiri's face for a moment. "That's assuming you can only ever think of one best choice, and not, say, two that are completely at odds with each other."

Triela frowned, not dismissing that immediately, but obviously puzzled. "How do you manage that?"

"Well, for example," Tahiri said a little more slowly than usual as she chose her words carefully, "say you had a choice between being able to do two things. You could only do one or the other, and there's no way you can work things out to do both at once. Choose one, and the other option is doomed to failure or worse, but there's no greater good. They're both weighted equally, at least as far as you can see."

This was totally not what she'd been thinking of a minute ago, but like she was bringing that up in class?

"Something will always tip the balance toward one or the other," Triela insisted. "Maybe only a little bit, but enough to make the decision." She said it with the sort of confidence that only someone who'd never had to make a life-or-death decision about someone they cared about could have.

Tahiri's jaw went slack with amazement for a moment, but she recovered quickly enough. "Like what?" she asked -- she could have gone off, really, but she was trying to be a good TA here.

"Say that you had to choose between saving one of two people. One of them is always going to be at least slightly more important than the other. Either based on mission objectives or future potential or something like that. So that's the person you save."

Yeah. In Triela's head it was okay to sacrifice a civilian or two for an effective soldier.

"Important according to who?" Tahiri pressed. "By which standards?"

She recognized that this discussion might be going somewhat off track, but now she had to know.

"Mine," Triela answered simply. "The ones I've been Conditioned for."

She eyed Tahiri curiously. "It's not like you can make decisions with anyone's criteria other than your own, right?"

Tahiri . . . had two sets of criteria she could technically call her own. And wow, did that make answering this tricky.

"I suppose not," she allowed. Which didn't make the idea sit much more comfortably for her.

"See?" Triela said it as if that solved the entire discussion.

Destiny & Free Will, Week I [Monday, Period 4]

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