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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In an ordained manner!

Talk, pass notes, take notes, just don't get caught by teacher, or detention may be in your future!

"I suppose it is only fair for me to go first."

"I will be perfectly blunt," Ghanima said crisply. "It is my personal opinion that to see the future is to be trapped by it. Destiny is a short leash and a cruel mistress, and I am a firm believer in humanity's right to forge its own future, out from under the oversight of an oracle."

"The entire purpose behind this class, however, is to allow you, as sentient beings, to think critically and to make your own informed decisions. Not simply parrot what I say, or your religion says, or your parents think. No matter what you decide at the end of these seven weeks, it is my hope that it will be your voice speaking, and not simply the words of another being offered up without any thought behind them."

"Next."

[OOC: Class discussion! Feel free to ping to anyone anywhere anywhen! Let chaos reign!]

Once they ping in.

She's around, both before and after class.

If the class is incoherent, I blame con-ded.

Poke me over email if there's something Ghani should be responding to, and I'm just not seeing it.

Merlin

Merlin was there and thoughtful about the subject matter. ~~And rocking the username~~.

K-Mart

K-Mart was thoughtful. "I'm K-Mart -- yes, like the store -- and I don't quite know what I believe yet about this stuff. I mean, maybe it's possible to be meant to do something, whatever that something is. But maybe it's also possible to get there however you can end up getting there."

Karla

I like that passing notes is okay, but taking notes'll land you detention if you get caught.

DOWN WITH SCHOLASTIC REBELS!

Btw, what con?

Francine ~~Who has a last name but doesn't want to break the trend~~

Tahiri Veila, who's a trendbreaker like that

Tahiri was here, looking tired and a little bit contemplative. Okay, a lot.

Tahiri was quiet, half watching the flamingos in the pond as she listened, knees tucked up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs.

Karla propped her chin on her fist, thinking. "That's a tough question," she mused aloud. "Black Widows can spin tangled webs that tell the future. Our medium is dreams and visions. But the dreams we get and the visions we see aren't simple laundry lists of instructions; they need to be parsed and teased until the answer is revealed. We...don't always understand them in time," she said. She paused for a moment, looking inward, then shook her head and kept speaking. "Sometimes they carry warnings, sometimes we can prevent what we see, sometimes we can work to make our visions come to pass. But is that the same thing as fate or destiny? Or is it something else?" Karla grinned. "Normally I'd say that only the Darkness knows for sure, but maybe that's something I'll learn in this class."

"...I'm Karla by the way."

"I'm Francine. Before I came here I didn't know anyone even could see the future," she said. "Not for real. Now..." Francine ducked her head a bit. "I'm not magic or anything; I don't know much about this stuff. I don't know what I think yet, I guess."

Zack Fair, who is fine with writing his last name now that Tahiri has broken the trend

Zack considered his answer carefully before answering, today.

"I'm Zack Fair, and I think..." This was kind of hard, actually. "I think that there are different paths people can take, that will take them different places. And maybe that one of those paths is the right one, but you don't know if you've taken it or not until it's too late to turn back to pick a different one."

He shrugged.

"So you take things as they come, and you do your best, because there isn't really anything else that you can do, is there?"

[one of whom has a last name, sort of, but wouldn't know how to write it if you paid her.]

"I knowed one who could see the future," Firekeeper said. "She say it is like a stream breaking over rocks. Big things cut deep course in this 'water' and she could see easily." She did not mention that it had been in trying to divine her future that the jaguar Truth had been driven to madness.

Firekeeper sat down next to Tahiri without a word while Blind Seer sprawled in front of the both of them. Having missed her friend's presence at the Gig yesterday, one might almost say she was... well, perhaps not worried. Concerned.

Ambiguous sentence construction FTW!

Francine folded her legs under her and listened super-carefully, hoping she could make up through sheer paying attention for knowing nothing about this and having no powers or prophecies of her own to speak of.

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

Sign-In #1

Listen to the Lecture

Destiny, Free Will, or Other?

Meet the TAs

Talk to Ghanima

OOC

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