Ethics [Thursday, November 19, 1st period]

[sith_happened]

Today Anakin's desk was covered with droid babies in bassinets.

Each baby had a tiny stuffed Ewok tucked next to it. Shh.

"Today we talk about lust," Anakin said. "Or rather, the unintended consequences that can happen when you take action without precautions."

He smiled. "Meet your little projects for the next two weeks. They're heavy, they cry, and they will record everything you do with them. So if you stuff them into a closet for the duration, believe me, I'll know."

After all, he'd built all of them.

He reached for a list of paper. "Some of you I've paired together, some of you are single parents." His smile turned a little evil. "Some of your babies are a little fussier than others."

Comments

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

He clearly took after Francine in the lung capacity department. She did blink a little at the volume for a second, but then reached for the crying baby immediately, scooping him up and bouncing him against her shoulder while she waited for Karla.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

Karla came over with an expression that hinted at barely concealed panic. "I--what--it's crying!" Karla said, nearly wailing herself. "Why is it crying? Make it stop!"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"He's probably hungry," Francine said, reaching for the bottle in the bassinet. Yes, she knew it was an it, but the point of the exercise was to pretend. And boy did she have a lot of experience with this particular game, growing up.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

Not so much Karla. She was okay with animal babies, but human ones made her very uncomfortable. They were small and fragile and easily droppable. And so many, many things could go wrong with them.

She watched Francine pull out the bottle and offer it to the--baby. "I don't know how to do this," she confessed. Because Francine couldn't pick that up from a hundred yards away. "What do we do?"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"We feed him and change him and hold him and put him to bed," Francine said. "And change his clothes!" That...wasn't strictly necessary, no. "I mean, I don't think we have to do that last one, but come on. Baby clothes!"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"Sh-should we go to the store and buy some?" Karla asked, with a surprising amount of enthusiasm for a chore she normally dreaded. However, shopping for baby clothes was something she could do with a minimum amount of fail and therefore was to be desperately clung to. "Little, umm, bow-ties and things?"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"Eee, that would be adorable!" Francine, you're supposed to say Maybe a couple of rompers and some bibs. "And tiny booties!"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"I like vests," Karla suggested, relaxing a little bit now that her first suggestion hadn't been immediately dismissed as wrong or stupid. "It--He ought to be well-dressed."

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"We don't want all the other babies to laugh at him," Francine said agreeably.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"Babies laugh at one another?" Karla asked, horrified. She really, really didn't know anything about children. It was almost sad.

"Not my baby, they won't," she added darkly.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"At this age they don't even have good enough vision to see each other unless they're in the same crib," Francine said, feeling guilty as she finally caught on that she was the only one playing this particular game. "I was just kidding."

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"I--oh," Karla said, feeling more than a little silly. "...Does that mean no bow-ties?"

Because, honestly, that would just be tragic.

She wracked her brain for what she knew about babies, which was very little once she realized she was unlikely to have to dose him for croup, whooping cough, or worms (the last being even less likely than the others, considering it wasn't a droid kitten). She came up with distressingly little. "Uh, should we name him soon?"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"Oh yeah. He has to have a name. They get used to the sound of hearing it and figure out you're talking to them." Francine paused. "Plus we need to know what to get embroidered on the little baby tuxedo romper!" So that was a yes on the bow-tie.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"Saetan's a good name," Karla offered. "Can we name him Saetan?"

Karla, stop trying to help.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine paused her bouncing of the baby, which yielded a moment of silence from both of them, then a wail from the droid-child.

"The other babies might not laugh at him," Francine said carefully as she started bouncing him again. "But if he grew up here, he'd get beat up on the playground for it. Also, my mother might try to have us exorcised."

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"Exorcised?" Karla asked. She was gazing at the baby curiously, finger inching closer and closer to poke him. Gently, of course. "What does that mean?"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

Baby Boy Droid Peters-di-Glacia made a curious squeak at the touch, neither happy nor upset...yet.

Francine had the grace to look awkward. No, wait, Francine just looked awkward. "It's another one of those religious things that probably won't make any sense to you? It's like a ceremony to pull evil spirits out of people."

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

Karla stopped prodding the baby to give Francine a look. "Your religion makes no sense, you know that, right?"

Turning back to the baby, she cooed, "That's why we're going to raise you in Mommy Karla's, isn't that right, Whatever-Your-Name-Is? We'll raise you to honor the Darkness and Uncle Saetan will teach you exactly how to handle little brats on the playyard." She sounded very proud when she said that.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"Sometimes I wonder," Francine admitted, thinking of this morning's sermon. She tried giving the bottle to him again, but slightly-computerized fussing resulted from that, so she dropped that back into the bassinet. "We could name him Merlin, just to see the look on his face when he hears that..."

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"If we're going for expressions, we could name him Arthur and watch both of them boggle," Karla suggested with a grin. She created several brightly colored balls of witchlight and sent them dancing around the baby's head.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"I think it might be too late to pull that one off," Francine said, slightly more fascinated than the baby by the witchlight, even though it did have light sensors. "Merlin and I named our son after him in some future that's not ever happening."

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

Still fairly clueless about what happened, Karla winced and reached out to pat Francine's shoulder. It would have been a lovely time for her to say a few things, as any Black Widow would do; properly sympathetic and also insightful things, things that would put everything into perspective.

...Karla had nothing.

"If we name the baby Merlin, do you think we can rope him into baby-sitting his namesake?" she asked instead.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

Oh Karla.

For any number of reasons. Let's go with the one Francine was likely to answer, though. "...Probably. But why? I don't mind watching him."

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"Y-you don't?" Karla's own fear and dread had made her assume that Francine was just more resigned to having him. "You like babies? You aren't worried about hurting him or dropping him or accidentally breaking him?"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"I've babysat little babies before," Francine said. "Honestly they're the easiest. It's when they start to run around under their own power that you've got to watch out!" Which didn't make her like them any less; it just wore her out faster.