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]

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.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"But they're a little more durable then," Karla said, hooking a lock of hair behind her ear. "Not all floppy and breakable like these. I mean, I could probably catch the baby with Craft if I dropped him--" the emphasis on 'him' strongly suggested there had been a dropped baby in the past, yes "--but it might mess up his development or something."

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine hadn't been taking the 'what if I drop him' entirely seriously before now; she gave Karla a concerned look. "When was the last time you held a baby?"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

"Eight years ago?" Karla said in a tiny voice, her reply sounding more like a question than an answer. "But I caught her before she hit the ground!"

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[thatsamilkshake]

"So you were what, eight? Seven? You're not going to drop a baby now," Francine assured her.

Re: Pair #6: Francine Peters & Karla

[glacial_queen]

The look Karla gave Francine was dubious at best. "I can try to hold Merlin," she said, "but don't yell at me if Professor Skywalker fails us after I dop him on his head."