Ethics [Tuesday, April 6, 2nd period]

[sith_happened]

"Much of life--especially in the realm of ethics--is about balance," Anakin began, making a show of not looking concerned that the seat Leia normally filled was empty today. "For every vice there is a virtue. We have covered the seven deadly sins--" he began ticking them off on his fingers: "Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. We've also discussed some of the seven virtues: temperance, which balanced gluttony, and diligence, which balanced sloth."

He began pacing the room. "The key to living these virtues is restraint, which is a very Jedi concept. We've already briefly touched upon chastity in our talk of love, so that leaves us with charity, patience, kindness and humility."

None of which exactly described Anakin. "Which of those four do you have the easiest time embracing in your own life?" he asked. "And which requires work? Do you think it's worth learning restraint to live these virtues?"

Comments

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

Anakin looked sympathetic, shifting his thoughts away from where Leia might be right now.

"Even if they did, shifting the timeline can be a very dangerous thing to do."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

"From what I've heard about the future of the planet," Zack replied, his mouth working before his brain could catch up, "not shifting it could be pretty dangerous, too."

He bit his lip, and then he shrugged a little. "I wouldn't know where to start if I wanted to save Midgar, anyway."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

"What's going on?" Anakin asked.

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

"All I've got is bits and pieces," Zack sighed, looking down toward his knees again. "I know something is going to destroy the biggest city in the world, and odds are it doesn't stop at Midgar. And... And I know that there's some sort of.. alien... thing..."

Describing Jenova was kind of a special project without using the word 'mother.'

"It wants calamity." And was part of the reason Angeal went insane. "It's not too hard to put pieces together, but all I know is what people think it's safe for me to know. So... the best I can do is... my best. Knowing it probably won't make a difference."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded as he listened, looking a bit stricken. "Was this linked to your master's death at all?"

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

Zack had really fascinating knees.

"Angeal had... this thing's cells in him, all his life. He could do things because of it, like pass his traits on to others, and absorb them in turn. And..." Deep breath. Shrug. Zack was going to need a moment. "It got messy. It's been messy. I don't really doubt that it could get worse from here."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

Anakin's hand drifted back to Zack's shoulder. "So he was a bit like a sleeper agent?"

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

Zack shook his head a little, and he pulled in a shaky, frustrated breath while he attempted to sort what he knew from what he was terrified to find out.

"He was a good SOLDIER. He's always been a good SOLDIER. When he talked about dreams and honor, he meant it. The cells were... part of an experiment, done by scientists on our side." Zack hesitated, and then glanced up at Anakin, just so that the man could see eyes that were entirely too blue to be natural. "Every member of SOLDIER has something like it. But the process was... new and unstable then, I guess. And too much for him and his friend, the one who deserted."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "We have a species who experimented with cloning," he said. "The first few batches were...untenable."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

"Untenable," Zack echoed, sighing. "Did they... Uh... degrade, at all? Their bodies, I mean?"

Angeal hadn't, until minutes before the end. But Genesis...

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

"Some," Anakin said carefully. "Some went insane. It took time to perfect."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

Zack nodded a little more. "Angeal..." He didn't want to just out and say that Angeal went insane. "His body was okay."

That was close enough.

"His friend... He was kinda the same thing. But his body was going. Fading, sorta. Maybe it's just a... new experiment... thing."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

"Sounds unpleasant," Anakin said, understating thing by quite a bit. "What are your people trying to accomplish with the experimentation?"

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

Zack took a deep breath, and held out his arms a little.

"Super soldiers," he replied. "Stronger, faster, more durable. It takes one SOLDIER to do things an entire unit of infantrymen can't."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "Us as well. The entire cloning stock came from one Mandalorian soldier, who were originally trained to take down Jedi so they're nothing to sneeze at."

He frowned. "Of course, at the time they were being made, we didn't exactly know we would be fighting a war years later..."

Stupid Palpatine.

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

"Something tells me that ShinRa wasn't exactly expecting the Genesis army to come after them, either," Zack sighed. "But if you're going to put a weapon out there..."

Don't create a weapon that you can't deal with yourself when it backfires. Zack was learning all kinds of interesting lessons, lately.

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

"Know where the killswitch is?" Anakin finished for him.

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

Zack offered Anakin another wry smile.

"Or at least make certain it's going to stay on your side."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

"Worried that you might have a similar flaw?" he asked quietly.

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

... Ooooh. Good call, Anakin.

Zack's eyes were searching out his toes, now. They were far more interesting than his knees.

"Terrified," he admitted. "That weekend where... people were... uh. When they were other people, I mean? That alien was here." And here came the guilt, grabbing at his chest again. "She made me hurt a friend of mine. I wasn't completely me. But I was me enough."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

Anakin understood that sort of guilt and fear all too well, which was why the look he was currently giving Zack was pure sympathy.

"Were there any warning signs with Angeal?" he asked.

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

Zack gave his head a little shake. "Nothing in particular, really. He... He left, for months and months, with no warning at all. I thought it was just because his friend was missing. I thought he just wanted to get Genesis back."

And so did they all.

"The worst was... was all at once. Nobody saw it coming, not really. But then, he was gone for a while."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

"I'm sorry," Anakin repeated because some things were worth saying twice. "Do you think he might have been captured and altered?"

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[puppy_fair]

"I..." Zack bit his lip and glanced up slightly. "I didn't think about it much," he confessed. "I had orders to bring Genesis in. Nobody ever said why."

He winced as he did think about it. Bad move, thinking.

"'All evidence of misconduct must be erased,'" he mumbled, after a moment. "They might have altered him. Both of them. If we'd brought them in. Orders changed. We were supposed to eliminate them both."

Re: Talk to Anakin [4/6]

[sith_happened]

Anakin frowned hard. "Sounds like someone's covering their tracks."