fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, September 2, 2nd period]

Anakin walked into his classroom precisely on time and gave the students assembled there an appraising glance-as the door clicked shut behind him. "I'm Master Anakin Skywalker," he said in a voice that was intended to carry. "You may address me either as Master Skywalker or Professor Skywalker. This is Ethics, and we're going to skip the introductions--I'll figure out who you are, if I don't recognize you already--and move straight to our first discussion."

His cloak flared out behind him as he handed out the syllabus. "Today's topic," he said, pointing to the top of the page, "is self sacrifice: knowing the difference between saving people and being a pretentious twit."

Anakin wasn't a great believer in softening his language.

"Any time I ask a a group of people what they would do to save someone they love, they blither on about how they would set the world on fire, lie, cheat, steal, kill, die, et cetera, et cetera. I've been at this school five years now and realize that half of you have probably already been put into this situation. I'm never in a mood to hear adolescent ramblings about how wonderful you were or might hypothetically be."

He leaned back against his desk. "What I want to know is what would make you walk away. When do you decide that the risk isn't worth the cost?"

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"Good," Anakin said. "But how often do you get a chance to rationally work through a situation and come to that conclusion?"

"Not as often as I'd like." Scully wasn't quite sure what the professor was aiming for here, but was game to keep going. Training that she couldn't admit to, had always helped a great deal in both assessing situations and keeping a cool head. Pausing, she said cautiously, "Still, I don't let my emotions carry me into following people blindly into danger."

She had to roll her eyes there, thinking of Mulder, without even realizing it. "I have a friend who's a little too prone to that. I have to be the calm one who apologizes afterward all the time. I don't know if not letting your best friend walk into a death trap alone counts as a sacrifice, though. I've called for help several times when he was set on being stupid. Even let him get arrested. It's more when I've been certain he'd get hurt or dead if he went alone that I... went against my better judgment." Troubled, she said, "And anyway, that's partly selfish. I wouldn't want him to die. That's not a true sacrifice."

Anakin's eyebrows arched up. "You let him get arrested? That seems a little...dire...for teenaged trouble-making."

"He was breaking into a government facility." The first five times? Right. "He was convinced they had UFO ships hidden in a warehouse." She snorted. "On the word of someone so stoned they probably thought a cheeseburger looked like a spaceship."

Yeah, that had been a really fun 'I told you so.' The sad thing? He would have done that as real teenager, too. So the outcome was more 'showing up with a spy as hostage and demanding they give Mulder back' after he got caught. Details. It was still stupid. And there hadn't been a UFO there.

"So you're not from a space-faring society, then," Anakin guessed.

"Not even slightly," Scully said. "Washington D.C. 1999." She looked slightly rueful. "I've seen a lot of other strange things, though."

"I'm sure," Anakin replied politely. "Jello dragon invasions, four-armed aliens who run diners and the like?"

"Jello? Seriously?" That deserved a pause for trying to imagine it. "Umm, more along the lines of pyrokinetics and sewer flukemen," Scully said, still stuck on the idea of dragons made of Jello. "Which is pretty normal, for here, I think."

Ethics [Thursday, September 2, 2nd period]

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