fandomhigh | The Art of Pacifism; Tuesday, Fifth Period [ 01/04 ].

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art of pacifism

The Art of Pacifism; Tuesday, Fifth Period [ 01/04 ].

When the students got to the classroom for the Art of Pacifism, they would not find their teacher there. In fact, after five minutes, there was still no teacher. Ten minutes then rolled around, and still no sign of a single person of an authoritative teacherly status. And then fifteen...

...the clock was getting incredibly close to twenty minutes into the hour when a strange breeze seemed to start in from absolutely no where and, to those with particularly honed senses, it had the delicate fragrance of spring time and cherry blossoms. In fact, it appeared that cherry blossoms were drifting down somewhere from the ceiling and, with a particularly strong burst of them, Shunsui entered the room. The breeze made his pink flowered robes flutter around him as he burst in through the door and landed in just a pile of cloth until, slowly, he started to rise to reveal the tall figure of the class’s teacher. “8th Squad Captain,” he announced needless with a small smile, “Shunsui Kyōraku. Pleased to meet you ♥. How’d you do ♥?”

He chuckled a little bit, but then stopped, looking up, though one would think the wide brim of his straw hat would prevent that from being very effective. “Oy!” he called up at the ceiling. “Kūkaku-chan ♥! That’s enough flower petals!”

But the flowers kept coming, heavier and stronger than before.

“Huh? I guess she didn’t hear me. Oy! Kūkaku-chan ♥! Oy! That’s enough petals, I said! Kawaii, kawaii Kūkaku-cha~an ♥! Lovely, lovely, Kūkaku-cha--”

And that was when Shunsui’s calls up to Kūkaku somehow above him by the ceiling was flooded by the heavy stream of the remainder of the flowers pouring down on him. And then there went the bowl against his head with a heavy thunk. And, since this was Kūkaku, the flowers then exploded.

“This is so not worth that jug of sake you promised me, freak,” Kūkaku announced, landing down beside the slightly charred Shunsui, where she proceeded to brush herself off with her one arm and give the students an expression of good freakin’ luck before taking her exit.

Shunsui was just going to take a moment to recover, before pushing the bowl from his head and smiling almost stupidly at his class. “Well, that ♥,” he said, “is a fine example of what not to do in a class such as this ♥.” Standing up again, he brushed smoking petals of cherry blossom of his shoulders and gave his class a little bow. “Welcome to the Art of Pacifism ♥. In this class, we’ll be discussing ways to live the path of the nonviolent and the peaceful for a life filled with happiness ♥. I am your teacher, Captain Shunsui Kyōraku ♥, and though she did not see fit to stay, I would like to give gracious thanks to my assistant, the very lovely and well-endowed Kūkaku Shiba ♥. She, as you can see,” here, he chuckled a little, as if to himself, “could stand to learn a thing or two from this class, yes ♥?”

“Today, you have already learned two very important lessons ♥. One is how even though others may do violence to you, the stronger thing to do is not to commit violence back ♥. The second, and most important part of pacifism, is patience ♥. Well done, all of you who are still sitting here despite the fact that my tardiness gave you every opportunity to leave ♥. Patience is a virtue heavily rooted in the art of peace and nonviolence and love ♥. It is the crux of what allows one to refuse to respond in violence and continue on in peace ♥. As for those who did in fact leave, well, we’ll have to fill them in on what they missed next week, won’t we ♥.”

He tossed a wink to the class, and then opened his arms. “Since this is the first week,” he said, “let us get to know each other, as we’ll be spending at least an hour together here in this classroom, in appreciation of love over war ♥. First, let’s get rid of these desks, hmm ♥? Push them all aside and let’s all get comfortable and cozy on the floor, much more personal ♥! Come on, come on ♥! We haven’t as much time, and let’s form a circle ♥! And, once we’re all settled, we’ll introduce ourselves to each other ♥. Come on, come on ♥! There we go ♥!”

Once everyone was settled, then, Shunsui himself folding his legs in front of him and beaming proudly at them all, said, “Now, we’ll go around, any order at all, whenever you feel like it, and tell everyone your name and what in particular about pacifism appeals to you or intrigues you or what you might like to learn ♥. No wrong answers, of course ♥! So whenever anyone is ready, go ahead ♥.”

When they were all finished with introductions, Shunsui feeling quite comfortable, thanked them all and informed them that they could leave if they wanted to, or, if they felt so inclined and because it was the last class of the day, they could hang around with each other and discuss pacifism more. Or anything else, really. He even had some hot cocoa (since he couldn’t exactly serve them sake) for anyone who’d like to stay. “But one thing if you do leave ♥,” he said. “Your homework is, in at least one occasion, if someone commits an act of violence against you, to not respond with violence in kind ♥. Take the path of nonviolence, and then share the experience with the class for discussion ♥ And if no one commits an act of violence against you, consider yourself quite lucky ♥!”

[[ ~~please wait for~~ the OCD is up! And I'd thank

boobs_and_bombs for the cameo, but she's a stupidhead. ]]

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Once everyone is in a circle, agreeably or not, anyone’s free to start up the introductions, to give their name and what they might be interested about when it comes to pacifism.

"I'm Bruce Wayne. I'm mostly interested in the peace of mind you can get from not fighting," Bruce said, mentally adding 'when appropriate'.

"Ahhhhh, yes ♥," said Shunsui with a pleased, almost dreamy smile on his face at Bruce's words. "There is no peace quite like that peace, it's true ♥."

"My name is Raven," she said when it was her turn. "I was raised a pacifist. Those of my home, Azarath, will raise no hand in violence, even at the cost of their own lives. It has been difficult to learn to deal with life in Fandom at times because of the violence here. I am most interested in learning to keep my soul and body at peace and be able to hold to my ideals in a violent world."

Shunsui gave a grave nod. "That," he agreed, "is certainly a path that tries one to the end of their ability sometimes, but let me assure you, Raven-chan, it has worked for me for a very, very long time ♥."

"I'm Jenny Sparks," said Jenny, "and I'm not a pacifist, I'm a pragmatist. This class--" looked boring enough to sleep through, and like it would look good on her Cambridge application "--and pacifism interest me more theoretically." A beat. "In that I've never seen it work and the pacifists usually just get themselves killed first, but please. Educate me."

"I'll be happy to, Jenny-chan ♥," Shunsui promised with a bow of his head. "You're at least interested, which is all I ask for, and I like to think of myself as an example of pacifism that works, but we'll get to that all in good time, my dear ♥."

"I'm Ender Wiggin," Ender volunteered, "And the place I grew up in promoted violence strongly over all other avenues of response. That's led to a lot of people getting hurt - and to me hurting people. I'm here because I'm--" Tired of doing horrible things to other people. "--interested in exploring the alternative, now that I have the chance."

The only thing Shunsui could do with an answer like that was approve. He smiled at Ender. "And thank you for being willing to give it a chance ♥. It's a shame that such experiences are what leads some to the path of the pacifist, but it is a good thing when it brings them that way rather than down the road of continuing destruction ♥."

"Ino," she said, with a little wave. "I am..."

Not much of a pacifist that was sure. But she was tired of--well, it had been a bad, bad break. This class had seemed easy and appealing.

"Interested in learning how you can be a pacifist."

That was nice and left out all her sticky issues about homes being blown up, it did.

"Ah, I was wondering why you might me taking this class ♥," Shunsui said with a chuckle. "But that makes sense ♥. Hopefully I can teach you a thing or two, then, Ino-chan ♥."

"Uh, well, I'm Jeremy," he said, still a little flustered by... everything, really. If he and Juliet were getting Punk'd, then Ashton was seriously giving it all he had. "What was the question? Oh, yeah. I guess pacifism appeals to me because I think the world would be a much better place if we could all just chill."

"I couldn't have put it better myself ♥," Shunsui said with a chuckle. "You seem to be starting on the right foot, Jeremy ♥."

~~Damn hippie drum circles~~.

Blackagar had written his introduction down, thank you. For the good of the entire island. But he held it up when it was his turn to 'speak'.

My name is Blackagar Boltagon and I have been trained to only use force when there was no more possible to resolve the situation.

Up to and including moving a goddamn city to the moon. The moon, people.

"Fantastic ♥!" said Shunsui, after taking probably way, way too long to read that sign. "A very good start, and a topic we have to look forward to, as well ♥. Sometimes, not even I can agree that pacifism is best, but that is why one must be flexible ♥."

"I'm Squall Leonhart, and I'm a trained soldier. I know that sometimes violence isn't the best solution to a situation, but I'm not all that good at anything else. Talking especially."

"Ahhh, yes ♥," said Shunsui, nodding sagely. "And, sometimes, words are the only thing that can sway someone from violence ♥."

Rarely, but, sometimes. Maybe....

...kinda.

"Hopefully this class shall help with that, then, Squall ♥."

Re: Introductions - AoP, 01/04.

whateverknight.livejournal.com - 2011-01-05 14:54 (UTC) - Expand

Okay, so Tara was mostly in this class because the idea of taking a fighting class and one on pacifism made her giggle, but that seemed like a frivolous answer when your teacher was floating around in cherry blossoms.

"I'm Tara Maclay," she began. "I like the idea of trying to find peaceful solutions to problems. I think sometimes people go to violence before they have to."

"Or even sometimes immediately," Shunsui noted, shaking his head, but this was a positive time, and his class was clearly not filled with some of the psychopaths he was used to working with, so the smile returned quickly enough. "I look forward to seeing what peaceful solutions you might come up with, Tara-chan ♥."

"Makita of Nokgorka, and I'm not particularly interested in pacifism," she practically growled. "In my world, those without guns can still die by them. The Red Army isn't exactly picky about who they shoot."

"It's quite the same in my world as well ♥," Shunsui said softly. "In most worlds, I believe, anyone without a weapon can die by one; the difference is in how they die ♥."

Given what she'd just come back from ~~because her player is a horrible person who decided putting her through that right before this class had to happen~~, there was a certain irony to being in this class today, wasn't there? Gabrielle tried not to let it show, but she was still tired and her voice cracked more than she would've preferred when she spoke.

"Gabrielle," she said, "and I believe, more than anything, that it isn't our place to take lives."

It was a little harder to say that these days, after Khrafstar's betrayal and her disastrous attempt to save Ming T'ien's life, but she had to keep believing it. She wasn't sure what else to do, so she pushed on.

"I believe that we're . . . caught in a cycle of hatred and violence, and that we have to break that cycle. That killing isn't the way to do it. I want to help make the world a better place, and lead my Amazon tribe in a more peaceful direction, and that's what I'm here to learn."

And to think she wasn't in the mood to be her normally verbose self.

True, that probably wasn't at all what she meant, but Shunsui could not help being a little amused by someone telling a Shinigami about taking lives...

He didn't even realize that irony before! It was fabulous!

"That gives me quite a task ahead of me then, Gabrielle-chan ♥," he said. "But I'm glad for whatever I can do to help make that so ♥. I couldn't agree with you more. After all, if violence begets violence, and hate begets hate, then love and peace must follow suit, yet ♥?"

"I'm Anduin Wrynn, and I'm interested in pacifism because, well, I've never really had a chance to experience it. I believe diplomacy would solve a great many more problems than war has at home, but I don't really know how to argue for it."

"I take it, then," Shunsui mused, "that your world had a tendency to turn to the sword rather than words ♥? I know the feeling, so hopefully, I'll give you a good stat, Anduin. I can't claim it always works, but I find it far more preferable all the same ♥."

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