fandomhigh | Philosophy Classroom, office hours

"Maia," Tara smiles. "It's so good to see you up and about!"

(('A Discursive Analysis of the Portrayal of Prostitutes in the Literature of Concern, 1660-1880'. Basically prostitutes in early modern London.))

Maia hugs Tara "All thanks to you." Maia grins and sits down opposite of Tara and hands her a note. "Not that you need the note but I have to show it and have it signed, also I need to know what I have missed in ethics and what I can do to make it up." Maia smiled warmly again, she was very relaxed. "Did you get the flowers yet?" Maia asked glancing around the office.

((OOO i think that topic! very very nice. how many pages did it end up being? are you going for history or literature?))

Tara shakes her head. "You send me flowers?" she asks, surprised and delighted. "Maia... thank you."

"Catching up on Ethics might be a little tricky..." she cocks her head, thinking. "The first week was just discussion, we can run through those questions without a problem. They've just done their first assignment, but I'll assign you a makeup assignment later in the term."

((OOC: 66 pages, History. Am rewarding myself with FH all this weekend - father just returned from 3 months in the US, so daughter's having a double sleepover. *dances happily*))

Maia blushes "Um yeah I did I guess they have not sent them yet." Maia smiles and blushes again. "That's fine about the assignment I would be thrilled to do a makeup." Maia looks down at her hands and then smiles back up at Tara. "I do appreciate everything you did for me. I have a craving for lemon bars now all the time." Maia laughs.

((OOC: History is wonderful, thats what I have a degree in. Oh how exciting FH all weekend and double sleepovers. I have mine and my nieces birthday party this weekend but will be playing this weekend on FH of course))

"They're really good, aren't they?" Tara grins. "I swear I'm going to steal all of Deb's recipes, one at a time."

She cocks her head. "Do you want to discuss the first week's questions now?"

((OOC: Oooh, just got the flowers. Thank you! Will have Tara get them when she gets back home, to maintain continuity.))

"Sure." Maia smiled pulling out her notebook to write it down. She takes a moment titling the page etc.. then she is ready. "Ok ready." Maia smiles expectantly.

((OOC: I am glad you like them YAY i was worried LJ ate my comment to the flower shop because I kept not seeing them delievered *laughs* that happened last time and they were days late getting to the person. YAY continuity))

"First question: different people, societies and groups consider different things to be evil. I want you to find something you've done that another person might consider to be evil, and decide whether you'd do it again in similar circumstances."

Maia thinks. "I told my aunt once that the Giants were going to win the football game. I knew she was going to pawn Diana's ring to place the bet, well the one her grandmother gave her, but I did it anyway." Maia looked down. "Yeah I would do it again, my aunt said she would love me even if I didn't know things like that but- so I tested her to see if she would love me anyway even if I couldn't tell her so I told her the wrong thing you know to see. I was right, she exploded at me, blamed me for the ring and stuff. Things were kinda never the same between us, they still arent"

((OOC: Diana is Maia's adopted mom))

"And which do you think was wrong, Maia? Lying to her? Or doing it to test her love?"

Maia thinks long and hard before she answers. "I don't think either was wrong Tara. She lied to me, I had to lie to her to test it. I could not do one without the other." Maia glanced down at her hands. "Ok different one then. When I took my ACT scores, I was really stressed, I didn't mean for it to happen but I saw the answers. I panicked and could only see the answers so I wrote down what I saw. I couldn't even think straight to work on the problems to see how the answers worked I just filled them in. That was wrong, it was evil of me to do. I was sick about it for days so I redid the ACT test a few months later and still scored really well but well.. the perfect scores had already been sent out because you know you have to chose where they go before you send them." Maia frowned then looked nervous. "I did try to make it right though Tara and I sent the other scores to the schools but they kinda thought it was crazy to send out the lesser scores after the perfect ones had been sent out." Maia shrugged. "It wasn't my fault, it happened once more here at school but I made myself fail the test actually." Maia looks sad "I should have forced myself to fail the ACT but I-I was stupid and I panicked and I have regreted it ever since. Does that qualify for evil? That one moment of weakness that I had?"

((OOC: ok MUN feels bad now because I don't want to stress Tara or make her feel bad etc.. but I want Maia honest with Tara in all things and since Tara was not here at the beginning when Maia had the ACT discussion I dunno I felt like Maia was hiding something from Tara *Frowns* but I do not want a major angst moment or a plot out of this. Maia is simply answering her assignment because she didn't like her answer to the first part... shall she answer differently if Tara is going to get upset etc or if Tara will now distrust Maia I do not want that... I tried to show Maia had suffered enough for her mistake. I'll delete this if you want I just worried you thought Maia was building up to a plot or something in the other thread. Trust me I promised nothing involving Tara without your total approval and I want no angst for Maia for a long time.))

Tara frowns at Maia seriously. "I'm concerned about the way you phrase yourself, Maia. You said 'it was evil of me to do'. Yes, it could be viewed that way - but you didn't do it on purpose, and you tried to fix it afterwards. I know you can't control the visions. It certainly counts for the purposes of this question, but can we step away from that for a moment? Do you think your genuine mistake was evil?"

((OOC: No, thanks for telling her. Better to tell now than have her hear rumours of Maia abusing her powers. Tara wouldn't blame her for an accident, but if she was doing it deliberately to skate by in class they'd have issues. Thanks for clarifying OOC, as well, I appreciate it.))

Maia looks at Tara "No I don't." Maia thinks for a moment "But I think now that maybe what I did to my aunt was evil because I could control what I said to her and I said the Giants would win and they didn't."

Tara nods. "Okay, I'm going to let you think about that one on your own. But the point of this question is that no-one, no matter how good or virtuous, can escape someone thinking that something they've done is evil. Good, and evil, depend on your perspective. It's called moral relativism."

She smiles. "Ready for the second question?

Maia nods slowly "Yeah."

Tara nods at Maia, her body language warning that this question might not be easy. "Under what circumstances would you, personally, be willing to kill someone?"

Maia looks at Tara questioningly, she shifts in her seat uncomfortably. "Uh." She thinks for a few minutes. "I think if they were going to hurt someone I cared about. If there was no other option avaliable I mean."

Tara cocks her head, pressing the point but keeping her voice soft. "How badly would that hurt have to be for you to justify killing them? Death? Rape? Torture?"

Maia bites her lip thinking. "Um, I think torture or rape would, would be enough for me I think to want to kill someone. I think if they violated someone I cared about in any way really would justify it for me." Maia twisted her hands together slightly in her lap. "What would it take for you?" She said finally looking up into Tara's eyes.

Tara lets out a brief huff of laughter. "You know, you're the first person to turn the question back on to me." She thinks, closing her eyes. "I would kill to spare someone pain and suffering they stood no chance of recovering from. I would kill the torture victim, to release them, but I don't think I could kill the torturer. I would kill to save the life of someone I loved, but only if they had not provoked the attack. I would kill if I could guarantee that that death would be for the greater benefit."

Maia stayed looking at Tara. "Would you kill who did that to you?" Maia's eyes flicked to where she knew Tara's scar was. Maia returns her gaze to Tara's eyes barely breathing, treading carefully to keep Tara from being hurt.

Tara looks back into Maia's eyes, her own sad. "No. I would not."

Maia's eyes seem to blaze. "I would." She said simply, she was sorry to have been the reason Tara's eyes looked so sad. "He deserves it."

Maia sat quietly for a moment thinking back to the day in the park when Tara had cried. Maia suddenly felt awful for even questioning Tara. "I'm sorry Tara, I-" Maia cut herself off and just watched Tara. She remember the pain in Tara's voice in the park, the bits of words that she had spoken (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fandomtownies/168175.html?thread=5553135#t5553135) that didn't really make sense to Maia but made sense to Tara.

"No, sweetie," Tara shakes her head. "He didn't deserve it. He was angry, and scared, and lost. He needed help, not death." She drops her head, trying to find the words to explain.

"Maia, people don't just kill people. If it's not mercy, or self defence - there's still another reason. Killing them doesn't help them, and it doesn't help the person who does the killing. And once you've taken a life, it changes everything. Everything."

Maia looked sad, she had seen people over and over again killed in her dreams, in her thoughts, she did not know them and after a while she did not feel for them. She tried to picture Tara dying, Phoebe dying, her friends the people she cared about..

Maia shook her head. "I think, if someone killed somebody I loved and cared about, I don't think I would think about the consequences I would just want to kill them for causing me to lose someone I loved. I would not care about their reasons." Maia had not taken her eyes from Tara. "The man who killed you, someone killed him for what he did to you?"

Tara nods, setting her jaw. "Yes, Maia. Someone did. And in the process, she destroyed everything I loved about her. She died when she killed him, and left someone I don't know walking around in her skin."

She sighs, rubbing her hands over her face for a moment. "What you're talking about it revenge. It's for you, not for your loved one. You can't bring them back, you just want to visit pain upon pain. It's a normal human reaction, but there's nothing noble about it."

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