fandomhigh | Destiny & Free Will, Week I [Monday, Period 2]

Entry tags:

destiny and free will

Destiny & Free Will, Week I [Monday, Period 2]

Ghanima was already in the classroom as the students assembled, leaning against her desk as they filed past her. Holding a steaming mug of spiced coffee in her hands, she subjected each person to an apparently disinterested inspection from her glowing blue-on-blue eyes.

Not even another Truthsayer would have been able to tell what she was thinking.

The moment the bell rang, her eyes snapped from the door to the children seated around the room. "Good afternoon," she said in a clear voice that carried effortlessly. "This is Destiny and Free Will. If you are in the wrong class, please consider this your opportunity to leave. Although if you are here and believe in fate, then you are where you are supposed to be, no matter what it says on your schedule."

"I am Lady Ghanima Atreides of Arrakis. You may address me as Miss Atreides, Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or some variation thereof. For those of you whom I have had in class before," she smiled suddenly, looking far less severe. "Welcome back."

"This class is designed to look at the differing opinions on predestination and freewill from a variety of religious, temporal, and philosophical schools of thought," she continued. "Regardless of any personal experiences you may have had on this topic, I expect everyone to maintain a respectful and open mind towards the subject matter and your classmates. Mocking destiny is a dangerous pastime, and not one I will permit during class hours. What you do on your own time, however, is your business."

"There is no syllabus, because to have one would tell you when a class is fated to fall. Or perhaps it is free choice which allows me to not have one." Ghanima's smile was decidedly impish. "For now, I'd like us to discuss as a group if you believe in destiny, free will, or neither, and why."

[ocd up!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As was foretold!

Cassidy

Simon Bellamy

Toby Logan

Jocelyn Fairchild

Nico di Angelo

Kate Daniels

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

Gabrielle

Faramir

Damian Wayne

Spock

Jim Hawkins

Dana Scully

Rinoa Heartilly

Jason Todd

Look around, pass notes, etc.

Cassidy was looking around to see if she knew anyone else in the class this term.

Jocelyn met the other girl's gaze with some surprise. So she must be the other girl Karla had mentioned - and okay, she was right, it was more than the hair. She gave a little smile, pretty sure that writing a note to say hi, I'm Jocelyn, and I guess I look like you was gauche.

Cassidy noted the resemblances between her and the other girl and gave her a smile back.

Cassidy herself would have written a note like that, but instead, she wrote a different one.

Hi, I'm Cassidy. Welcome to Fandom.

Well, that made it easier, and Jocelyn ducked her head, grinning at the note before slipping one back.

Jocelyn Fairchild. Hi. :) Pretty sure if I had a sister, she'd look like you. Weird, huh?

Nice to meet you, Jocelyn. I've heard that this sometimes happens here, but you're the first person I've ever met who I could pass as being related to. :) I have a brother, but I imagine that having a sister would be much more fun.

First a careful glance towards the teacher, then she wrote hurriedly.

Only child. Always thought brothers would introduce you to their good-looking friends. No? That is sad.

Oh no. My brother and cousin do their best to keep me from meeting their male friends. There are reasons, but none that are short enough for a class note.

I hope you'll like it here and Lady Ghanima is an awesome teacher, too. I do my best to take any class she is offering.

Thanks. It's different so far. :D Class is different-good though.

Jocelyn broke off and looked up towards the teacher again. She was pretty sure Miss Atreides was noticing just about everything.

Don't want to get us in trouble on the first day so ttyl?

Cassidy nodded and gave Jocelyn a smile before she vanished the note and started looking around the class again. She was definitely feeling cheerful about making a new friend.

Simon looked severe (as he often did) and his attention was entirely on Ghanima. And it wasn't because of the eyes, either. Not entirely, anyway.

This was definitely not a normal school. This... was definitely what he needed in his life right now.

Nico had figured when he saw his schedule that Apollo was trying to tell him something, but hearing the professor speak, he was even more certain he was going to need to be on his best behavior this semester.

Do you believe in destiny? Free will? Why or why not? What is it about this class that has interested you, and what do you hope to learn?

[OOC: Feel free to ping off each other and make it messy! Let's get a conversation going!]

Edited 2011-05-09 14:47 (UTC)

"I believe in free will," Cassidy finally said. "We may be born with other people's ideas of what we should do, but I believe that we can all make the choice in what we do with our lives. I was born into my caste, but that doesn't determine what I do with it. Only I can decide what kind of Queen I will be."

Jocelyn nodded slowly at the other girl's words. "That makes sense. We're - some of us - are born to be something, but we get to decide how we go about that. Or, I guess, if we want to turn our backs on it."

Cassidy smiled. "Exactly. We were born a certain way, but it's our choice what we do with that life -- or have no part of it."

Not that Cassidy would ever turn her back on what she was, but she had that choice.

"But even that has limits," Rinoa noted. "You can decide what kind of Queen to be, and I can decide what kind of Sorceress to be, but I can't decide not to be a Sorceress at all. I can't decide to have different parents, or experiences."

"I've never really thought about it all that much," Toby admitted. "But I guess- I believe in free will, even if you can't always make the choice you want to make." And he knew better than a lot of people how often people around him felt they were forced into making decisions or taking up roles they hadn't wanted.

Wesley nodded. "I quite agree," he said. "People are free to make decisions, but that freedom is limited by the constraints of society." He paused, then added, "However, I do also believe that certain people have particular, ah, legacies that they are predestined to achieve."

Toby's own 'legacy' was the possibility of being driven crazy by other people's voices in his head. Suffice it to say it wasn't a future he wanted for himself. "And what if they do everything they can to avoid that legacy?" he asked. "Do you think they're still bound to it?"

"I know that the Fates exist," Gabrielle began matter-of-factly, the way she might say I know there are little blue deer in the preserve who love to keep me company when I'm working out a story out loud. "Not just as concepts -- as actual, physical embodiments of what they do."

She hadn't met them personally yet, but Xena had, and besides, she'd met several gods and the Furies (plus banshees in Britannia but the less said about that the better, and la la la, not bringing up how she'd accidentally released the Titans ~~because that episode sucked~~), so it logically followed that Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos were as real as the others.

"But that's the thing, isn't it? I don't believe the Fates -- or the gods -- are as in control of our destinies as they'd like us to think. I've seen people try to thwart the gods, and succeed at it -- whether or not they were right to try." Helping to free Prometheus had been one thing; what had happened to the prophesied child of Dahak who was supposed to bring Dahak's kingdom to earth had been another thing entirely. There wasn't a simple right-or-wrong answer. "From what I've seen, their motivations aren't always pure."

Pandora and her descendants had been fooled for generations about the contents of that box, after all.

"They're not . . ." She was echoing what Xena had told her once, though she'd come to believe it herself, after everything she'd seen the past several years. "Necessarily in charge because they should be; they're in charge because people choose to let them be. And I don't believe we should just let them control our lives. We can take our destinies into our own hands, and make them what we want them to be . . . and I think we should."

She paused, then smiled slightly. "So I do believe in free will."

Could've just given the short answer, Gabrielle, but noooooooooo.

"Yes, how do you know that belief is not one they wanted us to have?" Faramir asked. "One is as likely to prove destiny as one is to prove coincidence."

"That's a good question, isn't it?" Gabrielle asked. "I met a man once who was the kindest, most trusting, most devout follower of his god that you could ever meet. There was just one problem. He loved his younger son a lot more than he loved the older one, and the older son was jealous . . . jealous enough to manipulate their father into believing their god wanted Anteus to sacrifice his younger son to prove his faith. It wasn't hard, either. Mael didn't have to do anything fancy. Just some drugged nutbread, a big metal plate to make sounds like thunder, and a speaking-trumpet up on a hillside. The strange part is, once we found out what Mael was up to and tried to stop him, something spoke up and stopped Anteus from sacrificing Ikus just in time. It wasn't Mael, because he was busy fighting Xena at the time, and I was up on the hillside trying to get to the speaking-trumpet, and it definitely wasn't me."

She shrugged. "I don't think there's a simple answer."

"How do you know that those people -- the ones that thwarted the gods -- weren't doing what they were supposed to, according to destiny?" Rinoa asked.

Because that was one of the points that usually confused her.

"I do not know if there is a destiny or whether it existence means that there would be no free will," Faramir said honestly. "There are many things that may appear as if they are inevitable, but need not be. Yet, our very acceptance of them would give them the quality of destiny. On the other hand, it is not because one fights against it, that it means ones struggle was not meant to be."

He smiled a little and shrugged a shoulder. "I am here because I would not mind finding answers." His grin grew a little wider. "Though, I will not mind if I find none."

"I, uh... never really thought about it," Jim admitted, after a moment. Okay, this was totally not the sort of class subject matter that he was used to. But he was going to go with it, because it was way more interesting than the stuff that he had to study back home. "I guess I believe in free will. I mean, there are things that I want to do with my life, and if it turns out that it isn't really my say in the end, then what's even the point in trying? I'll just end up wherever fate wants me to be anyhow."

He didn't really like that idea, no.

"I don't think I'd be able to function if I knew that was how it worked."

Rinoa was reaching up to curl fingers around her rings.

"I know that Destiny exists," she said. "Or maybe it's just that being able to move through time gives you that illusion. You can't change the past, but does that mean you can't change the future? The future is someone else's past, if they're further ahead than you."

She was phrasing it badly, but there was a point there, underneath all of that.

"I honestly don't know if I believe in destiny, but I sure believe in free will. I mean, I've seen a lot of examples of people doing whatever the hell they want no matter who it messes with, and those are all decisions that come out of free will," Jason said. "I guess I hope that by the end of the class, I'll have figured out how I feel about destiny too."

She's around before & after class

Claaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaass!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Destiny & Free Will, Week I [Monday, Period 2]

Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

Re: Sign-In!

During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Re: Class Conversation!

Talk to the Teacher

OOC