fandomhigh | Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period

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sex and candy

Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period

Cindy had left a note on the classroom door telling the students to head up to the Danger Shop. As the students arrived, they would see that it had been programmed to look like a beautiful garden. A closer examination would show that everything in the garden was edible--more than simply edible, even. Much of it was candy. Spun-sugar flowers decorated the path. The bark of the trees might be made of candied peppermint, or peanut brittle, or simple chocolate. Even the 'dirt' was made of crumbled cookie pieces, with gummy worms burrowing through. Colorful rocks were little pieces of hard candy and the weeping willow dangled branches of thin caramel over the path. The apple tree was growing candy apples, of every different variety, and the tiny lemon tree gushed lemonade when the bark was cut.

Today, class was held in a garden full of ~~moddable~~ candy and treats.

A really sharp observer might notice that there was no sign of Cindy.

[~~Please wait for~~ OCD up]

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"Now then, for those of you who ate the candy..." Cindy shrugged. "You're all in trouble. Eating food without permission is actually a very important trope of fairy tales. Before you can leave class today, you have to come up with a reason why people would tell stories about the danger of eating food without permission."

"Because it could be poisoned, or had just gone bad, and children wouldn't know which," Scully said with a sigh, medical training kicking in. "In earlier times, food sterilization was minimal at best. Louis Pasteur's techniques were centuries in the future. Knowing what was safe to eat would have been intensely important, and until then, they'd need to check with their parents."

"Excellent, Scully," Cindy said with a smile. Such a thorough answer was hardly unexpected. "You're free to go. Thank you."

"Thanks," Scully said, still sheepish. She knew better. Ah well. "It's good to be back in class with you."

"It's the same reason we tell our kids to literally not take candy from strangers," Ramona said, nodding her agreement. "You don't know where it's been. Be safe."

"Safety is huge," Cindy agreed. "Also, depending on the time and the place, stealing food might also have literally meant taking food out of someone else's mouth. A lot of these stories come from agrarian places, and in times of famine or even the tale end of winter, stealing food could consign others to starving. Thus, a heavy prohibition against taking food without asking as a benefit to the community as well."

Oh great, it was only the first class and he was already in trouble. "Food hasn't always been easy to get?" he suggested. "If you took food that didn't belong to you, you could have been taking someone's only meal of the day, or something close to it. So, maybe it was kind of a moral lesson too."

Don't worry, Billy, it's only 'trouble.'

"Excellent," Cindy said, giving Billy a bright smile. "Fairy tales are, at their heart, about community. Every community benefits by protecting its children, of course, so it makes sense to warn for safety, but that's not the only danger inherent in stealing food from others."

Everyone else had suggested the logical answers, so George was going to try something different. And, well, cynical.

"It's about control," she said, shrugging. "Don't try new things, don't eat new food, don't go outside the little boundaries we've set up for you. When people try for something different, bad shit happens. Scared yet? Good. Stay in your little box like a good drone."

Cindy laughed at that. See? This was why she enjoyed having George in her classes. "It could be," she agreed. "Many of these stories came from times where social stratification was much stricter and less-forgiving than they are now. It's all well and good to have deserving maidens and younger sons marrying the local prince or princess in stories, but it wouldn't have happened all that often in real life. Accepting one's own lot is a hard lesson to learn, but an important one."

"Plus it's easier to keep your kids in line if they're scared," she added. "And you have to wonder if the kings wouldn't have bitched out the princes and princesses for marrying some commoner, anyway. Aren't they supposed to be married off for political reasons?"

After a moment, she felt it necessary to add, "... The fairy tales were ... probably the poison thing, like everyone else was saying? I just ... wanted to be different."

Cindy smiled at her. "There really isn't only one right answer, George," she said gently. "In fact, one of the answers that I was sad that no one had mentioned was the parallels to the story of Eden and eating of the forbidden fruit. Which a lot of people consider to be God keeping mankind limited and ignorant. The forbidden often leads to knowledge, whether for good or for ill, and knowledge makes people question what everyone else considers to be 'right.' So don't discount your instincts, George. They're good ones."

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Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period

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