fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 1st period]

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Ethics [Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 1st period]

Today's class was taking place in the Danger Shop where there wasn't a desk to be found: only a cloudless day, a beating sun and apparent kilometers of oceans surrounding five small dingies that were neatly labeled with four or five students' names, or in one case, four students and one lemur.

Anakin's voice came over the speaker system: "Welcome to your first practical Ethics class. You've all been shipwrecked. In a moment, the dingy you're in will be the only thing you will see. There is no land for hundreds of kilometers, no fresh water, and you've run out of food. The only resources you have are the other people--or in one case, the people and lemur--you have in the boat. Will you turn to cannibalism? If so, who will be the first to go?"

Hope you weren't hungry for breakfast, class.

"Again, if you'd prefer not to participate in this class, shake your head strongly and you will be taken out of the simulation."

With that the students were apparently left to their own devices.

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Toby Logan, Jack Carter, Lucrezia Borgia, Petra West, and Tony Stark.

"I don't know about you guys," Jack said as he sat down in the boat. "But I'd prefer not to eat anyone. I don't suppose anyone has a fishing pole?"

Well, this wasn't a cave and no one had a box of scraps...

"I'm pretty sure we could figure out a way to signal for help before that becomes a problem," Tony insisted. Because technology was infallible! "My phone isn't fixed yet, but I could supe up someone else's."

"Okay. Good. Option one: Call for help," Jack replied and patted himself down to find his phone supplied by General Dynamics. Pulling it out he handed it over to Tony. It was about the size and thinness of a credit card and set up for video conferencing.

Yes. It was that cool. Steve Jobs could suck it.

"Will this work?" Jack asked as he pulled off his jacket and started examining it. "While you do that maybe I could... weave a fishing line from the threads here."

He paused for a second as he stared at the jacket.

"Anyone here know how to weave?"

"I can sew," Lucrezia offered. "I have never attempted to sew a fishing line, but I would do my best to attempt it."

"I can sew, too," Petra told her. "Tony, you can have my phone, too." It wasn't as impressive as Jack's phone, just, you know, a garden variety teenager's cell phone, but it probably had some useful circuitry or whatever.

"Okay," Petra said as she dug through her bag. "I can make a fishing line out of floss--we can braid it to be thicker--and I have safety pins for hooks. Damn, I wish I'd worn earrings with hooks today. We can make lines out of seaweed, too, and PS seaweed is edible. I know how to make a desalination still, but with what we've got and the amount of space it might be tricky." Since returning from the island, Petra's purse was basically a survival kit in and of itself.

"Until we can get that going, I have three protein bars, one chocolate bar, and a bottle of water, so we need to do some serious rationing."

Eating someone was not even on Petra's agenda.

"As you seem to be the most competent person here, you should be last on the list to be eaten," Lucrezia noted. Last but her, in her own selfish opinion.

"There are ... layers to this dress," she said, cheeks pink with modesty. "I do not require all of them. They may prove useful as shade, or coverings; some of the inner workings might have other uses, as well."

Meanwhile, she had reached up to remove her earrings, to hand them over to Petra. Next would be the intricate cap over her hair.

Edited 2011-09-07 02:19 (UTC)

"Yeah, well, I have experience in the field," Petra said dryly. "I was stranded on a deserted island for six weeks one time. We're probably going to need your dress," she admitted. "We can use the top layer as shade, or as a tarp to collect rainwater. Hope it rains."

She smiled at Lucrezia, said, "Thanks," as she took the earrings, and held out a tube of sunblock. "You should put this on. You're so fair you'll burn like a tomato in no time. And no one is getting eaten."

Edited 2011-09-07 05:13 (UTC)

"Very well," Lucrezia said, taking the bottle but setting it down, first, by her feet. "There are clasps and hooks under here, should any of them prove useful in other means, and I suppose it will be less hot without all of this weight. Modesty is not meant to be incompatible with survival."

As she spoke, she unlaced the bodice of an exquisite teal gown, letting the outermost layer slip from her shoulders and pool at her feet.

She was not going to reduce herself to bare skin, but she could remove a few of the support layers without being entirely obscene.

"How did you come to be on a desert island?" she asked. "And of greater importance, how did you find your way off again? Were you rescued, or did you escape?"

"I was on a plane that crashed. Oh, I don't know if you know planes," Petra realized, since she might actually be Lucrezia freaking Borgia. "They're like ships...that, uh, travel through the air. All we had was the stuff in our luggage, so we had to get really creative. And we were fake-rescued by people who really wanted to kill us, so then we rescued ourselves and escaped."

After examining Lucrezia's dress for a few moments, she decided, "Okay, I don't want to rip up your gorgeous dress yet because this is class, not the real deal, so let's not and say I totally just did that to make a tarp. Although if we were really stuck in a dingy the dress would already be toast."

Planes (plains?) were air-ships: that was another thing she ought to look up, as she was headed to a library tomorrow. She filed that with the rest of the stray comments and oddities.

"You were nearly assassinated?" she asked, giving her friend an uneasy look. "All of you? Were you a political faction of some variety?"

She gathered the dress up, grateful that it did not need to be sacrificed to the project, but unwilling to place it on again just yet. She was hugging it to herself, instead, and standing in her under-dress.

"No, we were in a beauty pageant," Petra explained with a shrug. "So more like...public figures? The bad guys were trying to start a war by blaming the people they wanted to go to war against for killing us."

"I would definitely leave the dress off for now," she added when she noticed. "It'll be less hot."

"I suppose that's as useful a strategy for war-mongering as any," she mused. "Could they not have blamed the plane accident on those they hated, instead? It might have saved them time."

"You're asking me to understand the workings of Ladybird Hope's mind," Petra said. "That is not a thing that will ever be happening. And the guy they wanted to pin it on was crazier than she was." And part of the reason Petra was glad they hadn't gotten the boat with the lemur. Even live ones sort of freaked her out.

"Okay. You're my hero," Jack said pointing a finger at Petra. "Great. What do we need for a still?"

"More than we have." Why yes, yes Tony would know.

"Basically you need a tarp and a tube," Petra said, glaring at Mr. Tony Downer there. "And we can use Lucrezia's dress for the tarp; we used an evening gown on the island. The biggest problem is going to be space."

"Seaweed is also gross and way too far down," Tony grumbled, fiddling with the phone Jack had given him. Luckily he was his own battery, so that wouldn't be an issue.

"Sometimes it floats," Petra pointed out. "You're a pessimist, aren't you?"

"No, I'm an engineer." Which meant he was a bit of a pessimist, yes. Shut up.

"Is that a useful thing, or should we plan on eating you first?" Lucrezia teased.

Heeeeey.

"Well, if this was real life and it didn't work in--" he looked at his watch. "--six hours and 48 minutes, you guys could be enjoying Tony tartar."

Ew, guys. Just ew.

"Great. You can start engineering how we're gonna build a solar still in a freakin' dingy with only the stuff we have." She sighed. "Look, I realize I just sorta took over but I'm willing to bet I am the only person in this boat who has had to catch a fish with a straightening iron to survive, okay?"

"...that's impressive."

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Ethics [Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 1st period]

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