Ethics class [Tuesday, November 8, 2011, first period]

[sith_happened]

When Anakin came into the classroom today, he was not alone. He was wheeling in more than a half dozen droid babies in their own strollers. "It's that time of year again," he said, not even trying not to look amused. "Droid babies. You make fifty different decisions a day when faced with a child--what will you feed them, how strictly you enforce bedtimes, how often you interact with them, how much leeway you grant them in exploring their environments--and as every parenting booklet will tell you, each decision you make is fraught with peril about causing lasting damage to the child's delicate psyche."

He rolled his eyes. "If you think about it too hard, you'll get paralyzed by the responsibility. These droid babies have been programmed to be about six months old--they can crawl, but slowly, and are putting absolutely everything into their mouths. They eat formula about once every four hours, are exploring the wonders of solid food and are generally sleeping through the night."

If you didn't annoy Anakin, of course, in which case, the baby would cry alllll the time. He gestured at the back of the classroom, which had been filled with baby food, diapers, clothing, baby-proofing equipment, cribs, toys, and various other baby stuff.

"As you can see, six month-old babies do not travel light," he added. "The average cost of a baby's first year is rough ten thousand dollars in modern money," he continued, "and adding an element of budgeting will often bring moral debates into relief as, for instance, the cost of a babysitter is weighed against a night out and trying to balance the mental health of the parents against the child's ever-demanding needs. Each pair has been given 200 fake dollars to budget out for your week, and before you ask, no, this will not pay for childcare at the center in town, and no, you cannot supplement with your own incomes. It will, however, be needed to pay for baby's various...things. I provide the baby, ten diapers, a day's supply of formula, a pack 'n play that can be used both as a bed and a containment unit for when the baby is getting into too many things, and two changes of clothes for each of them. You must work with your partner to decide on the name of your child, and then what you will be buying from the store in the back of the room to prepare for a week with a baby."

He grinned. "May the Force be with you." His expression turned a little more steely as he focused on the engineers in the class. "And no trying to modify the droids. It'll set off an alarm that only I can turn off."

Comments

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

This wasn't exactly the best time for Luke to be even pretending to take care of a kid but, whatever, he wouldn't feel all that guilty if this thing ended up abandoned somewhere if he had other things to do.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi was staring at it. Her. The thing. "Not it!"

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Not it for what?" Luke asked. He wasn't exactly as freaked out as other people in the classroom seemed to be.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Primary caregiver. I'm not giving," Kenzi explained. "Or caring. And you're taller. You should have it in your room."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Luke stared at Kenzi for a moment before shaking his head. "Fine, whatever. But you're gonna need to take it if I have to go home unexpectedly---which, mind you, happens a lot."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Okay!" Kenzi beamed, then stopped. "Wait. How often is 'a lot'?"

Little nameless was just burbling at them.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Luke shrugged. "'Bout every other week. It's really not that big of a deal. It's just a robot."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Luke's cool calmed Kenzi's nerves, even as she glared at the toy doll. Robot android. Whatever. "Cool. I'll ... do stuff. I just don't want it in my room. And I don't want to flunk this class, I suck at Ethics anyway."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"In all honesty I don't think it's possible to flunk a class here," Luke told her. At least that had been his experience when he missed a ton of class for trips back home and to Panem.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Kenzi brightened. Well, that was okay then. "Cool." And wait, if Jims had been a good accomplice, maybe Baby Person would be good too. She could get some good pick-pocketing in this week in Baltimore! She beamed more favorably at the doll, now that it wasn't going to get her failed. "I dub thee... Darya."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"O...kay." Hey, it wasn't like he had any itch to name the droid so he wasn't gonna complain. "You probably just spared it some Greek name with a tragic story behind it."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"It's Russian. Means 'rich. We can change it if you hate it.'" She cocked her head. "You're Greek? Seriously, let's not name the robot baby something that means she gets sacrificed to a sea monster or something."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Andromeda's not my kind of name." And it had connections to the name Perseus, which would have been weird. "And yeah, I'm about as Greek as you can get."

Which was one way of putting it.

"Darya's fine. I get the feeling I'm gonna be referring to her as an it most of the time anyway."

Great parenting.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Andromeda's too big. Darya, cool." Kenzi grinned. "There's no Canadian name I'm going to inflict on anything I'm responsible for. And yeah, I'm not bad with kids-- when they're real-- but I like giving them back." They were about the only thing she ever did give back, come to think of it.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Understood," he said, smiling a little. "I've watched over kids before so I'm fine with it. The droid has to be less complicated than an actual baby anyway."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Cool. Let's get her stuff. Maybe I can talk Petra into knitting it a blanket or something, we can save cash that way."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Oh you don't need to worry about that," Luke said, waving his hand. "You got lucky; I can get whatever I want for free. Unless using powers counts as supplementing my own income."

Which would be highly unfair 'cause it wasn't like Luke could get rid of his powers.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"You've got powers?" Kenzi immediately brightened, charmed. Looked like she'd lucked out in the partner department. "Awesome! How do they work?"

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"I just snap my fingers and get mostly whatever I want," he told her. "Bigger stuff requires more concentration and I have to rest afterward."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"You rule!" Kenzi squealed, then said, business-like, "Okay, one of those snugglies, a hat, and a coat? Since she already comes with everything else at least for today. Oh, maybe a rattle?" She stared at the robo-baby. "I have no idea if it-- she-- is that interactive, though."

Darya was yawning.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Uh, yeah, I think I can do that." He had to think for a moment about what a snuggly was though. He managed to get a picture of what he wanted in his head and after a second or two, snapped his fingers to make everything appear.

It was all a lavender color. He didn't want to encourage the whole girl equals pink stuff thing.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi agreed with that, honestly. Pink, bleah. "Niiice!" She put the hat on the doll, and started zipping it into the jacket. "How do you do that? Are you a wizard or something?" She handed Darya the rattle, and the doll started gnawing on it. "Note to self: creepy robo-doll is teething."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

For some reason the thought of being a wizard made Luke wrinkle up his nose. "I am not a wizard. It's just stuff I inherited from my dad, who is a god, not a wizard."

Seriously being a wizard sounded ridiculous.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"A god?" Kenzi boggled a little. Well, more than a little. She was never going to get used to people popping off with stuff like that, she knew it. "Um. God of what? Greek! You said that! Wait, are you related to Percy?"

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, we're sort of cousins," Luke said, but didn't go into the whole 'we don't share DNA' thing that made it okay to be in love with him. "My dad's Hermes. God of traveling, tricksters and thieves. Among about a hundred other things."