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

[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."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Being related to Percy the Priss was completely outweighed by being related to Hermies. "No. Way! Seriously!? Oh my god, that is so much more cool than all the other cool things around here! Can you get me his autograph?"

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"I'd say that's a slim to none chance." What with Luke trying to kill him and everything. "I've only met him like twice in my life. Gods don't really take much interest in their kids."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Well that part sucks." Kenzi frowned down at Darya, and shrugged. "Just like humans. You'd think they'd be better at it, if they get to be gods. But still. God of thieves. You're related. That is mind-blowing. Do you have super-theft abilities?"

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"I guess you could say that," he said with a shrug. "I mean, I can teleport to make quick escapes and being related to Hermes means I can lie and charm without really putting effort into it. Putting it all together makes me a pretty good thief."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"I am so jealous right now, you have no idea," Kenzi told him. "Theft abilities, con abilities, make-stuff-appear abilities." Not that she wanted to be related to Percy. "Hey, is it just Greek gods where you're from, or are there, like, Norse and Russian and Native American ones too?"

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"As far as I know the Greek gods are the only ones around." Luke (and most Greek demigods for that matter) had no idea that there was a band of Roman demigods living near San Fransisco.

"But the monsters and nymphs and giants and other stuff like that from Greek mythology all exist."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Of course they do," Kenzi said in a long-suffering tone. On the other hand, no Baba Yaga! Always good. "Do you guys have to fight them and stuff? That's what demi-gods do, right?"

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Luke nodded. "Monsters can smell that we're demigods and attack us all the time. The ones of us that get training are able to protect ourselves but, like I said, our parents don't pay much attention to us so most demigods don't realize what they are until it's too late."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Holy crap." That was a little too close to what happened with Bo for comfort. Kenzi frowned. "Dude, your world... that's whack." So much for the envy. "You got training and stuff though, right? Or is that why you're here at Fandom?" A lot of people seemed to come here to level up.

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Oh I don't have to worry about monsters. I've been fighting them my whole life," Luke said with a wave of his hand. "Fandom's pretty much a vacation for me."

Re: Kenzi & Luke Castellan

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Good," Kenzi said determinedly, placing the sleeping doll in the carrier. "Right. I'll pick up Darya tomorrow, if you want?"