sith_happened: (Anakin: pondering)
Anakin Skywalker ([personal profile] sith_happened) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2011-11-08 09:53 am
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Ethics class [Tuesday, November 8, 2011, first period]

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."

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[identity profile] tripledmyself.livejournal.com 2011-11-09 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't recognize that as a valid reason," Nathan said, shaking his head stubbornly. "We could wrestle for it."
wasthecuteone: (seriously? seriously.)

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[personal profile] wasthecuteone 2011-11-09 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"I have a black belt," Petra informed him. "You will lose. Also, our fake baby needs a name. I'm thinking Sadie."

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[identity profile] tripledmyself.livejournal.com 2011-11-09 11:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm immortal so I really don't give a damn if your belt's black, blue, snakeskin or what," Nathan retorted, shaking his head. "And I don't care about the name, either. I'm gonna end up calling it Barry or something."

It was a universally good name.
wasthecuteone: (seriously? seriously.)

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[personal profile] wasthecuteone 2011-11-10 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
"I wasn't planning on killing you, just making you cry for mercy, so I don't see what that has to do with anything," Petra told him. "And we can't call it Barry. It's a girl fake baby."

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[identity profile] tripledmyself.livejournal.com 2011-11-10 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
"I can call it whatever the hell I want if I'm gonna take care of the stupid thing," Nathan said, proving that he was never going to be good father material. "I could put it in a bloody drawer with condoms and that'd be all right."

Or so he thought.
wasthecuteone: (arms crossed giving sass)

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[personal profile] wasthecuteone 2011-11-10 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
"Uh, no," Petra said, folding her arms, "it wouldn't, because I don't want to fail this class, and teacher dude doesn't mess around."

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[identity profile] tripledmyself.livejournal.com 2011-11-10 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
"Are you gonna sleep on the floor of my room so you can monitor my parenting skills and slap me on the wrists with a ruler when I'm doing bad?" Nathan asked, raising an eyebrow. "Cuz, if you're not, I don't really see how you could possibly stop me. It's a fucking robot, mate. Not like it needs mother's milk and shit like that."
wasthecuteone: (arms crossed giving sass)

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[personal profile] wasthecuteone 2011-11-10 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm not your mate, mate," Petra informed him. "And are you deliberately being difficult about this for a reason, or is that just, like, your default setting? We have to get in the spirit of the assignment. It's more fun that way." Inasmuch as being woken up in the middle of the night by a screaming robot could be fun. "Okay, or at least more tolerable. Look, if we don't treat the thing right it'll make a racket and then no one's happy. And if you just stick me with it I'll find a way to make you suffer, so, there's that."

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[identity profile] tripledmyself.livejournal.com 2011-11-10 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
Nathan parroted the little lecture she'd just given him with his hand and rolled his eye. Maybe she'd start spitting and a vein would pop out on her forehead if he kept irritating her. It was something to shoot for.

"This is not my idea of fun," Nathan told her, shaking his head. "I'd rather sit through a Celine Dion concert and have the guy next to me have explosive gas or something. That'd be more fun."

Somehow.

"Look, I'm not gonna stick you with the thing," Nathan told her. "I'll do my best not to set it on fire but you can just forget me being parent of the year. I've taken care of students that turned into animals and they were just fine. I've got more experience than you do, mate."
wasthecuteone: (Default)

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[personal profile] wasthecuteone 2011-11-10 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
"This isn't anybody's idea of fun, we just have to get through it. Ideally without snapping each other's heads off, although, hey, we already did that." She blamed Nathan. "And it's cute how you assume I've never looked after anything before, but whatever, not the point. Let's just get through this. We're naming her Sadie, because it's better than Barry."

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[identity profile] tripledmyself.livejournal.com 2011-11-10 01:14 am (UTC)(link)
"Hey, I've had a fucking actual kid show up because of this place and she was a fucking nightmare," Nathan said, shaking his head. "I win, nothing beats that."

Not that he was competitive or anything. Oh well, he was a jerk and that was what counted. "I'll take for the rest of the day, how about that? You can thank me later."
wasthecuteone: (seriously? seriously.)

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[personal profile] wasthecuteone 2011-11-10 06:06 am (UTC)(link)
Petra totally didn't buy the thing about a kid showing up 'because of this place.' She was assuming he'd had to babysit someone's kid or something. "And after today? You mean play it by ear, or you mean stick it with me for the rest of the week?"

Re: Nathan Young & Petra West

[identity profile] tripledmyself.livejournal.com 2011-11-10 11:09 am (UTC)(link)
"You need to stop being so paranoid," Nathan said, shaking his head sadly at her. "It's gonna send you to an early grave. I mean, we can fucking switch off or whatever. I'm not taking the thing forever so don't fucking skip town."