fandomhigh | The Philosophy of Food | Wednesday, 3rd Period

Hannibal pulled the chair to one side of the desk at the front of the room and sat; the desk itself had a number of dishes on it, each neatly covered or cloth-napkin-draped. He waited until he had the right number of students seated in front of him, then nodded and stood.

"Good afternoon. I am Dr. Lecter; this is The Philosophy of Food. I trust you are all in the correct place." He passed out a syllabus and waved at the rigid setup of the students' desks as he walked. "You may sit in neat rows if you like, or bring a chair forward if you would prefer. Or you may sit on the floor or wander the room; whatever makes you comfortable, so long as you pay attention." You could tell a lot about people from how they chose to interact with their space.

"You will not need to take any notes, although you may do so if you choose. As you can see, there will be a final project, no exams or quizzes. I have only two requirements for classes: one, you must participate." He indicated the food. "You may choose to eat or decline anything presented here. You may choose to eat none of it; while I might be disappointed, it will in no way affect your grade. However, you must have opinions and speak them; possibly be prepared to defend them." He waited a moment to make sure they got it, then nodded.

"The second rule – there will be no judging. There will undoubtedly be things you do not think of as edible, or even that you may have a cultural or religious bias against. There may be practices in the raising or creation of food which you may find objectionable. I expect you to say just that, and to be prepared to explain why. There will be no use of the term 'disgusting', no 'ew's or 'gross'es." He frowned. "That will affect your grade if I hear it, and quite negatively."

He sat back in the chair, hands folded. "Now, introductions I believe are traditional, but I would appreciate a little more as well. Please tell me your name, and any allergies – food or otherwise – and dietary restrictions you may have. It is my goal to make you think about your food and to expand your horizons, not to kill you from anaphylaxis." Though he did have medicines just in case; he'd never lost a student unintentionally yet, and had no plans of starting now.

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"Holy rabies, fried tarantulas!"

Mavis would try not to devour them all. She didn't want to be rude.

Sorry, Mavis. Rilla was just going to sit here and stare at you.

"...ew."

Hannibal narrowed his eyes at Rilla. "Ms Blythe, what did I say about that?"

Rilla blushed crimson. "Sorry, sir," she mumbled to the floor.

But spiders. Ew. She'd better not tell Susan or the hampers of food to protect her from Yankee cooking would get even bigger.

Mavis didn't really care if someone thought her favorite foods were icky; it took all kinds, after all, and there were a few things that came out of Chef Quasimodo's kitchen at home that you couldn't get her to try on a dare. Still, she was curious. About...everything.

"You don't like spiders? Or just not fried ones?"

"If I see a spider indoors, I usually do my best to squash it with a newspaper," Rilla said.

Mavis could do that ewwwwww face too. "Well, that's just wasteful. Or rude, if it's the talking kind of spider." No, she had no moral issues with eating one kind and playing endless games of 20 Questions with the other. Welcome to a vampire childhood.

"...you'd eat a talking spider?!"

"No, of course not!" What kind of monster did you think she was, Rilla? "But I wouldn't squish one, either."

Hannibal thought he'd best bring this back a bit on topic. (Control freak? Him?)

"So, Mavis - you won't eat things that speak? Is that a moral or a practical guideline?"

"Well..." Mavis had to think about it. "I might eat something that talked if it tried to eat me first? But otherwise... a little of both, I guess? At home, anything that talks is probably either a hotel guest or staff."

Yes, that included the spiders.

"I can see that it would be quite rude to eat a guest." He tried to avoid that himself, when he could. "So, you prefer not to eat sentient things, but there are conditions under which you would consider it. Like our friend Shane here, the designation of 'food' is relative."

Hannibal really was going to have to look into the whole 'anything' part further. Pity he'd probably be restricted to questioning.

The Philosophy of Food | Wednesday, 3rd Period

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!

Re: Talk to Hannibal/Try the food!