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Ethics, Tuesday

Their class today took place in an ordinary classroom, with ordinary desks and ordinary chairs, and an ordinary Jedi in thick robes who looked as if for all the world, everything was ordinary at the moment. Obi-Wan had been with the Order all his life; deflecting feelings such as desire into the Force was old hat.

Mildly irritating old hat that he had to work slightly harder for than usual, but still: old hat. The only thing that was different was that now he held some mild concern as to the identity of the 'Jaye' who had sent him flowers.

"I hope your week with the babies has been educational," he said, when it became apparent that Anakin would be late. "Difficult as some of you appear to have found the task, going by what I've heard on the radio. Today, you may relinquish the children, and we will talk about the lessons you have learned..."

...and speaking of lessons, the kids were getting an unintentional one of completely inappropriate Huttese--and Tusken curses, with a bit of Bothawui thrown in for effect--as a glitter bedrenched blob that could only be Anakin stalked into the classroom and stood in front of the class. "I hate everything and everyone," he declared, then pointed a (glittery) finger at Obi-Wan. "And one word about hate being of the Dark Side and I'm punting you out the nearest window."

Congratulations, class: not only would you be learning educational lessons about babies and curse words, you would also be there to witness the deployment of the nuclear-grade epic eyeroll Obi-Wan had spent years developing: Codename: Anakin. "I would concern myself with letting your anger pass into the Force, first, before moving on to more complicated emotions such as hatred," he said, with barely constrained amusement.

"I haven't missed you even a little bit," the glitter pile muttered. "I've noticed the...sense...of the island as I arrived," he added, "so please don't do anything or anyone you'll regret when this wears off."

It was hard to take a sex-ed PSA seriously from what amounted to a walking, talking, disco ball, so don't worry if you can't, class.

"Good advice," Obi-Wan said, in desperate hope that his own presence might bring some actual respectability and truth to the disco pile's words. "Now, that aside: today, you may tell the class what you learned about responsibility and caretaking in this past week. Please stay at your desks as you do so, for reasons my colleague has already explained."

He'd pull up his hood, however. Anakin was rather safe from any teenager's directed interest, being that there were limits to what one could find attractive about a pile of glitter. But he had been in enough troublesome situations that he'd like to decrease the risk of being the target of anyone's looks.

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"Now, that aside: today, you may tell the class what you learned about responsibility and caretaking in this past week." How did your time with the droid babies go?

Elsa had handed her baby off to Ronan earlier in the week and hadn't seen it since, and maybe that was for the best. It had already been dog-chewed by a half-grown malamute and around the time where she passed it along, it had been encased in a solid block of ice. She was pretty certain she wouldn't have done that if the pollen hadn't made her so skittish, but either way, she comprehended that that wasn't how you treated babies.

"I'm never having children," she declared. "Ever."

That was... maybe not the full and complete lesson, really.

"I can't, I shouldn't. After the time I spent with that thing," it would always be a thing, "and the shape it was in when I handed it to my partner I'm questioning if I'm even fit to be taking care of my dog."

It did help that she wasn't actively repulsed by her dog, maybe.

Obi-Wan's first instinct was to ask exactly why it had been necessary to damage the baby, but that seemed needlessly confrontational. "What happened?" he asked instead. "And why did you do it?"

She hadn't meant to! She'd intended to hand it back maybe somewhat neglected, but at least in one piece.

"My dog mistook it for a toy," she explained, her cheeks flushing bright pink. "And I didn't notice until the damage had been done. And then the island started doing... doing this, and..."

Maybe a little wave of her (very definitely gloved) hand would properly get the rest across. To a teacher who knew nothing about her powers, sure. Panic was a pretty universal notion though, right? She had kind of panicked, between the pollen and the blizzard that hadn't seemed to be letting up.

"It was an accident."

Story of her life, really.

Obi-Wan nodded.

He was careful to ensure there was a kind smile visible on his face when he spoke next; he did not want her to take this too harshly. "Then perhaps the lesson is to be more mindful of your priorities," he said. "Accidents come easiest when we are not paying attention."

"I try to be better about... things like that."

Really, at this point, it wasn't even that she needed to keep her powers a secret. Around here, nobody really cared. Except maybe Anna. Anna... was never allowed to know. But Anna wasn't in the room.

It was more force of habit than anything, the fact that she wasn't just openly discussing that she had serious self-control issues.

"There were a lot of little things factoring into what happened. That's really not an excuse, because you're right. I did lose sight of my priorities, and I... I can't really afford to do that."

In fairness, the droid baby had never been her top priority, though. It ranked pretty low, somewhere on the same level as 'make certain your stockings are properly folded' or 'maybe today I'll learn to knit.' It possibly even ranked a, 'I wonder how s'mores would taste if you added peanut butter.' And that was if one was being generous.

Yes, well. That might have been part of what Obi-Wan meant about priorities, Elsa. Schoolwork fell under that banner as well, as far as he was concerned, especially when it was schoolwork that simulated an actual life.

Not that he'd say that.

"What would you do differently next time?" he asked. "Would you do something differently?"

Re: Discuss: Responsibility

iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com - 2015-02-17 12:50 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Discuss: Responsibility

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Re: Discuss: Responsibility

iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com - 2015-02-17 13:08 (UTC) - Expand

There had been pollen, and then a loud, insistent droid that kept her from seeking out Joker to take care of that particular, insistent itch -- and kept her from sleeping, either. (Well, at least for her half of the week.)

And now she was watching one of their teachers raise his eyebrows and imply Elsa -- Elsa -- was some careless, thoughtless chit, and watching Elsa retreat further and further into her shell of guilt and self-blame. And her last nerve snapped.

"Don't you dare lecture her about priorities," Eleanor seethed.

Obi-Wan's eyes snapped to Eleanor immediately. "Miss Holloway," he said sharply, "Control yourself. Anger has no place in this classroom."

Re: Discuss: Responsibility

nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com - 2015-02-17 23:11 (UTC) - Expand

Alana had managed not to snicker too much at the talking disco ball. She was very proud of herself for this achievement.

"I learned that I'm okay at it even if I'm not ready for real kids," Alana offered with a little shrug, then remembered Anakin's broadcast. "I mean, fine, I put it in the storage room at work a couple times so I could concentrate, but it needed a nap anyhow."

It was a good thing her parenting skills would improve in the next decade or so.

Said glitter ball was trying to glare.

It was not going well.

"You wouldn't do that with a real child."

Alana had to cover her mouth with her hand fast at the sight of a glaring disco ball.

"I might," she retorted, once her composure was restored. "It's not like they can cry themselves to death in half an hour, right? And besides, I'd have to work so I'd have money so I could feed the baby and buy shoes and playpens and stuff like that."

Edited 2015-02-17 14:29 (UTC)

"No, but an actual child in a closet would probably poke themselves in the eye with a hanger or choke on a button or somehow manage to get peanut butter all over everything even though there's no peanut butter to be seen. ANYWHERE."

Not that he was speaking from experience.

Alana blinked at him. "It's a baby. It doesn't walk or get into peanut butter," she said. "Anyhow, it was in a little box. Like a playpen. I didn't just, like, chuck it in the storage room and run."

"Babies are wilier than you'd think, and the squirrel notes weren't exactly explicit," Anakin said. "So I'm glad there was some forethought involved."

Re: Discuss: Responsibility

not_a_moonie - 2015-02-17 19:38 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Discuss: Responsibility

sith_happened - 2015-02-17 19:56 (UTC) - Expand

"I learned that I was more patient with the actual, living-flesh daughter that appeared for me over a weekend last year than I was with your poorly-behaved mechanical nightmare," Celia offered, crossing her arms irritably over her chest. "And considering I have never encountered an infant that cried that much, I don't think it was a fair exercise or that the results yielded are necessarily accurate."

Which was to say: Celia rather thought her babies -- should she ever get the chance to have any -- would be better behaved (and far less creepy), thank you.

Obi-Wan had been inclined to be patient with Elsa, because she appeared to be honestly troubled by the whole affair. Celia's attitude, however, did not quite prompt such patience.

"Oh?" he said. "And how many infants have you had under your care?"

"None, by choice," Celia admitted, faltering only slightly. "But that doesn't mean I haven't seen a baby before, or spent time around them. And that doesn't change my point -- that I feel your experiment is flawed, as the infants provided are more exaggerated than what we might find in the wild, so to speak. It felt like an exercise in scare tactics, rather than a lesson in responsibility."

"I can assure you the only thing about this exercise that one would not 'experience in the wild'," Obi-Wan said, "...is that we allow you to give them back at the end of the week."

He nodded towards Anakin. "He has four children," he said. "He can tell you horror stories of his own."

Yes, but Anakin was rather giggle-inspiring today, and Celia would rather not irritate both of her teachers.

"...really?" she asked, her shoulders drooping slightly. "Because I've been around babies, before, and it seems they're quiet at least...occasionally."

She bit her lower lip, a bit embarrassed. "I still fared better with my own -- albeit, from another universe -- child last year than I did with this," she added, her tone a bit less confrontational. "So I suppose the lesson I've learned about responsibility is that I am not fit to take care of something that cannot at least clearly communicate its needs, as my alternate daughter was six and accomplished that much. I could not tell what the baby wanted nearly ever, and that was...frustrating."

In case her feelings weren't obvious.

Re: Discuss: Responsibility

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Re: Discuss: Responsibility

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Re: Discuss: Responsibility

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Re: Discuss: Responsibility

saddeserthermit - 2015-02-17 20:48 (UTC) - Expand

"I like real children better, my cat hates robots and tries to kill it thinking it's a minion of darkness--" No, really, but Minako had stopped him before it even got scratched! "--and I ~~handwavily~~ passed it off to my co-parent as often as possible because robot babies do not like running laps!"

UNFAIR. Exercise was important! Especially this week!

"Oh, and I really don't get what this exercise was about. I don't. If it was 'responsibility sucks,' you could have given us puppies to walk at all hours. Giving us robot babies just seems like a badly done sex-ed class from a teenage romantic comedy, and I didn't even get a date out of it." Priorities, people!

"Given how some of these babies are coming back, we're not putting you near living things," Anakin replied a little dryly.

Well, as dryly as someone dripping in glitter could possibly manage.

"Yeah, I already knew I was never having kids," Joker replied. "This was just a good reminder that I shouldn't adopt, either." He shrugged. "And, for the record, my sister never screamed half that much."

Anakin shrugged. "Different babies react differently. Some refuse to be let go of, some need to be rocked to sleep for almost a year...there's no way to predict."

"Doesn't matter. I'm not going to have the time for a kid, and I definitely don't have the genes for one." He paused to think for a moment. "Which reminds me -- I've been planning on a vasectomy at some point. I really ought to get that done sooner rather than later."

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