fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Friday

Since the weather was tolerable, Ender had left the students a note to meet him on the dorm lawn. He was already there, seated on the ground, looking exhausted but also happy in an uncharacteristically dopey way. He'd left baby Val with Ben that morning - with difficulty, mind you. He greeted the arriving students with a, "Sit down in a circle, please." He smiled briefly. "Well, there aren't many of you, so I'll accept any formation that makes all of us more or less equal."

He had a bag of sandwiches and a bag of bottles of water with him, which he put in the middle of the circle.

"Welcome," he said. "My name is Andrew Skywalker. I'm an alumnus of this school; I graduated several years ago." That was all they needed to know, as far as he was concerned. "And you might be wondering what you signed on for."

"While 'philosophy' is in my class's title, we're not here primarily to talk about the philosophers of old or the specifics of particular lines of thought in philosophy. In this class, we try to put our own experiences into a greater perspective through conversation and debate. That means I expect some level of participation from all of you."

He smiled wryly. "That doesn't mean you always need to speak up about yourself," he said. "No topics are everything to everyone. If that week's subject veers too close to something you want to keep private, be my guest - just try and pitch in when someone else speaks. Ask questions."

"Because that's the point of this class: to ask questions of ourselves and of the people around us. You can even ask questions of me, if you feel the need. And maybe together we can get to the core of our joint and individual experiences." His mouth quirked a bit more. "That doesn't mean we're always going to be lingering on the existential questions - or staring at our belly buttons. It just means we're going to try and dig and come to some understanding about each other, ourselves, and the world."

He picked up a bottle of water. "As for today, let's open a dialogue," he said. "As far as I can tell, for most of you, this is all new. You just got here. How is it working for you? Are you elated? Annoyed? Don't want to be here? Achingly happy to be here? And for those of you who aren't - how has the past year treated you? Has there been anything that made you cry or made you think or made you wonder?"

"We can talk about that. Or you can bring up something else you feel is worth questioning. I consider most topics fair game, as long as they're brought up with regard for your fellow students. I can't claim knowledge on most, but I can claim an ability to annoy you with questions about just about anything."

He grabbed a sandwich from the bag. "If one of you wants to call themselves my TA, feel free," he said, "But I'm not sure we'll have much need of one with this group. Maybe we're all TAs, this time around."

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"That's a promising start," Ender said, smiling a little. She pinged young and sheltered, but that was okay; part of the fun of this class was that it had a different feel every time, depending on who was in it.

"Why haven't you gone to town yet?"

"I went once with Kathy!" Alluka hurried to correct him. "And it was fun! But..."

Alluka shrugged and looked down at her bunny. It didn't say anything, but it didn't need to. It was on her side.

"What if I go and they change the rules and I don't know and get in trouble?"

"It wouldn't be very fair for them to punish you if they changed the rules without giving you a reasonable chance to find out, would it?" Ender mused.

Alluka blinked at him.

"...No?" she guessed.

Ender smiled a little.

"Would you punish someone for not obeying a rule you just made up?" he amended.

"But, but I don't make any rules," Alluka said, confused. "How could someone break them?"

"You can't make any rules, or you don't?" Ender asked.

Maybe she could hide behind her bunny? Would that work? These questions were making her feel funny.

Alluka didn't look up.

"Toys don't listen to rules."

And they were the only ones she'd ever had around to make the rules up for.

Ender nodded.

"What's your bunny's name?" he asked. "Does he? She? Want a bottle of water?"

"His name is a secret," Alluka said. It was the only secret she had and she was keeping it. Nanika wasn't a secret. "But a bottle of water would be okay."

A beat.

"Please."

Ender took a bottle of water out of the bag and offered it to the bunny. "We don't want him getting dehydrated."

Alluka grinned at that.

"He's bad at eating snacks," she shared, as she took the bottle for her bunny and opened it. She settled the bottle of water in front of her bunny.

"And he doesn't listen to you if you try to tell him how to do it right?" Ender asked. "Tsk."

She giggled.

"They're all like that," Alluka admitted.

"And how do you feel about that?" Ender asked, taking a sip of his own water.

"Huh?"

Alluka puzzled over that question.

"They can't help it," she ventured, after a moment.

"And you think that's a good enough reason to let them?" Ender asked.

"But, but since they're toys, they can't help not being the same as people," Alluka said, feeling terribly lost. "Even when I pretend they talk to me, I know it's just pretend."

But it was still comforting to pretend anyway.

Ender was just... trying to feel out how her thought process moved. "Fair enough," he said, "It's Fandom. I always have to check if inanimate objects aren't actually people just very good at pretending otherwise."

...

...

"Toys can be real here!?"

"Sometimes," Ender said, smiling slightly.

Alluka turned big, hopeful eyes on him.

"Do you think I could get one?"

"There might be a day when your bunny comes to life himself, at least for the day," Ender said. "Otherwise... you never know when you'll stumble across a strange pet here."

"Oh."

That didn't sound nearly as fun at he'd made it seem at first.

"It's just that, if I had a living toy, it would be better," she explained.

"Why?" Ender asked.

Re: Talk.

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