fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Monday

"Hey," Ender greeted the group, smiling faintly. "It's traditional for my class to spend the first week reflecting on the future, and the last reflecting on the past."

"Specifically," he continued, stretching his legs out in the grass of the dorm lawn, "How much have you changed since you got here? How do you see your future, on the island or off? Has the island been an interruption in your life, to be skipped past and left there once you graduate? Or going by your experiences, do you think it will forge lasting changes that will stick with you in the times ahead?"

He smiled briefly.

"I realize this isn't a particularly philosophical series of questions," he said. "But it's something worth reflecting on, not just with me, but between yourselves. I have a feeling your viewpoints will be as diverse as you are."

He sat back.

"But to pull it larger: do you think there's a shared experience here on this island? Something similar we all take away from it? Or none at all?"

After he let those questions sink in, he looked towards one student in particular ~~if she was there~~. "Peridot? Can you come see me after class?"

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Do you think there's a shared experience here on this island? Something similar we all take away from it? Or none at all?

"I don't know," Peridot admitted, fidgeting faintly. "Being on the island has made me think of things that would never have occurred to me, and some of them aren't things I can just stop thinking about. If I get back to Homeworld, thinking those thoughts, thoughts about growing and friendship, things like that, that could change things."

It could be dangerous, was what it could be.

"How do you feel about that?" Ender asked, tilting his head.

Peridot paused for a moment, considering the question. And then she shrugged her shoulders.

"Afraid, a little," she replied. "Some of those thoughts are dangerous ones. The same sort of thoughts that spark rebellions, that get Gems shattered. I don't want to be shattered. I don't want to be mistaken for the traitors who stood against Homeworld. I remain loyal to my Diamond. I just... wonder if the way humans do some things is more logical."

"There's a long road between thinking different thoughts and actually choosing to act in opposition to anything," Ender said quietly. "You don't have to let them influence your actions, if you decide the ramifications aren't worth it."

"But what do I do if I decide they are?"

These were the questions that... didn't keep her up at night, as Gems didn't sleep, exactly. But she had to consider them all the same.

"My Diamond is reasonable, the most logical of them all, but there's a history."

"Then you have to listen to your conscience," Ender said frankly. "It's all any of us can do."

"My..." Peridot frowned a little. "That's a small talking insect, isn't it? I don't have one of those."

She'd been trying to take in human entertainment again. For insight.

Ender blinked. Then he let out a soft laugh. "No," he said. "A conscience is... the voice in the back of your head that tells you what's right and wrong, more or less. Though some cartoons have taken to giving it an anthropomorphic shape."

Peridot blushed faintly, that blue tint coloring her cheeks.

"Oh. It's metaphor, then."

Having a conscience was like having a noisy insect infestation. Good to know.

"Yes," Ender said, "Though knowing it is nothing to be embarrassed about. You're learning."

Re: Talk.

era_two_triangle - 2016-08-15 13:59 (UTC) - Expand

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era_two_triangle - 2016-08-15 16:30 (UTC) - Expand

"Like a lot of people, I didn't come here willingly," Ada said bluntly. "I'd been sick--" a truth and a lie all in one, "--an' wasn't gonna pass th' homeschool tests from th' government social workers. This was our work-around... I wasn't gonna have t' take the tests -- an' fail -- if I was at a 'real' school when they showed up."

Was that sarcasm on 'real'? Yes, yes it was.

"I thought the moment I turned eighteen I'd be out of here faster than you could blink. It's what my family expects. But right now? I don't know if I want to go. I like it here, when it's not trying to kill me."

Ender sat forward, considering her. "What changed?" he asked.

"Ain't never had friends b'fore," she said simply. "You live an' work with family with the carnival, an' while stayin' in one place more'n a week still makes me itch, it's th' first time I've ever had friends that like me f'r me, not because we're family."

Ender smiled a little. "Sometimes it happens," he said, a little wryly. "Do you think you'll finish up your schooling here, now?"

"I'd be th' only one in m' age-group t' have finished high school. Considerin' 'm th' one that hated it th' most, that's kinda funny," she said, grinning. "I want t' stay, but they ain't gonna be happy about it."

"We're not exactly a standardized high school," Ender said wryly. "How much do they know about this place?"

"That it's a place for people who don't quite fit nowhere else," Ada said simply. "Which is all they knew when they sent me here. Never told 'em the weirder stuff, even when I wanted t' go home, b'cause they mighta pulled me out an' that woulda put all th' kids at the carnival at risk."

"Now I just don't tell 'em b'cause I don't feel like gettin' yelled at for not tellin' them b'fore."

"How complicated is the situation for kids at the carnival?" Ender asked. "I've never known."

"One of us fails the tests, social services starts takin' a real hard look at all of us," she answered. "Due t' our 'non-traditional home environment' an' all."

"Your parents ain't together, or work different carnivals? They find a complaint that some Townie once alleged you took their wallet, but it was never proven? They don't think th' meal trailer's been serving enough vegetables? Got a girlfriend or boyfriend an' they think you're too young? Or, hell, you passed but barely? You're a target for removal an' they'll toss you in foster care 'til you're eighteen 'for your own good.'"

"An' ain't nothing thrives where it don't belong. Th' ones that get taken? Don't always make it back."

"I think we develop a shorthand here," Mara said, "that won't translate easily elsewhere. No one else will just wave off a weekend where everyone lost their memories as something that just happens."

"How do you think that's going to affect you later?" Ender asked.

"As little as I can manage," Mara said bluntly. "My mentor has exacting standards."

"And Fandom doesn't measure up?" Ender said.

"He is not impressed by whimsy," Mara vastly understated.

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