fandomhigh | Resolving Conflict Without Violence, Wednesday First Period [Week 2]

Anne was standing at the front of the classroom again, waiting for her students.

"Welcome back," she said with a friendly smile. "I hope you all enjoyed your first week of classes." Her smile flashed impish for a moment. "And it's good to see you came back." She hadn't been sure how many people would want to keep up the class, given the subject matter.

"Last week, we considered personal history and the role of violent and non-violent conflict resolution in our own lives. The usual format for this class will involve debate around contentious topics, the sorts of things that often do lead to violence, in order to offer you all opportunities to practice non-violent resolution when it is at its most difficult: when you really, really want to hit something." Or someone.

She turned, writing on the board with big, bold letters. "Family vs Community," she said, underlining the words on the board. "This is something of a classic dichotomy in philosophical discussions, but that's because it hits so close to home for most people. It's easy to put yourself into a lot of these hypothetical situations."

"So, here's the situation I want you to consider. Wherever you live, a dangerous new disease appears. It kills nine out of ten of the people who contract it, and it's so contagious that no attempt to quarantine it has been successful. The only positive thing is that if you're one of the lucky few to survive it, you become immune to future infections. So far, everyone has just relied on the luck of it not reaching their community. For our purposes, imagine that you caught it yourself while traveling abroad, and have only recently returned home after being cleared by the doctors."

"So you know the symptoms really well. Well enough to recognize them when your favorite family member contracts the disease. Now, you know that the early symptoms are subtle enough that it's unlikely anyone else will realize what has happened for a while."

"So. What do you do? Do you try to keep things hidden, hoping that you'll get lucky and your family will survive like you did? Do you warn your friends and neighbors so that they can keep their distance, and reduce the risk themselves? What other options do you see?"

Anne looked around. "I want you to pair up with each other and tease out the details. While this is a hypothetical situation, and that robs it of some of its emotional punch, I want you to prod for details. Push each other on your contradictions, try to find the specifics of how far each of you is willing to go."

She considered the students around her. "If you just play it safe, refusing to immerse yourself in the situation, you won't get nearly as much out of this exercise as you will if you really get into it."

But, really, it was up to them.

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"The day I allow my neighbors to dictate when I can or cannot go to my mother, especially if she is sick or dying is the day I climb onto the damn pyre myself," Hyacinthe said with quiet intensity. "She is my mother. We've only had each other since I was born. No one gets a say in that; not my neighbors, not my friends, not my king."

Aware he might have gotten a little too intense there, Hyacinthe made a visible effort to ease back, giving Summer a smile that didn't quite manage to make it to his usual levels of flirtation. "And you?"

It was exactly the kind of intensity Summer had been mining for. It was just the thing she had suspected might come out of him as soon as he mentioned how his mother was all he had, and just the thing she knew she wanted, needed to hear. A very small part of her wondered if it was bad to have picked up on his emotions and used them to bolster her own self up, but she was too captured by the passion to care. Her eyes were big and bright and firm with conviction, with just the slightest suggestion of regret underneath.

"Same," she said. "My grampa might not be perfect, but he does way more for us than I think anyone realizes. I would owe it to him to go after him. He'd have done the same for me."

Or so she thought. The official jury might be out on that one for a long time.

"No one outside of the family has any right to dictate how we respond to the ones we love," Hyacinthe said firmly. "The don't know and they don't have the right. We owe it to those we love to do more for them than allow them to crawl off to die alone in the dark like a dog."

"Yeah, exactly!" Summer felt pretty pumped up at that one. As pumped as one could by while imagining their grandfather dying along in the dark like a dog, which was probably exactly what was happening to him in prison right now.

There was one hitch, though, and that brought Summer down a bit. "What about other family, though? I know you said you really only had your mother, and I'm sorry about that. But at least then you don't have other family members muddying the waters. Like, what if you had a dad or a brother telling you it's bad to go after your mother? Where does that put you?"

There was an almost-imperceptible wince at 'dad.' "My family life is...complicated," he said slowly. "And none who could lay claim to the title by blood would have any say in what I do. But, did I have a hypothetical sibling, say? Well, for one, I suppose I'd hope that they believed in finding our mother as much as I. I suppose the question is...why? Even if she is only crawling away to die, shouldn't we wish someone were there to be with her? I am immune, I can other solace without fear. What possible reason could they have to wish me to let her die alone?"

Summer took this all in with a few thoughtful nods. Morty had been very vocal about his reasons, sure, but Summer just couldn't buy it. She just couldn't believe it at all.

"Mmmm," she hummed a little. "Yeah, I think I'd stick with my gut and my convictions and go, no matter what they said." She allowed a little smile. "Thanks. This has been a really helpful...uh...mental exercise for me."

"I'm am always glad to be of assistance to a lovely lady," Hyacinthe said, with a small bow over his desk. "'Tis been a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I can only hope that we deepen it during the year."

Summer was just way too charmed by bows, however little they may be, and, serious talk over, she did have a plan to get to work as soon as she could, but she had to at least ride out the rest of the class, right? So what was a little something more light among hopeful new friends?

Although, yes, she realized the lighter stuff should have probably come first.

"I'd like that," she said, and would have liked to say more, but, all of a sudden, her brain wasn't working as well as it had a few second ago. Funny, that.

Just wait until he was able to stand up properly because class was over, Summer. Hyacinthe was good at bows.

"You threw the party did you not?" he asked. "My apologies for not making it. I hope I can persuade you to throw another that I may come?"

Summer brightened even more. "That was me!" she proudly stated, preening just a little, because, hey, someone recognizing you for a party you threw that they weren't even at meant you were doing it right. "And you really don't need much to convince me to throw another one, but that just means you'll have to promise to come if I do, and bring your friends. The more the merrier, right?"

Although, should she really be focusing on parties right now? Maybe a little. She reasoned that it's what Grampa Rick would have wanted, and it wasn't like she'd be prepared to bust him out of prison tomorrow or anything.

It also meant that the island was infested by nosy squirrels that reported on everything.

"I can certainly promise to attend," Hyacinthe said easily. "And I'll bring who I can. Though I'd like the chance to get to know some of the newbies as well. 'Tis a pity that there are so many new faces and yet I've only managed to speak to one of them." He flashed her another smile. "Though you've set a high bar for the rest to live up to."

Damn, but that smile and those words were just not fair at all. "Ha!" Summer laughed, a bit nervously, but she wasn't about to deny it or anything dumb like that. "We'll just have to see about that."

Magical fantasy-France cares nothing for your sense of fairness!

"Well, until such time, I shall just have to enjoy getting to know you better, no?" He asked. And flashed her dimples. Because he could.

Resolving Conflict Without Violence, Wednesday First Period [Week 2]

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)

Re: Debate with each other (or Anne if you like)