Practical Philosophy, Thursday

[endsthegame]

The weather was okay. Overcast, but it wasn't raining, so as per his tradition, Ender had asked all the students to gather on the dorm lawn. There were pillows, blankets, bottles of water and sandwiches.

He greeted the arriving students with a, "Sit down in a circle, please. If we're going to talk, we should ensure we're all facing each other equally."

He shoved the sandwiches to the center of the circle, so everyone could access it.

"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. I'll give you the spiel I give my students every year I'm here - but this is the only class that is prepared or rehearsed to any capacity. That, after all, is the point of it."

"While 'philosophy' is in my class's title, we're not here 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. Above all, philosophy is about asking questions about everything in the world around us - and about everything we feel about it. 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."

"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. Or maybe not. Maybe this is just going to be the hour this term where you get to sit around and gab." 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. "So let's talk," he said. "How do you feel about where you are now? You've been on this island for close to a week; is it speaking to you, in a metaphorical sense? What kind of experience has it been for you? As for the rest of you, 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. "Every week, we'll reflect on something that happened since we last met, but I'm always open to speaking about anything that comes to mind." He nodded at one of the students. "I've talked for long enough. It's your turn."

Comments

Talk.

[endsthegame]

How do you feel about where you are now? Is the island speaking to you, in a metaphorical sense? What kind of experience has it been for you? As for the rest of you, how has the past year treated you? Has there been anything that made you cry or made you think or made you wonder?

Re: Talk.

[legionqueen]

Jules frowned. “I only just arrived two days ago. This wasn’t the island I was expecting to come to,” she admitted. “I’m told it’s fairly common for people to get stuck here, though. Which, if I’m being honest, is pretty unsettling.”

Considering she was from an island full of people with magical powers which was protected from the outside world by a magical barrier, that Fandom of all places was unsettling was saying kind of a lot.

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"That it happens, that people here are so accepting of it, both, or something else?" Ender asked, tilting his head.

Re: Talk.

[legionqueen]

"Both," Jules admitted after a moment's hesitation, fingers of one hand in the scruff of fur at Camden's neck. 'Unsettling' was a good word to describe the past year, honestly, and this was just the icing on the disturbing cake.

Re: Talk.

[in_sidon_we_trust]

And here came Sidon, which was a practical force of nature of cheerfulness all of its own, especially considering his views on the last week were quite a bit...different from the views of some of his friends and others.

"Oh," he admitted, fairly gushing, "I think things have been absolutely wonderful! I have had the advantage of two truly exhillerating and spectacular adventures in the last month, and here we are, on the very edge of an exciting new summer here on glorious Fandom Island! The summers not only provide new friends to join us here, but also some of the best swimming I've had just about nearly anywhere besides my own home. I have an excellent new scar," here, his headtail twitched a little, but since he didn't quite have the mobility in his headtail as say, something like a lek, he turned his head to better show off the actual small chunk of flesh that was gone, "the most incredible, thrilling, heroic story you can imagine, I am absolutely and completely in love with the most amazing person I have ever had the honor to meet, and I simply cannot wait to see what still lies ahead. It has been a spectacular year, I don't think I've ever had a more magnificent one in my life!"

And he was almost eighty now, so, there were a lot of years to work with there!

He...had a feeling that Mr. Skywalker was aiming for something a bit more...introspective and perhaps even critical, but...that just wasn't Sidon, except perhaps...

His smile softened a little as he considered that, and he offered, a bit more mild but no less passionate, "It has made me very grateful to have had the opportunity to experience so many wondrous things in the company of so many dear and special friends."

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

Well, Sidon seemed like a very positive person. Ender wondered vaguely what laid behind it, but he chose not to question it directly.

"So what do you think has been your most valuable experience among them?" he asked.

Re: Talk.

[in_sidon_we_trust]

"Oh, well, that's easy!" said Sidon, laughing a little as he seemed about ready to charge forward with an answer, but he did faltered, stopping for a moment, and then looking thoughtful. "Well," he tried again, chuckling now, with a light shake of his head. "Actually, I must say, that is a marvelous question! I find it rather impossible to actually choose just one; just as I believe myself to have it, along comes another thought, another example, another experience I consider just as valuable as the first, if not more so!

"So I suppose," he continued, stroking his chin a little thoughtfully, "if I were restricted to choose but one of these marvelously worthy experiences as the one I valued the most, above all others....well, then, I simply must go with the one that has changed my life so momentously, so monumentally, that it simply soars above all the others. And that would be the experience of meeting my beloved Vette."

Sorry, everyone! Enjoy your newly acquired diabetes!!

Re: Talk.

[always_someone]

Norman had actually, uh, done a lot of crying over the course of the past week, but he really didn't want to talk about that at all, especially not given some of his other classmates. So he sipped his water and sat quietly and listened and chewed on the inside of his own head a little before offering, "I kind of worry."

Well. There was a start.

"I mean. I kind of worry that... things here always seem to work out, eventually, no matter how weird or how dangerous they get. And there's a kind of security in that, that maybe... makes people feel safer, like they can just do things and it'll work out in the end, and it's great when it does, but just because everyone's alive and well in the end doesn't mean people don't get hurt along the way."

You know. Hypothetically.

Re: Talk.

[goldfishontherocks]

Keyleth shot him a worried look and made a little gesture with her fingers, sending a very light scent of lavender wafting in his direction. It wasn't much, but now was probably not a good time to talk to him and she was kind of hoping that little application of druidcraft would at least be soothing.

Re: Talk.

[always_someone]

It took Norman a few moments before he noticed the soft sent of flowers in the air, and after a few seconds of glancing around to see if he could actually spot any... he just kind of settled down again, looking slightly confused, but maybe a little more relaxed in spite of himself.

That was nice, whatever it was.

He liked that.

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"Fandom has a habit of tricking us into thinking decisions don't have consequences," Ender agreed. "For a little while. Are you worried you're becoming more reckless?"

Re: Talk.

[always_someone]

"Yeah, kind of," Norman replied, his voice falling a little more quiet, blue eyes sliding down to rest on the bottle of water in his hands. "Maybe not... reckless. Maybe... thoughtless."

He frowned a little.

"I don't know if that's the right word for it either," he sighed. "I try to do the right thing. I want to do the right thing. But I don't know everything yet, I guess. I see a lot that other people can't, but that doesn't mean I always see the potential consequences of my actions before I act."

Re: Talk.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Like, oh my gosh, some parts of being here are really, really great?????????????? Coming here, meeting so many different kinds of people, having the luck to be friends with so many of them and getting to, like, see their homes, is just amazing???????????????"

Nina was pointedly not paying attention to Norman, who at least sounded like he'd learned something from his sheer idiocy, but her smile faded a little anyway, as she looked at the rest of the class.

"But, like, I think the island is a bit... cruel, too, because if you mess up here, you can usually fix it and... and in a lot of homes and worlds and places, you can't. So it, like, encourages people to be careless because consequences don't matter here, the way they do elsewhere and that's kind of a terrible lesson for anyone to learn??????????"

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"I have a feeling you and one of your classmates have spoken before. If not, you probably should," Ender said, a wry smile on his face. "Though, thinking back to your classmate's words, it does make me wonder: what consequences are we talking about? Just harm to life and limb? Because in many worlds, that's not really a primary concern."

Re: Talk.

[bookbeltof_love]

"We've talked. It's probably better that we don't talk more," Nina said evenly, since it really was better, for Norman, that they didn't. "He's, like, scared of me or something anyway?????????????"

Nina never really had thought highly of Norman in the first place and the events of the last week had only made that worse.

"Not just, like, life and limb though those are important and in a lot of worlds they are a concern," Nina said, toying with a piece of grass that had made it onto her blanket somehow.

"It's also, like, consequences to knowing that home isn't safe. It should be. That's what homes are for. It's getting people who had nothing to do with whatever was going on killed. People, like, don't come back from that in a lot of worlds. It's about all the struggling to deal with what happened, even if it got fixed, afterwards and about lying through your teeth about being okay, when you're not. Not every consequence is big but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter," she finished vehemently.

Re: Talk.

[in_sidon_we_trust]

Naturally, Sidon was inclined to listen to all of his classmates share their various experiences, but the more Nina spoke, the more he had to admit that he grew particularly pensive. He had, of course, intended to speak with her a little after they'd gotten the kitten all set up later today, but this was....certainly giving him some food for thought.

And if she should notice his attention, he would offered her a soft and gentle smile, and an encouraging nod, his eagerness to get everything taken care of now growing. They really did need to talk, didn't they? He just hoped that, somehow, he might be able to ease her troubles, even if just a little bit, by doing so...

Re: Talk.

[bookbeltof_love]

Of course she noticed, and not just because it was, really, impossible to not notice Sidon.

Nina didn't really know what to do with that soft smile tossed her way, though, so she just looked down and away, picking at the grass.

Re: Talk.

[goldfishontherocks]

"It makes me think all the time," Keyleth offered. "But that's inevitable when I'm here mostly to experience perspectives and situations outside what I'm likely to get in my remote little village. It's been . . . eye-opening, and sometimes uncomfortable, I can't lie about that, but I don't think that's a bad thing."

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"Discomfort is usually where we start to learn," Ender agreed. "Is there anything in particular that's made you uncomfortable? Do you think you handled it well?"

Re: Talk.

[goldfishontherocks]

"Well, somehow I keep ending up in classes and situations that involve a lot of fighting, or at least punching things, and that's really -- I don't like weapons, and I don't know if I'd say I handled all of them well." Keyleth's laugh was a little high-pitched in a self-conscious sort of way. "But I haven't run away, and I've even volunteered for a couple of them, and given that I'm going to face those situations in real life no matter how uncomfortable I feel about them, I think that's a fairly big accomplishment in itself."

Re: Talk.

[scoffs_at_tradition]

"Well, this is my first experience living anywhere outside my homeland," Shuri said, "but I've watched enough Youtube videos to know that this place is...unique and not just America being strange."

She paused. "But America is strange. Why do so many people want me to have a nice day?"

Re: Talk.

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina couldn't help but giggle at that.

"Do you, like, want to have a bad day???????????" she asked whimsically.

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"Politeness, and a drive to make sure you're doing your utmost best to make social interaction go down smoothly," Ender said, mouth curving. "How do they handle goodbyes where you come from?"

Re: Talk.

[unusual_sith]

"This island is definitely different," Lana said. "It's been good, but a little odd. It's thrilling to meet so many people I never would have had a chance to otherwise, and to learn so many new things. I sometimes worry I'm getting soft, though; it's not nearly as dangerous as life back home, and I have to stay sharp."

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"Have you found ways to keep yourself sharp?" Ender said. "And isn't there some value to knowing how to be soft?"