fandomhigh | Philosophy of Food | Monday, 4th period

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Philosophy of Food | Monday, 4th period

If Hannibal had been mildly disgruntled last week, he was downright put out today. Class had been asked to meet at Portalocity instead of the school.

"Since the island has seen fit to drop us in the middle of a wasteland today, we'll be going somewhere else. As it happens, the Victoria and Albert - in several universes - has an exhibition that fits nicely into this class's purview. So, we have tickets and will be going there, and then for late lunch or early dinner in London before we return. The local language is English, so you should have no difficulties. If you've any questions about the exhibits, please feel free to ask me or any of the employees."

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Studiously?

Prompto Argentum

Nell Ingram

Billy Batson

Be glad you're getting out of here today.

Yeah, things were looking pretty gnarly on the island that morning, wasn't it? It was kind of nice to not have water everywhere, sure, but the water was managing to somehow seem way better. And he always loved taking portalocity trips, even better when they were for class because it was just basically awesome field trips and Field Trip Class had definitely given him a good taste of that.

Some links about it

You know what? All of this stuff was actually super cool and really surprisingly interesting (and making Prompto really, really hungry), but his biggest take-away from it all was that...

...sorry, but chickens were never, ever going to be a cool and awesome as chocobos.

And the chicken culture thing might have been his favorite of the whole exhibit, if it didn't just get him feeling pretty uncomfortable with the whole idea of breeding things and trying to splice genes and DNA and experimenting and you know what? Maybe nature should be left to run its course because there was something really, really wrong when you just started making whatever you wanted, like clones or....whatever...and doing what ever you wanted to them in a lab, right?

...right?

Still, he couldn't help himself from thinking: if someone bred chickens and chocobos together to get pet-sized chocobos than never got bigger than a chicken for people who, like, lived in cities or dorms or something, that....would be pretty cool.

But where did you draw the line on that sort of thing?

...definitely before creating whole people out of test-tubes, that was for sure...

He was clearly thinking about this too much, but, in his defense, it was kind of hard for him not to.

"Weighty thoughts today?" Hannibal asked.

Prompto, who was so tangled up in those weighty thoughts that it hadn't even occurred to him that anyone might notice, chuckled a little, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, wondering if his face was as red as it felt.

(Spoiler alert: it totally was).

"Nah, not...not really," he said, trying to shrug it off. "There's just...a lot of interesting stuff here in...in general, y'know? A lotta...food for thought," and yes, his grin made it very clear he knew just how bad that joke was, "as it were."

Hannibal wasn't buying it, but he was still quirking a smile at the pun. "Such as?"

Well, at least the joke was appreciated. It was an obvious one, sure, but that made it a classic. And the appreciation of it eased him into maybe feeling a little more comfortable with talking. It was kind of the point of the class, too, wasn't it? So he probably wasn't going to be able to brush it off too easily, and he never was very good at lying beyond the first initial attempt at a blow-off, anyway.

So he shrugged a little, and laughed to lighten it up nicely. "I don't know," he said. "Mostly just thinking about how chickens'll never be as cool as chocobos, and then that got me thinking, well, what if you, like...make a chocobo-chicken hybrid? Could be good for pets. But then I got thinking...I don't know, man, it doesn't....seem right...."

Don't touch your wrist, Prompto, leave it alone, don't touch...

Aaaand so of course he was rubbing his wrist a little.

"Messing with nature like that."

That was interesting.

"Humans have worked on 'messing' with nature for thousands of years," Hannibal said. "What about it seems wrong to you?"

"I mean, hey, just because someone's been doing someting for thousands of years doesn't necessarily make it right," said Prompto. "And...I, uh..." Chewing his lower lip for a moment, he shrugged. "I don't know, it's just, like...where would that leave the little chickichocobo? The chickens probably wouldn't want him, since he's not chicken enough, and the chocobos would think he was too chicken, so he's all by himself, doesn't even really know what he is anymore, he's just some...thing else. And, sure, maybe it works okay at first, but what if, like, it doesn't work in the long run, and you've created this little guy, but there's something wrong with him, because cells and DNA aren't supposed to go together like that and he's going to just die this slow and painful and lonely death when he probably shouldn't have been...made in the first place...

"I'd just feel pretty bad for the little dude, I guess."

Hannibal hummed in thought. "Do you know that the corn we eat today is almost entirely hybrid varieties? The original wild version has neither sufficient flavor nor hardiness to feed the millions that today's crops do. Purebred organisms often suffer from weaknesses and vulnerabilities that hybrids do not."

He eyed Prompto speculatively. "I would suppose that particular chick would have to decide for himself what he was and what his path should be, and make the most of the time that he had."

"Yeah, but," Prompto grinned a little, shrugging a shoulder, "corn and stuff's different, they're just plants, they're not, like, creatures with feelings and emotions and things like that. I mean, I'm sure there's some plants that probably have all that, but those aren't the plants we're, you know, growing for food. I guess, I don't know, I guess my point is mostly that....it just doesn't seem very fair to the chickichobobo to have to go through all that, you know? But...I guess none of us really ask to be born...or made...or whatever...and I guess it's okay if he's, like, happy and stuff, but what if he's not?"

"Nobody does ask to exist," Hannibal agreed, "nor is there any guarantee of fairness. It seems to me that it would be up to the chick to find his own ways to be happy, either working with or in defiance of his origins."

You'll be walking to the Brompton Food Market afterward, to eat fresh, quality food. Sorry, no fish and chips.

Prompto thought that maybe getting inside his own head might have put a curb on the appetitie that he'd originally gained at the start of the trip, but, yeah, no, that wasn't an issue at all once they got to the food market. Not even a little, which was kind of a bummer, because then it just made deciding what to get that much harder.

He's here! And defiantly wearing a well-tailored and not-at-all-1950s suit.

This exhibition was just too good not to visit.

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Philosophy of Food | Monday, 4th period

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Listen to the lecture

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Enjoy the exhibition

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Food after

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Talk to Hannibal!

OOC!