Student Assembly, Wednesday afternoon, September 9, 2020

[sith_happened]

Well, there wasn't an obstacle course this week, so things were looking up, right, students? Maybe? A little?

Anakin made his way to the front of the stage, holding out a piece of paper he'd received from the office. "Today we have some very special guests," he began, "so everyone shut up and listen to them, right? We have--" he read from the paper, "--Mikhail Robespierre and Janet, presenting about moral philosophy. Ethics students, I very much expect you to be paying attention."

Comments

Arrive and Chat!

[sith_happened]

Oh boy, another one! You are probably not armed today, so you have that going for you.

Re: Arrive and Chat!

[lovethatjourney]

Alexis had dressed a little more... comfortably today, just in case there was carnage, or she had to run.

You see what this school had done to her, you monsters. Not a sequin in sight!

Re: Arrive and Chat!

[x_discospider_x]

Troy was more than a little disappointed to see that the obstacle course set-up was gone, and this looked way more like a regular school assembly, but he was...very open to be proven wrong on this one.

Not very optimistic about being proven wrong, but one could hope.

Re: Arrive and Chat!

[white_oleander]

Last week had Astrid wondering if she should leave her sketchbook behind this week, but as she settled into a seat, she was glad she still decided to bring it with her. Who knew what was going to be in store for them today, but she would be prepared in case it ended up being a little less involved than last week.

Re: Arrive and Chat!

[scoffs_at_tradition]

Shuri was disappointed not to find another weapon waiting for her--her sum total of assembly experience was last week's--but she sat in a chair eager to learn about...whatever today's thing was.

Re: Arrive and Chat!

[howareyanow]

This almost looked pert'near normal today.

Wayne didn't trust it one drill bit.

Re: Arrive and Chat!

[dauntlessdragoon]

Last week's assembly had turned out to be quite an enjoyable surprise for Freya, so she was interested to see what was in store for them this week, with focused attention and taking a polite seat toward the back.

Re: Arrive and Chat!

[sparkinyou]

Miles was not sure what to expect after last week's assembly but was happy to not see any paint guns around.

While he waited for people to file in, he pulled out his sketchbook and began to work on a couple of ideas he had.

Re: Arrive and Chat!

[toottootmagicflute]

These lectures were much more interesting than the ones at Cloud Recessess, and much less annoying (and potentially deadly) than the Wen Indoctrination. He was in a cheerful mood as he took his seat, adjusting his flute so it wouldn't get caught in the chair.

Re: Arrive and Chat!

[gospel_of_oblivion]

Was this probably another ambush of some sort? Yeah.

Was Illyana going to show up anyway to see exactly how it was going to go pear-shaped before skipping out?

Yes. Yes she was.

And Our Guests!

[sith_happened]

Mikhail Robespierre and Janet, take it away!

Lecture!

[demonic_cockroach]

An older man in a lavender suit and a peacock bow tie took the stage followed by a woman dressed in a purple dress and shirt.

Neither of them were a man or a woman. One was actually a demon and the other was a mainframe interface to universal knowledge but unless you can see in nine dimensions you might not pick up on that.

“Hello, My name is-”

There was a slight pause there as the man struggled to remember his name and the other person began to shake their head back and forth sensing oncoming doom.

“-Mikhail Robespierre.”

The person who had been shaking her head just closed their eyes and sighed.

“And this is my assistant-”

“Janet!” They said cutting him off entirely but with a cheerful smile. “My name is Janet.”

“Mikhail” smiled and continued on. “Today we are going to talk a little bit about moral philosophy. Not in an abstract way but how in each of our lives we face choices every day and how we resolve those choices. We all have a voice in our head. That voice doesn't tell us what to do or not do, but it does warn us when we do things that don't feel good or right. We’re going to explore that today with something called ‘The Trolley Problem’. Could we have our volunteers come up?”

As the volunteers made their way up, “Mikhail” continued to talk. “The Trolley problem was first introduced by Philippa Foot in 1967. In this thought experiment we are in control of a runaway trolley headed toward five people who will be killed by the collision, but it could be steered onto a track on which there is only one person. Today with the help of my assistant here we’re going to experience a little more interactive-"

“But wholesome!” Janet interjected

“-but wholesome version of this little experiment. Now, there are many variations of the trolley problem and we’re going to walk through a couple of them Janet? If you don’t mind.”

“Of course not,” Janet said and gave a simple nod of their head.

As Janet nodded their head, the auditorium changed slightly and there was an audible "ding". Now instead of the stage there was a giant view screen for all in the auditorium to see. But now the voluntolds were standing on a trolley that was running out of control down the street to a set of five large teddy bears which were all in the middle of the road having a picnic. To the right was another teddy bear sitting on a separate track and waving cheerfully at the trolley.

"Let's get started shall we?"

Voluntold - Mae

[demonic_cockroach]

"Hello cat-person!" Janet said with a cheerful wave.

"Mihail" smiled. "In front of you is a switch that allows you to change the track you are on. You cannot stop the car as the brakes are not working and the momentum will not allow you to slow down. You can either stay on this course and knock over the five teddy bears or change course to knock over the one. What do you choose?”

Re: Voluntold - Mae

[thishouseishaunted]

"I'm not a cat, lady," Mae told Janet.

She looked at the switch. She looked at the bears.

"Why the fuck would you have a picnic in the middle of trolley tracks?"

Voluntold - Eleanor

[demonic_cockroach]

“Okay, Eleanor-”

“Wait. How did you know my name?”

“Lucky guess. Same situation, Trolley, five teddy bears over here and one over there. What do you choose?”

Re: Voluntold - Eleanor

[mother_forker]

Eleanor poked at the switch that would switch between tracks. "Can I make this go faster?"

Voluntold - Adora

[demonic_cockroach]

"Hello, young lady," Mikhail said politely and gestured to the controls. "In front of you is a switch that allows you to change the track you are on. You cannot stop the car as the brakes are not working and the momentum will not allow you to slow down. You can either stay on this course and knock over the five teddy bears or change course to knock over the one. What do you choose?”

Re: Voluntold - Adora

[grayskollar]

"Of course I can stop the car," Adora declared without a moment's hesitation. "For the honour of Grayskull!"

A moment later, the now much taller and glowier Adora had leapt out through the front window of the trolley and was now trying to push the car back to a halt.

Yeah, that was a thing that was happening.

Voluntold - Alexis

[demonic_cockroach]

“Now for you my stylish friend we are going to do something slightly different. Here we have five bears wearing knock off Michael Kors and on the other side a very well dressed bear that is wearing Christian Siriano. What do you choose?”

Voluntold - Anakin

[demonic_cockroach]

"Here we go my well-robed friend," Mikhail said waving to the controls. “In front of you is a switch that allows you to change the track you are on. You cannot stop the car as the brakes are not working and the momentum will not allow you to slow down. You can either stay on this course and knock over the five teddy bears or change course to knock over the one. What do you choose?”

Voluntold - Tahani

[demonic_cockroach]

“Now for you my stylish friend, we are going to do something also slightly different. Here we have five bears wearing knock off Louis Vuitton and on the other side a very artistically acclaimed bear which could be the bear version of Banksy. What do you choose?”

Voluntold - Rosa

[demonic_cockroach]

Mikhail sighed. None of this was really working out as he expected. “Okay. Let’s change this up a bit. Janet?”

Janet smiled and nodded. There was a ding and suddenly the room had shifted from a trolley into an operating room theater. “In this particular case we have five teddy bears that are in need of organ transplants. The one teddy bear here is completely healthy. As a doctor do you… um. Remove the organs from the one teddy bear or let the remaining teddy bears go nappy time for good?”

Audience reaction

[demonic_cockroach]

For those who need reacting

OOC

[sith_happened]

So the pings don't fall out.

Re: OOC

[lovethatjourney]

I just laughed for waaaaay too long at the "yikes, yikes, yikes" and I need you to know that.