fandomhigh | Advanced Criminal Justice, Class 26, Period 1, 04.13.06

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advanced criminal justice

Advanced Criminal Justice, Class 26, Period 1, 04.13.06

[OOC: And once again, I interact little. But there's a good reason for it this time! I'm here, Obi-Wan's here, we're all here, let's party. Class Info Post.]

The Tick was sitting behind his desk with a smile on his face. Even Lockheed seemed slightly interested in what was going on today. "Hello, students! Sorry I wasn't here on Tuesday. I was fighting that most fearsome of all foes, the Uncommon Cold! Thank you, Rory, for covering for me at the last minute."

"Today, we have a special guest lecturer who is here to tell us about another view of Justice that we've had some exposure to. Please welcome Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi!"

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Put Obi-Wan on the list of things she's sorry she'd given up since Jarod, even if she can't really regret him.

At his comment, she folded her arms, and cocked an eyebrow. "People aren't possessions, but you have to give them up? Friendships aren't attachments? Teachers aren't ties? I think your Jedi Council draws the line at some odd places, Master Kenobi. And if I hadn't been told that you look for new Jedi potential in babies, I'd wonder how your organization survived so long."

She grinned at him. "I try to re-dress everyone. And leather pants are practically required for guys around here at one point or another. Really, you should try them.

"And I have something awful, awful to confess about your student." Parker leaned forward. "I made him wear a hat last week."

Anakin slid down in his seat.

Please, please, please don't mention Zorro.

"But it was for extra credit. So I think you should give him a break for that." Parker sends a grin Anakin's way. The Zorro costume would raise too many questions, but who says she can't have a *little* fun at his expense?

"You've given this a lot of thought," Obi-wan said, crossing his arms. He was impressed by her incisive manner.

"All societies, Miss Parker, have rules of behavior - whether formally stated or not - that seem arbitrary. That are difficult to appreciate or understand unless you live within them. The Jedi give their lives to the service of the galaxy - the entirety of their lives. Of course we form friendships, both within and outside of the order. Of course there's a bond between teacher and student." His eyes flicked over to Anakin, then back to Parker. "But those relationships don't distract in any way from the totality of our commitment."

He thought for a moment about how best to explain. "When my Master died, I grieved. Deeply, sometimes even bitterly. And because I am not perfect, there are days when I miss him more thoroughly than I know how to express." Again, without realizing he glanced over at Anakin. "But it wasn't the end of the world. Do you understand? He was cut down in front of me while I was helpless to act, but because he was my teacher, I carry his lessons inside of me while I let the loss of him go."

He continued. "But when you love someone? When you say to them, 'I love you above all others,' what do you say to them after that? 'I'm sorry, honey, I know you're pregnant with our first child but I have to disappear for the next 6 months to two years to try and find out if the Sith are behind this sudden outbreak of tribal hostilities in the Centra quadrant?' How well do you keep your temper and concentrate on forcing some substance out of yet another round of tiresome, pompous peace talks when you've been missing your partner for the last two months and know that he's spending your anniversary alone for the third year in a row?" He shrugged.

"When you love a person, you commit to them. Jedi commit to the Force, and to every living being it touches. Are you willing to compromise yourself, your life, for your love? A being may choose to make that compromise, perhaps with little effect, perhaps only affecting those around them. Usually when a Jedi compromises himself, the galaxy suffers. I'm sorry to be so melodramatic, but we've seen this in history time and again. Love opens you to fear like nothing else, and decisions made in fear are rarely good ones."

"Leather pants?" Obi-Wan might've looked a little embarassed. "Yes, I think I've already had, er, a close encounter with those. Anakin talked me into some ridiiculous outfit for a costume party the last time I was here. I think they called it 'Halloween.'"

His eyebrows shot up with a mischievous grin. "A hat? Really? Please tell me there's some visual recording somewhere."

"I believe we do have a recording." Parker grinned. "Since we were giving a presentation in the Danger Shop. It was a fedora. He didn't wear it well. Still, Extra Credit is Extra Credit."

"Damn, I didn't get photos of the leather pants." Parker pouted. "Skywalker, you were holding out on me!"

Parker listens to what Obi-Wan says about commitment and love, and slowly tilts her head, thinking. "I think it's avoiding the issue. Love doesn't just go away. Neither does commitment to a cause." She keeps her gaze on the senior Jedi, and her thoughts on the Centre, and Jarod, not letting herself focus on Anakin or Rory. "Haven't you ever been in love?"

Anakin muttered under his breath about there being a reason he didn't wear hats, then listened very closely to what Obi-Wan's answer to Parker's question might be.

He'd never been brave enough to ask.

"There's just something about Jedi and hats - it never ends well. Anakin can tell you the story some time long after I'm gone and can't be blamed for it getting around the universe."

"No," he counters, "it's about making a choice on the issue. As our code suggests, Jedi strive to think and act in all things from a place of clear rationality, without emotion clouding our judgement. Being but flesh-and-blood beings it's difficult to avoid feeling emotions, but with discipline you learn to let the emotion wash over you and then set it aside. A Jedi does not give in to fear - but that doesn't mean a Jedi is never afraid. Of course Jedi have fallen in love before. But nearly all have chosen to put that emotion aside, like all others, and continue their focus as Jedi. It's not a part-time commitment - I can't really explain in any other way the totality of our life."

A thought occurs to him. "Are there no beings on this planet who devote their lives to service? No religious or military orders with that practice?"

"I'll have to get him to spill about that, as well as the leather pants. I hope there are photos of *that*, too."

Parker listens, thinking-- and noticing that he didn't answer her question. Which was a rude question, but hey. It does explain a bit, if there's a reason he doesn't answer. "I understand what you're saying. I'm not sure I agree, but... hmm. Are there Jedi auxiliaries?" Parker frowned. "Has anyone left the Order, but still helped out in galactic negotiations, and used the Force?"

"There are orders here on Earth that subscribe to both celibacy and lack of emotional attachments, but not to both at once. And most of them don't take novices until they're adult-- the Catholic Church re-wrote their rules a generation ago, so that children raised by the Church have to have an even longer education and study period before they're allowed to take vows as priests and nuns. They want to make sure that they understand what they're giving up in committing to a religious life." Parker cocked her head. "All of our military disciplines and police forces allow and encourage marriage or relationships. Although the attrition rate on some of those marriages is pretty high."

Obi-Wan considered what Parker was telling him. "I presume that although those religious orders don't discourage all emotional attachment, they do discourage romantic attachment at least, because of the rule of celibacy? So there's not so great a difference there."

He thought of a point he hadn't fully explained before. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, Miss Parker, but I sense you don't fully understand why emotional self-discipline is so important in a Jedi. And this will come around to your question about what happens to Jedi who leave the order, I promise. I want you to think about your time here at Fandom High. Recall all the arguments you've been in, or heard about, no matter how petty - especially the petty ones. Every disagreement, break-up, vengeful prank, all of it. Now imagine that everyone involved has the power to break every bone in a person's body with a thought."

He doesn't move a muscle, but Parker's desk abruptly leaps into the air and hovers in front of her quivering, as if it could be flung crashing through the window at any second.

Obi-Wan lets it hover there a moment or two, then lowers it carefully back to the floor. When he speaks, it's with a quiet intensity, and a little sadness. "If a being with the power of the Force behind them cannot or will not learn to divorce their emotions from their actions, it rarely ends well. And few of the Jedi who have chosen to leave the order did so because they wanted to live quietly."

He gestures vaguely. "Again, forgive me if I presumed, but I hope I've clarified at least one of our arbitrary rules."

Parker flinched when the desk moved, then regained her poise as it hovered, then was lowered back to the floor.

And see, this finally makes sense.

"Then how--" She pauses. "If they're allowed to leave the order, but they can already do things like this, how do you keep tabs on them? Or is it just that they're okay on their own, when they're not involved in sensitive negotiations?"

She folded her arms, thinking of the times she's punched people, whapped them, choked, tickled, and manhandled, and what might've happened if she'd, say, had Anakin's temper and powers. "I understand what you're aiming for, I think. A kind of compassionate neutrality. And I remember Anakin told me that it can take a long time to make Knight. I still have difficulties with this rule. But I think I have a better understanding of how it's supposed to work. Ideally."

Rory listened attentively, recognition dawning on her face.

It was so clear. It wasn't about denying the Jedi the right to love. It was about...fairness. Because it wasn't fair to ask someone to be the significant other of a Jedi - to make that kind of a commitment - if that's what it meant.

And if love prompted succeptibility to fear, or compromised a Jedi's bind with the Force, was what she was doing Anakin - or, rather, doing to - right?

It was certainly thought-provoking.

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Advanced Criminal Justice, Class 26, Period 1, 04.13.06

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