Philosophies of Good & Evil, Tuesday

[suitably_heroic]

At the front of the class stood two figures. A man, hair short and dark, who looked to be somewhere between his mid 20s and his early 30s; he wore a black leather jacket and a Metallica t-shirt, and he eyed the class with a sense of bored disaffection. Beside him stood a blonde woman that could be anywhere from mid-30s to 40s, dressed in a green, tunic-length blouse and loose grey trousers, and smiling pleasantly.

Go on, class. Play ‘who’s the Sith and who’s the Jedi’. We dare you. (The woman's yellow eyes might give it away. If you were clued in to that sort of thing.)

“Hi,” Atton drawled. “My name is Atton Rand, and I’m a goody two-shoes who likes long, brooding walks on the beach, answering questions with really annoying riddles, and pretending meditation is a personality trait. Or, well, technically I’m just a Jedi Master, but you’d be surprised how many overlaps that Venn diagram has.”

Lana rolled her eyes. "And I'm Lana Beniko, a Sith Lord, who obviously enjoys torturing and killing people for fun, cackling maniacally, and taking over the universe in my spare time. Oh, and very large shoulder pads."

“They’re fashionable,” Atton said. “Somewhere. On the surface of the sun?”

"Some Sith would be better jettisoned into a sun," Lana admitted. "But it does make for very open architecture."

“Sometimes I daydream about jettisoning specific Jedi Masters I won’t name into the sun,” Atton sighed. “Anyway, this is the introduction class, so congratulations, today you get to slack off. Give us the basics. Name, class, where you’re from, how used you are to this kind of nonsense, yadda yadda…”

"And just for fun, define good and evil for us," Lana said. "In your own terms, but briefly." Look, she had to be a little evil.

“Like I said,” Atton said, faux-brightly. “Slack off, handle the softballs.”

Comments

Sign In!

[suitably_heroic]

Good or evil.

Re: Sign In!

[outofthequiver]

Liberty Hazlett, good!

Re: Sign In!

[gospel_of_oblivion]

Illyana Rasputin, ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Re: Sign In!

[napking]

Gray, that's a question of intense theological debate

Listen to the Lecture

[suitably_heroic]

Introduction, or whatever you want to call it.

Introduce Yourself

[suitably_heroic]

Name, class, where you're from, how used you are to 'this kind of nonsense' (however you define it), and define good and evil in your terms.

Re: Introduce Yourself

[outofthequiver]

"My name's Liberty Hazlett," Libby offered, eager to get going straight out the gate with a bright smile to show it, too, "but mostly everyone just calls me Libby. I grew up on a small farm in Tennessee, but I've been here long enough to know a whole lot more about this kind of nonsense than I'd have ever imagined! And I'm a senior now!

"Er," she amended, with a little bit of sheepishness bubbling up, "on the high school side, that is, not college. But I am looking forward to going to college when I graduate!"

Look, it was a really big deal for her.

"And as for good and evil?" She shrugged, but the grin on her face turned a little impish, eyes bright and overly innocent, especially as she glanced over to Lana. "Well, I'm certainly not about to claim to be an expert on either, I sort of figured that's where you two were supposed to come in."

Re: Introduce Yourself

[suitably_heroic]

"Nice dodge," Atton drawled idly. "Extra points for the sucking-up." He leaned back against the wall. "Now try again. You didn't blank-slate from your mom right into this classroom."

Re: Introduce Yourself

[outofthequiver]

"Well, no," said Libby, easy enough, half-expecting a response like that, and her expression went a bit more serious, "but, where I grew up, me just sitting here in this classroom right now would be the first step down a path to grave and damnable evil. Clearly, I disagree with that sentiment. In fact, I'm starting to find out that I don't agree with a lot of the things I was raised up to believe were evil. So I really do mean it when I say I'm still figuring an awful lot of it out..

"But if I had to say anything," she added, in case Atton still felt that was a bit of a dodge, "I'd say that evil comes from intentionally wanting to cause harm to others, while good come from wanting to make things better."

Which had all sounded much better in Libby's head, but now that she'd said it outloud, she couldn't help but wonder if that just made her sound foolish and naive.

Re: Introduce Yourself

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"Illyana Rasputin, back as a college freshman, because normal college is too boring," Yana drawled, clearly enjoying class already.

"I am most recently from New York City, but before that I spent two years here, and grew up in a Hell dimension raised by demons for seven years. I am very intimately familiar with the motivations of evil. I am still less-clear on 'good,' other than the very brightly colored spandex."

Re: Introduce Yourself

[unusual_sith]

"Well, at least I don't have to wear that," Lana said, making a face. "Why is fashion so often associated with good or evil?" She sighed in exasperation. "Not even just on your world. Sith fashion is an entire entity unto itself."

So. Much. Pointy.

Re: Introduce Yourself

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"I think perhaps the Sith are made anxious by how small they are in relation to the vastness of space, and that is why their shoulder pads are so big. They feel like they can take up more space, and that makes them Important," Illyana said tranquilly. "It is like the tiny little animal that puffs up to seem scary."

Re: Introduce Yourself

[suitably_heroic]

"Are we talking spandex on people who can actually pull it off or just spandex in general?" Atton asked. "Because I have notes if it's the latter."

Re: Introduce Yourself

[napking]

"I'm Gray," Gray said, and then yawned. "I'm a junior--uh, in high school, and I'm most recently from California. And you could say I'm pretty--" another yawn "--pretty experienced with this kind of nonsense. We could talk about what makes something good and what makes something evil all day--except we can't because I'll fall asleep way before then--but in my experience 'good' is about being selfless, thinking about and doing what's best for others and, like, the world in general, and 'evil' is fundamentally selfish. It only thinks about itself."

Re: Introduce Yourself

[suitably_heroic]

"So another tick in the 'good and evil is about intent' column, huh?" Atton said.

Re: Introduce Yourself

[no_missing_piece]

"Beta, um..." She frantically thought back to some of the old holos she was so addicted to for the right cultural reference. "Senior, and I've had a few terms of this 'nonsense' by now. From a version of Earth a thousand years in the future, and..."

She frowned slightly. She'd never really had to sit down and puzzle this concept out, put it into words, because it had just sort of been a given.

"I'm still working out what exactly defines good, but evil..."

Erik Visser's face was the first thing that came to mind. All the Zeniths. Ted Faro. When she started speaking again, it was with a surprising amount of vehemence.

"For someone to have vast amounts of resources, and privilege, and power they could devote to helping people, and just... not care about anything but their own status and interests. To not care if everything burns -- to burn everything down themselves if it suits their purposes -- as long as they're taken care of."

Nope, nothing political about her canon. Really!

Re: Introduce Yourself

[unusual_sith]

"Evil seems to be easier to define for a few people," Lana noted. "What about the distinction a few others have made - someone who is evil versus someone who does evil?"

Re: Introduce Yourself

[suitably_heroic]

Well. That sounded familiar. "No notes," Atton said brightly.

Then remembered he was supposed to be a teacher and he needed to question things.

"... I mean. Do you think that's the only kind of evil?"

Re: Introduce Yourself

[stykera]

"Stark, from the Uncharted Territories originally," Stark said. "Which was a very odd place though in different ways than here is odd and I've been here for a long time now."

He paused, frowning. "Evil requires intent, I think, to do harm. Good I suppose is the opposite, intent to help or at least mitigate harm. But it's never really that simple. I've known evil people. I've known good people. I try to be a good one."

Re: Introduce Yourself

[suitably_heroic]

"How?" Atton asked.

Talk to the Teachers

[suitably_heroic]

Grouchy and merry are here for you.

Re: Talk to the Teachers

[suitably_heroic]

Had Atton put his feet up on his desk as soon as he could get away with it? Absolutely.

Re: Talk to the Teachers

[unusual_sith]

Lana's more a leaning-against-the-desk type.

Re: Talk to the Teachers

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"So you are my 'faculty advisor,'" Illyana said, going up to Lana after class. "Does that mean you must be responsible, and we are not allowed to be petty and judge people together anymore?"

OOC

[suitably_heroic]

This was a good reminder I need to re-up Atton's icons.