Fandom High School

It was the last class somehow, and Alysha was boggling a little at the fact the semester was over already.

"You all survived," she said with a quick smile once everyone was there. "Or if you didn't, someone reanimated you pretty well so there's no smell." Just a little zombie joke. It was the last class of the term.

"It's an ethics class, so I don't see much point in giving a final exam for which you all can celebrate if you feel so inclined. The point of the class was to get you thinking about things and be able to voice and support your thoughts about them. So I'm going back to some of our first questions, and I'd like each of you to answer based on what you've thought about and discussed during the semester. As always, commentary and discussion is completely welcome."

Alysha smiled. "And thank you all for being a good first class. My aunties might even believe now that teaching down south here might not be the death of me."

"Okay then, your questions: what do you consider magical ethics and why should we care about them. Go."

 The desks were arranged into a table, and there weren't enough seats for everyone to sit down.  Covering the table was an array of - well, it could be called junk - packs of cards, silk handkerchiefs, bells, silverware, rope, paper cups, and a whole bunch of books on how to do magic tricks.

Alysha waited for everyone to come in, if not take a seat, before she started talking.  "Good to see you all survived the weekend yet again," she said, a tiny smile on her face.  "We've been talking a lot about magic, about inborn talents and how you use them.  Today, we're talking about something that's purely learned."  She gestured to the table. 

"Some people would argue that magic tricks are completely unethical.  They're all fakes in a way after all, and often times magicians are attempting to solicit donations or sell tickets, earning money from their tricks.  So is that ethical?  Does your perception change if the people playing the money know in some way that the tricks are faked?" 

She raised an eyebrow, glancing over the class to make sure people were following.  "And while you're thinking about it and discussing it, go ahead and try some of these tricks out.  Most of them rely on hand speed and strength, but a lot of the others are pure misdirection."  She grinned easily.  "All of you are very talented people, let's see what happens when magic isn't at play."

Alysha had spent much of the night baking as she tried to figure out why, exactly, there was an odd sense of foreboding upon her. It didn't seem to be connected to that tug in her heart that always led back to home, and a few phone calls to Charlie and her dad assured her that everything was fine there. So she baked and tried to see things a little more clearly. When that didn't work, she baked and charmed her muffins and cakes and pasties to bring health and keen sight and good luck to those who ate them.

If anyone had known that, they probably wouldn't be surprised to see the array of baked goods along one of the walls of the classroom.

She sat on the teacher's desk as she waited for all the students to come in. "Anyone else feeling a little off tonight or today?" Alysha asked once everyone had their seats. "Anyone wanna talk about it?"

After any discussion was finished, she nodded to the baked goods. "Help yourself to whatever moddable kind of baked goods you like and take the rest back to the dorms if you want. I promise everything tastes good, and nothing's poisoned. Other than that, stay watchful and consider yourself dismissed until next week."

[OOC: The charms on the baked goods you can feel free to mod as anything from erasing tired to additional alertness to the remnants of a cold disappearing to tripping right when someone is trying to punch you in the face to having extra good sight for a few hours to just a general sense of well-being. They won't hurt anyone or show up as black/dark/evil magic. Any questions, feel free to ask in the OOC thread or grab me on AIM!]

Alysha was absolutely exhausted as the class came in.  It had nothing - well, okay, it had everything to do with the weekend, but mainly because every single Auntie had called to to yell at her for being completely unavailable all weekend.  The number of Gale aunties and the amount they could lecture meant that it had been a very, very, very, very long Monday.

The random crack of thunder that apparently only Alysha could hear just emphasized the Aunties' pissiness.  Though it wasn't like even a Gale could stop this island from making whatever mischief it seemed intent on making.

Therefore the lecture was short.

"A lot of religions and other ethical systems have 'honor thy father and mother' as a tenet," Alysha said.  "Pay attention to your elders.  Do their bidding and respect them.  The question I have for you today is 'how far?'"

And she went to sit on her desk to listen to the discussion.

"Last class before Spring Break," Alysha announced once the bell rang and everyone was in their seats. "Which means I hope you all are prepared for the midterm exam."

She paused for a second, wondering if anyone would flip out.

"Nah, just kidding," she said with a vague note of apology. "We're talking about mind magic today though so you may would rather have an exam."

She leaned against her desk as she continued, "I know this might be sensitive to some of you - more so than some of our other discussions, so I'm going to ask that you all try even more than normal to keep it civil and polite. No one knows everything another has been through."

"So - mind magic. Magic, talents, telepathy, whatever you want to call it that can affect someone else's mind. Where's the line? Is it okay if you have some sort of truth sensing to use that without another's knowledge? Can you read their thoughts - or emotions - and use that knowledge to influence your arguments and sway them more easily? Can you nudge someone else into agreeing with you? What if your friend's in love with a totally unsuitable guy -" sigh Michael. What the hell. "- can you change his mind? If it's for his own good? What if someone wants to kill herself? Can you force her to step back from the ledge? Or say someone wants to kill someone else?"

Alysha surveyed the class, looking for the first reactions. "I want to look at the grey areas here especially. There's not usually a lot that's black and white when we're talking about what you can do to other people's minds."

"So, looking at that, if you think something - say charming someone into only telling the truth or whatever your example is - is okay, are there any circumstances where it wouldn't be okay? Or only certain circumstances where it would be okay?"

"In my family, just as an example, there are things you can do to a family member that you wouldn't usually do to someone who's not in the family. So if you-" she nodded to Edmund if he was there "- were my brother, I wouldn't have a problem charming you so you can't drink alcohol if I thought it'd be good for you. Since you're not my brother - and I'm sure you're thankful for that - I wouldn't ever do that without your permission." Well. Mostly. Probably.

"And that's the discussion for today. If I don't see you before the break, I hope you all have a great one."

Alysha wasn't in the classroom as the students came in. A few moments after the bell rang, she strode in, flipping her cell phone shut and slapping it onto the desk.

"Sorry," she apologised to the students, eyeing the phone a bit warily though it wasn't doing anything more than sitting there. "My Auntie Jane called. She's -" Alysha mentally scrolled through a list of adjectives in her head to try to find one that wouldn't cause Auntie Jane to retaliate from a thousand miles away "- demanding." There. That worked. She'd even take pride in it.

"Anyway," she glanced around at the class, noting who was present and who wasn't. "Good to see you all again, and I hope this weekend was less stressful than the previous one. I don't see any bleeding at least so it's a win." She pushed up to sit on the desk, within reaching distance of the phone but totally ignoring it for now. "Today we're going to talk about why it matters. We've spent four weeks talking about what we think about 'right and proper' uses of magic and restrictions - if any - on it. We haven't really touched on yet why talking about, arguing about, forming an opinion of magical ethics is important."

Alysha quirked a smile. "You have to assume I do since I'm teaching a class on it, and I'm guessing at least some of you think it does what with the whole signing up for the class and not sitting there in silence so - here's your chance to talk about it. What's the point of considering or forming ethical guidelines for the uses of magic, telepathy, random spider powers like that Arachnid-Boy and why are we doing it?"

"If any of you need me, I'm around after class or in my office, and remember, keep the conversation to something approximating civility."

"Good to see you all didn't freeze to death" was the greeting from Alysha as the bell rang for the start of the class. She had spent the weekend being really freaking annoyed that charms couldn't get the stove working again, and she hadn't been able to bake.  The pies coming through from her aunties had been charmed up the wazoo, but she'd eaten 'em anyway and then gotten an enormous urge to call each and every auntie.  Too bad her phone didn't run out of charge.

"Today we're talking about restrictions on power usage," she said after checking who was there.  "Sometimes it seems stupid, you won't hurt anyone or use your powers for darkness, but maybe others will and suddenly there's a whole set of rules.  Sometimes they're imposed by the government if you're in the type of country that acknowledges power usage, sometimes you're forced to hide any extra abilities you have because other people might feel threatened.  It happens, and probably all of you have experienced some version of it."

"For instance, my family's rituals are always held in a particular part of the forest that is easily defensible by those not taking part in the circle.  It's a mild restriction, but one my aunties impose on the family because outsiders don't know how to channel the type of power that was raised in ritual and really really didn't know how to handle the side effects.  But also because too many outsiders come through and see parts of the ritual, they start to wonder what else might be going on."  After they got done screwing their brain out with anything that moved. "And people poking their noses in can cause problems.  On a heavier note, my family doesn't tolerate those who raise and hold power.  We believe power is meant to be channeled and holding it leads corruption and evil."  She shrugged.  "Again, a restriction but one we place on others and take responsibility for enforcing."

"So what I want you to discuss today is what restrictions have you experienced - or know about if you don't use magic or other powers -, if you feel they're valid, and what type of limits you think should be placed on people who can do 'extra' things whether it's magic, super abilities, telepathy, or anything else you can think of."

Alysha was attempting to look like a real grown up teacher-person as she sat carefully behind her desk, waiting for all the students to arrive. At least she hadn't ended up teaching art. No matter what her dad had said about her skills with macaroni and glue, Alysha was totally confident that art was not for her. Ethics on the other hand, was pretty much hilarious given the Gales' approach to making the world bend around them. Usually not literally.

She stood up once all the seats were filled. "Good morning, everyone," she said with a tiny smile. "I'm Alysha Gale, and this is Magical Ethics. If you're in the wrong class, you probably should leave now. If you're not awake yet cause it's too damn early, get more coffee next week."

"In this class, we're to talk about the ethics of magical use. Do people who use magic or have innate powers or who can simply do things that others can't have certain obligations to the rest of society? Should magic users be treated differently? Should they have different kinds of rights? Just because you can create water out of thin air, is it your responsibility to do it when people are dying of thirst? If you can fly, is it your responsibility to catch someone falling?"

Alysha raised an eyebrow. "Now from what I know of the school here, I'm guessing a lot of you are going to have different opinions on all this stuff, and that's totally cool. Have different opinions, argue, and actually talk about this shit - stuff. I don't give a crap if you're tactful, but keep it civil or leave. If you leave, come talk to me in my office hours or after class. I'm not reffing anyone dropping their gloves in here." That only happened at home when her cousins got overeager on the hockey rink.

"Right," she surveyed the class, flexing her fingers and barely keeping from retracing the charm on the desk to allow her to hear any whispering in the classroom. "I'm told introductions are traditional on the first day, but whatever. We'll get to all of that. For now, I'd like you all to pair up and talk about what you think about this whole idea. What's ethical magic usage? Can you make a rain of frogs just for kicks? Can you change someone's mind to make things easier for yourself? For your country? Try it out and see where you all disagree. I'll be walking around and listening in. After class if Edmund Pevenise and Tony Foster would stop by to have a chat, I'd appreciate it."