(no subject)

[will_be_god]

Who: Cyrus, ethics students, lookieloos, whoever else wants to be there
What: first ETHICS CLASS of the term
Where: Monday, 1 pm
When: classroom

After everything that had happened over the past year, it was what others may call a "relief" to return to a normal school schedule.

Of course, Ethics Class had never been normal, so the term was comparable.

Cyrus arrived an hour before class time, though all he had prepared by the time 1 rolled around was writing his and the class's name on the board. Anyone entering would see him seated straightly at the desk, occasionally muttering to himself, writing something down, or both at once.

If any of the new students had yet to encounter him, he could be an off-putting sight. Though his height wasn't evident while seated, his skin was pale and his eyes seemed pre-set with an intense glare. The military-esque uniform also stood at odds with his self-proclaimed pacifism, though the spiral G emblem bore no resemblance to any known army.

Upon each person's entrance, he would greet them and ask their name, no matter how acquainted he was with them, though other than that he remained silent until the turn of the hour.

(lecture in threads! Come join!)

Comments

Entrances, seating, pre-class yammering goes here

[will_be_god]

[kuragekasa]

[ He said he'd be here, and that was no lie. Here he was, ready to go!

... with his gas mask on.

Yeah, he wasn't confident enough to reveal his face in front of such a crowd yet. ]

[monotreme_101]

Here again for another year of class with the guy who tried to destroy the whole universe.

The lecture months and months in the making!

[will_be_god]

Once the clock struck one pm, Cyrus stood, pushing his chair back into place before speaking. "I welcome you to the fall semester Ethics class. As you know, the past year has brought trying times to this region. Violence and tyranny rained down on us all, and with them the awareness awakened in so many that we cannot hide away from these things. Their webs are inescapable, and even in this peaceful land that complacency may be shattered in an instant."

He drew himself up and began to pace, down one aisle and up another. "But what, as scholars, can we do to stop it? What can be done by anybody to stop it?" A brief pause in both his motion and speech in case someone had any suggestions, but no, no one would offer anything this early. "Can we justify remaining silent, and if so, how?" Another pause, this one to choke back an impending tirade on how no, they absolutely cannot do so--that was the sacrifice of being a teacher, having to let students reach conclusions on their own. "How does this violence impact our lives even when happening in distant lands? What effects of war do we feel every day? Is there such a thing as a necessary war?"

This brought him back to the front of the room, and he turned back to his audience. "For the first class, I would like to hold a free discussion of these subjects. You are welcome to engage your classmates or me on anything said, though I caution that you remain on topic. You may sidebar in private, but this class exists for a purpose."

[kuragekasa]

[ Clear had, quite frankly, nothing to say. To say he was insightful wasn't exactly accurate, not in regards to this subject, and he knew this very well. He was here to learn even basic things, things that he couldn't just freely express, mainly due to a lack of knowledge. He knew himself well enough to realize that any input here would be fruitless, and he wasn't sure what questions could be asked.

Therefore, he just... sat.

It was kind of awkward. ]

[will_be_god]

Cyrus stared at the masked newcomer--Clear, he had said--for a moment before prompting him. "You have come here to learn, yes? Education is not a passive thing. You must engage yourself in it."

[kuragekasa]

"Yes! I am aware." Clear gave a curt nod of understanding. "I just have nothing to say as of now."

A+, give this man a medal.

[will_be_god]

"Very well," Cyrus conceded. "This remains the first day. I do expect you to take things in and participate by the next class."

[kuragekasa]

"Uwa- yes!" Clear saluted, looking all too dorky in his seat. "I will participate to the best of my ability, Cyrus-san!"

[will_be_god]

"Simply 'Cyrus' will suffice." To be addressed so formally was unusual. Even his followers referred to him without an honorific, though they addressed him as 'boss'. "If you wish, you may engage the other students in this discussion."

[kuragekasa]

"Yes, I know," he spoke, his voice as obnoxiously perky as ever. "We will see, Cyrus-san!"

...

Old habits died hard.

[monotreme_101]

Knuckles had been in this class long enough to know where this was headed. And Cyrus probably knew enough about Knuckles' values that any discussion they might have on the topic at hand was close to moot. The fact was, they agreed on this stuff, up to a point.

However, even though there was technically peace right now, to say Knuckles own thoughts hadn't settled on violence of late would be a lie. There was one very violent act that he was, and had been, contemplating. Byrne had threatened it on the network and Knuckles had pretty much wished him well.

"The overthrow of Tyrants is a reason to go to war so yes, it's necessary sometimes. Also to stop invading forces who try to conquer your world. Some people and some creatures, you just can't reach with peace so you have to resort to violence."

[will_be_god]

"And yet what causes tyrants to rise? There is often an inequity in the system that they take advantage of to gain power, some social concern to exploit. Our local warmonger, for instance, took advantage of the lack of security caused by the hatred and xenophobia of the nearby population, and marketed his rise as a defensive mechanism. Few opposed him, or at least moved against him, because of this, because they feared what had come before. And yet had that initial hatred been dealt with, he would have had nothing to exploit and thus could not have risen." The words came easily, flowing like the turn of thoughts. So long from the podium hadn't stilted his speeches.

[monotreme_101]

"Sure. But there wasn't much to be done about the hatred because it was being fueled by an outside force. The drugs that made people extra aggressive." Knuckles pointed out. "And no-one was able to figure that whole mess out until it was way too late."

[will_be_god]

"And yet the drugs did not inspire their hatred, only amplified what was already present. Thus, instability already existed. The resulting power vacuum was, thus, only a matter of time."

[monotreme_101]

"The instability will pretty much always exist in that case. Prejudice always exists. There's no way to really get rid of it." He almost added 'Especially not in Humans' but didn't want to start that up in class.

"Well, unless someone remade all life from scratch and didn't build prejudice in. But that possibility completely aside... the world we have right now runs on inequality."

[will_be_god]

"...how strange," Cyrus muttered faintly. Knuckles spoke favorably of what had been exactly Cyrus's plan and yet Knuckles had acted against him.

But that wasn't something to bring up now.

"On an individual basis, imperfect beings will always create their own biases. Yet for an entire society to share the same indicates a mainstreaming of such things. What is it that would drive a society to toss aside individuality and take up the metaphorical pitchfork and torch against a common perceived enemy, especially one that had previously lived among them?"

[monotreme_101]

It was sarcasm more than anything. He expected Cyrus to pick up on it, but maybe he'd forgotten how generally humorous the man was. It had been a while since they'd really talked.

"I figure prejudice is like... I dunno. Like a pot on the stove. You can have it run at a quiet simmer for hours and hours, but turn up the heat and ittle boil over. And people have a pretty inbuilt sense of mob mentality... if all your neighbors are goin' crazy over somethin' it's hard for most people not to go a little crazy right alongside 'em."

[will_be_god]

"And yet, to continue that analogy, a pot on the stove has an observable reaction to heat. We are able to observe these things beginning from a whisper, far before they become the consuming roars that take the hearts of the people."

He hated using the term 'hearts'--the heart wasn't involved in decision making--but it was a metaphor commonly used.

"The ability to act exists at that moment, at that first whisper."