Office hours [all day]

[sith_happened]

After his normal spar with Ben, Anakin made his way to his office where he busied himself coming up with a battle plan.

...to hit all of the Thanksgiving dinners he and Rory had been invited to. Shh. He might miss being a general sometimes.

The door was open.

Comments

[solo_sword]

Like a good girl, Jaina returned this week. "The candy thing doesn't work so well on pilots," she said.

She hadn't actually tried it, shhh.

[sith_happened]

"Are you pilots secretly droids?" Anakin replied.

[solo_sword]

"I have my suspicions about the Chiss some days," she said, taking a seat. "Hi."

[sith_happened]

"You didn't tell me your pilots were Chiss," Anakin said. "I think they might be allergic to fun."

Someone had fond memories of Thrawn. Really.

[solo_sword]

"Some of them. Twin Suns absorbed some of Jag's squadron when he came aboard as co-leader. I've got a few Jedi aboard, too, to work the meld," she told him.

[sith_happened]

"Since the Chiss would be less than helpful in that aspect," Anakin agreed, nodding.

[solo_sword]

"We're used to having about three," she said. "So I've got Lowie and Alema, and the times we can work with Corran or Kyp or someone, it's pretty neat. Now you can have a moment to visualize a Wookiee in an X-wing cockpit."

[trigons_child]

Where there were Anakin office hours, there was a Raven -- in a relatively good mood today, even. Just don't mention flowers to her.

[sith_happened]

"Good morning, Raven," Anakin said, glancing up from his map of Connecticut.

Shhh.

[trigons_child]

"Are you busy?" Raven said, taking note of the map. "I can return later."

[sith_happened]

"Not especially," Anakin said, smiling. "Just planning a trip up to see Rory's family. Come in."

[trigons_child]

"For Thanksgiving?" Raven asked, moving inside and taking her usual seat. "I think many people are planning to go home for the holiday."

[sith_happened]

"And then they'll all return and we can exchange very exotic head colds," Anakin said with a nod. "And people will either be thankful for time spent with family or remember why they only see them at holidays."

[life_inshadow]

Tara hesitantly knocked on the doorframe. The idea of asking Anakin about the examples he used in class had seemed less daunting when she was talking to Maron than it was now, but she was determined to follow through.

"Master Skywalker?" she ventured. "I -- had a question about class."

[sith_happened]

Anakin gestured toward the chair on the other side of his desk and folded up his map of Connecticut. "Ask."

[life_inshadow]

Tara took the seat, drew a breath, and stammered through some stuttering and a few false starts before she got to the meat of what she wanted to say.

"So -- I know a lot of the examples in class are from your own experience," she finally said. "And that's, uh ... interesting."

Scary in content, but interesting.

"H-have you ever thought about offering examples that aren't so, um" -- assuming everyone killed people -- "military? They might be easier for some people in class to identify with."

[sith_happened]

"Jabba's palace wasn't exactly military," Anakin replied evenly. Just really, really disgusting. "I teach from what I know. I don't want to seem like a blowhard who pulls examples out of nowhere and expects them to ring true. I realize that my experiences aren't everyone else's--my wife grew up in a very small town in Connecticut--but when I was younger, I managed to use the seven deadly sins as a bit of a checklist. We're getting to the less military of the group--sloth, greed, and lust."

He tapped his fingers against the desk. "How would you teach about wrath?"

[life_inshadow]

Tara nodded along as she listened. She knew Jabba's palace wasn't military, but it was still of a piece with the rest of his examples.

At the sudden question, the girl looked flummoxed, and it took her a long moment to pull out a coherent answer. "W-without bringing in, uh, violence? I'd probably ask what made people angriest, and, um, what that had taught us even if all we did was s-swear or think really, really mean things. It might be anything, like ... being lied to, or being punished unfairly. But -- I'm not the teacher."

[sith_happened]

"Don't you think that a lesson about wrath that skips the violence might be rather missing the point?" Anakin asked. "Wrath was considered one of the deadly sins because it so often leads to assault and murder. The example I used was extreme, yes, but my question wasn't 'how far do you need to go before you'd kill someone'. It was how far until you'd lose control, until you'd stop trying to hold back your anger. And the students in the class used their own lives to answer the question, and their backgrounds can be very violent. It doesn't make your own experiences less valuable, just, perhaps, not as listened to in group discussion."

[likethegun]

Sam wasn't sure whether or not talking to Anakin would be a good idea, but Zoe had told him to do it and if nothing else, he'd taken time to work with Peter, and that put him ahead of the rest of their teachers. Wishing he could hide his black eye, Sam knocked on the door and peered inside.

[sith_happened]

Anakin glanced up, then frowned hard. "Who hit you?"

[likethegun]

"Um, this guy in a bar," Sam said, a little weakly. "Dean tried to keep me busy this weekend, and it involved hustling some guys in pool. They didn't take too kindly to us taking their money in the end. It's not as bad as it looks."

[sith_happened]

"Right," Anakin said dryly. "Come in."

[likethegun]

Sam came in obediently, but hovered by the door. "Zoe said she told you about Peter."

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "I'm very sorry, Sam."