Jacques' dilemma is inspired by The Moral Sense Test. This is probably the only work of fanfiction in the world to involve Truth or Dare and not be a romance. What can I say, I'm a maverick. ;)
Hypothetical Situation"Okay," Jacques said, "truth."
Bertrand picked up the deck of handmade cards and shuffled them quickly before holding them out to Jacques face down, in a neat fan. A row of silver eyes gleamed up at them. Jacques closed his eyes to pick, although it didn't make much difference as the cards were indistinguishable.
He handed the chosen card to Bertrand, who read it and announced, "It's a moral dilemma."
On the other side of the circle, Olivia winced. "Ooh, I hate those."
Bertrand cleared his throat. "You're trapped in a burning building," he read. "With you are five neophytes, who – "
"We've already had that one," Tatiana interrupted. She leaned over to take the card from Bertrand's hand, but he drew it back. "Pick something else."
"I wasn't here earlier," Jacques pointed out. "I only got out of Concealment Training ten minutes ago, and there's no rule that says we can't have the same question twice in one evening."
"Yes, but…" Tatiana looked around the circle as if seeking support, but then sank back in her chair. "Oh all right, go ahead."
"Thank you." Bertrand looked back at the card. "With you are five neophytes, who you have never met before. There is only one way to escape from the building, a large window leading to the outside. If you break the window, you can lead your companions to safety. However, someone who has already escaped, an adult, who you have never met before, is directly below the window. If you break the window, the glass will fall on to this person, killing them. You have no other means of escape, and no way to warn the person below you to get out of the way." He lowered the card and looked at Jacques, the rims of his glasses flashing in the lamplight. "What do you do?"
Jacques sighed, rubbing his temples. He saw Olivia and some of the others grimacing in sympathy. This was the kind of question they had to discuss in some of the Ethical Debate sessions, the ones that went on for far too long and left everyone involved with headaches and sore throats. At least the game didn't require you to explain your decision, you just had to make one.
"Well, in a non-hypothetical situation I'd go look for another way out." There were a couple of appreciative laughs. "But since that counts as evading the question here and I'd just end up eating a spoonful of something unpleasant…" He took a deep breath. "Okay. I wouldn't break the window. I do think I have a responsibility to the people I'm with, but it doesn't give me the right to commit murder." You didn't have to explain your decision, but most people did anyway.
There were murmurs from the rest of the circle. Jacques knew at least half the volunteers there would disagree with his reasoning, but the game wasn't meant to be a debate. Bertrand looked back down at the card, impassive. "Do you want the Variations?"
Jacques didn't have to think. The Variations on the First Dilemma weren't obligatory, but everyone did them. It made things more interesting. "Of course."
Tatiana opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it and sank back in the chair again.
Bertrand leaned in closer, lowering his voice. Playing up to his role as interrogator, the way everyone did. "Suppose the person below the window is the one who started the fire. What do you do then?"
"It shouldn't make any difference who they are," Jacques said. "I still don't have the right to impale them on broken glass."
"Technically I'm not asking if you should break the window," Bertrand pointed out. "I'm asking, would you do it?"
"Well, no." Jacques raised one half of his eyebrow. "Are you challenging my answer?"
"Not really." Bertrand shrugged. "Just making sure we follow what's on the card."
Jacques smiled, leaning back in his chair. "So what is on the card? Let's hear it."
"What if," Bertrand read, "instead of five strangers you were with someone you knew? Say it was…" He thought for a moment, apparently running through a list of all the people Jacques knew. "Okay, say it's Lemony. What do you do then?"
The room went very quiet. Several people exchanged nervous glances, and Tatiana raised a hand to her mouth. Jacques looked down at the carpet. It's just hypothetical, he told himself. A philosophical conundrum. A situation that could never arise.
He wished he'd drawn the one about the killer rabbits. It was essentially the same problem, but the mental images it produced were ridiculous enough to make it seem less daunting. You could dismiss the thought of your little brother being pursued by bunnies. You could joke about it later. Sorry Lemony, hands were tied.
"Jacques?"
There were no penalties for inconsistency, only insincerity. He let out a long breath. "If it was Lemony… then yeah. I'd probably do it."
There was a strangled cry from the shadows behind him, followed by the crash of a small table falling over. Jacques span round in time to see the silhouette of a short figure darting out of the side door, which slammed shut even before he could catch his breath enough to say his brother's name.
Tatiana jumped to her feet, snatching the card from Bertrand's hand. "You idiot!" she snapped, seeming about to slap him.
"I thought he'd gone upstairs!" Bertrand protested, looking pale. "I didn't realise he was still there."
"Well neither did I, but you should still have thought what would happen if they gave different answers! Didn't it occur to you…"
"Different answers?" Jacques was already halfway out the door, but he turned back at Tatiana's words. "What do you mean?"
"Lemony's the one who drew that card earlier," Tatiana said. "And he answered the same way you did, until it got to that last question." She shook her head. "When Bertrand asked him what he'd do if it was you in there."
At this time of evening the library was almost deserted. Most volunteers who were there would be in the Literature section, so Jacques didn't bother looking there. He headed for Lemony's other favourite section, hoping he'd find him before anyone decided they needed to know how to spell something.
He didn't bother turning any lights on. The advantage of being able to see a little better would be cancelled out by the fact that Lemony would know he was here if he did that, and disappear to somewhere else. He walked slowly between the shelves, watching the shadows from the corners of his eyes.
Jacques knew his brother well. It only took him about fifteen minutes to spot the shape of a huddled figure beneath one of the tables.
"Lemony?" He bent down to look under the table. Wide brown eyes stared out at him from the darkness. "You want to talk about it?"
Lemony shook his head, backing further into the shadows like a small animal that had just had a flashlight shone in its face. Sometimes he seemed a lot younger than twelve. Jacques sighed, crawling further under the table.
"Look, if you're mad at me just say so. I won't mind. There've been arguments about this sort of thing before. Remember when Gregor and Ike had that huge fight over the stealing medicine one and wouldn't speak to each other for a week? And Hector…"
"…I let you die." Lemony spoke with a kind of awed horror, looking at Jacques as if he were already a ghost come back to reproach him.
"What? No!" Jacques gaped at him in shock. "No you didn't, you didn't do anything, okay? I'm right here. See?" He reached out to grasp Lemony's arm. Lemony flinched and drew back. "Not dead. Nothing happened."
"But… you saved me." Lemony shuddered, suddenly clutching Jacques' hand on his arm and gripping him tightly. "And I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't break the window. Not even for you."
Jacques wrapped his arms round Lemony and hugged him, pulling him close before he had a chance to resist or back away. "I would never," he murmured into Lemony's hair, "want you to."
"But you'd do it?" Lemony squirmed away a bit so he could look Jacques in the eyes. He didn't look quite so young any more. You're my baby brother, I love you, Jacques thought, but something told him that wasn't the right thing to say, true as it was.
"It's not like the situation would actually come up," he said instead, which was also true but somehow not as convincing as it sounded in his head.
Lemony continued to look at him. Jacques had never realised before what a penetrating stare he could give when he wanted to. He's almost as tall as me, he thought, irrelevantly.
"What if it did?"
Jacques swallowed. "It wouldn't. Not in real life. There's always another way out."
Lemony considered this. "I suppose there is," he said eventually, and leaned forward again, putting his arms around Jacques' waist. Jacques looked down at him, wondering how exactly he'd gone from being the hugger to the one being hugged in a few seconds' conversation. Wondering if this meant the conversation had gone well, and if so, how.
It lasted a minute or so, and then Jacques tapped Lemony on the shoulder. "Can we come out from under here now? My leg's going to sleep."
Lemony looked up at him with a slight smile. "And that, dear brother, is why I always get out of Concealment Training before you."
"I'm in awe of your superior abilities, L." Jacques rolled his eyes, shifting aside to let his brother crawl out first. He watched as Lemony stood up and stretched, tilting his head back the way he had since he was three years old, and thought There'd better be another way out. There'd just better be.