The Place of Thought

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Iron Man Crossover (Self-Made Hero)
Summary: Maggie's class is one of the required electives, actually.
Word Count: 475
Rating: Gen

         “You clearly don’t think much of the study of thought, Mr. Knight,” Walsh states with bite, and Buffy glances over at Xander, who’s been fidgeting.
         She loves him, but really, for once could he please not make a scene?  She’s trying, for once, to not be labeled as the problem student, but a certain friend’s making that difficult, and it’s hard to tell whether Willow makes up for that.
         Xander stands, looking unsure and hunched, a little.  “Actually, it’s pretty important,” he corrects gently, voice quiet.
         Everyone’s just staring at him, including the teacher, so he begins the babble, trying to fill in the awkward silence.  “Well, nothing in this world gets done without your mind.  It’s your thought, your determination, that allows anything to be accomplished, so there’s that.  And…”  He pauses, but he’s getting onto a roll, and his voice is getting louder, and he’s starting to gesture, too.  “…And there’s quantum physics.  There are some really weird parts about our world that we don’t understand yet.  Take Schrödinger’s little thought experiment with the cat in the box.  Quantum theory states that observation is everything.  The example is putting a cat inside a box and closing the lid.  Unless it moves or makes a sound you don’t know whether it’s alive or dead in there.  The world exists in a series of mutually possible quantum possibilities.  Dead?  Alive?  Both, until you open the lid and find out for sure.  All the possibilities exist until you observe them, and then they solidify into one thing—what you see.  It’s not practically different from the normal world that we’re all used to, except that the very act of observing something makes it what it is.  Not that we’ve figured out how to make that act of observation work in our favor, or we’d all have a lot better grades than we do now with the same amount of work…”  That earns a few chuckles, “…But the very fact that my classmates are all staring at me thinking ‘what a loon, what is he talking about, what’s wrong with him’ makes the reality of me being here, standing in front of everything and babbling about obscure science stuff the reality we’re all living in, rather than some other possible world where I’m being quiet in my seat or not even attending college.  So, yeah, thinking and observing are important parts of life.”  He abruptly sits down, looking really embarrassed and sheepish.
         “Well, who knew you had a brain in that head, Mr. Knight?” Walsh asks snappishly but with a little admiration, and there’s chuckles at that, too.  “I hope you continue to use it in my class, and maybe, just maybe, you might earn that A you’re trying to wish into existence.”  Willow reaches over and pats Xander’s hand.  He’s still looking a little in shock.