fandomhigh | World Wars and the Media, Tuesday

"Good morning, everyone." Mitchell's cheer seemed a little heavy on the sheepish side that morning. "I'm Mitchell. Not Professor Mitchell - I hear you have to go to school to earn that. Welcome to World Wars and the Media. Which is a fairly impressive title and sounds properly academic, which I'm not." Unless you counted that stint in Oxford in the thirties, and Mitchell had made very sure at the time no one was around to remember that. At least it was a little more optimistic than his original idea of starting the class, which had involved saying I have absolutely no idea how to teach a class like this and possibly George having a massive fit, if things went the way they tended to.

"But let's not linger on that. The 20th century is famous for its global wars and equal consequences," he segued. "It's equally famous for being a time at which the media exploded all over the place, giving us film, radio, television, the internet..." He looked momentarily wistful. "Obviously, these two cross-pollinated. Through propaganda, but also through the reverse. Rebellions were started and extinguished with the help of rising technology. Unlike previous centuries, there was suddenly this mass of... possibility," he made an enthusiastic gesture with his hands, "Where in the middle of an armed conflict, one single image could travel around the world and change everything. The way the people saw it, the way the people thought about it... It's a powerful tool."

He paused, leaning forward against his desk. "I'm not going to bore you with more general babbling," he said, "But we'll be here to look at and discuss a lot of these things. Of course, to do so, we have to know what we're starting with. So starting with you," he pointed out a random student, "I want your name, I want when and where you're from, and I want to know what you think about war. In a very general sense. What images spring to mind what you think about it? What stories have formed the way you look at the First World War, or the Second, if you even know what those are? Or if you don't, what stories have formed the way you look at the wars of your own place and time?"

Beat.

"Also, have some tea."

[[ ~~wait for the~~ ocd up! ]]

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"I'm Ino, from Konohagakure no Sato in Hi no Kuni." Sometimes, Ino just liked rolling the syllables off her tongue to see peoples faces, yes. "Konoha, for short. Hidden Village of the Leaf, in Fire Country, if you insist on a translation. So--different world, different time, don't know much 'bout the wars here but war, to me is--"

She shrugged.

"--War happens. It's part of life."

"Oh, Konohagakure," Mitchell said, with a faint joking air to it, "Why didn't you just say so."

... The syllables amused him, yes. He grew more sober at the rest of her answer. "There's a war on where you're from, then?"

There were a lot of these kids, it'd seem.

"At the moment, nothing official," she admitted. "There's been no formal declarations, but informally, yeah. Got invaded a few years ago, fought them off, on-and-off since then."

Ino tugged her hair. "It's been fairly peaceful for most my life, but we had a war end when I was three, and another one only a few years before that." And a demon mauling their village in-between that. Ino shrugged a bit. "War is--pretty perpetual. Ten years peace was unusual. A lot of things are sort of peeling apart now 'cause of it."

"War does have a habit of breaking out within the gaps," Mitchell conceded, "But that much peace isn't an odd thing, either. That's the way time works, you shake it up, then it'll settle back down for a while, waiting for the next shake-up."

He leaned back. "So tell me, Ino," he continued, "Do they tell stories about it?"

She flashed a quick grin at him. "It's weird when you've got five major powers and a whole lot of smaller ones all on one continent, yeah, for there to be no major conflicts in that long."

That was a sad fact of her world.

"Stories, yeah," she said, considering that. "Lots of them--from anyone who was on active duty, my dad's got tons. And there's all the history 'bout it in the Academy too."

"Then tell us a story," Mitchell prompted, looking at her. "Something nice for the PG-13 crowd."

"...for the PG-13 crowd," Ino repeated, mildly incredulous. "It was a war, how sanitary do you want it?"

Even as she mentally started trying to figure out what to talk about. Her dad's stories were immediately relegated to the back of the list because his missions had been, well, much like her last one.

"That's what this class is about," he said, with a hint of irony in his cheer. "Give it your best shot."

She thoughtfully played with her hair, not ignoring him, just giving herself a moment to think.

“Alright,” Ino said finally, picking her words carefully. “This is the story about how peace came about between Kumogakure, Hidden Cloud, and Konoha. We’ve got—bloodlines in my world, ones that come with power and certain—talents. Some families have them, a lot don’t. That’s important in a bit. It was the end of the year and Cloud’s emissaries were in Konoha to sign the peace treaty, all clans but one, were in attendance for the signing. The only clan that didn’t go was the oldest and most powerful in Konoha and that’s because on that day, they celebrated their heir’s third birthday.”

Her smile was slight.

“The treaty was signed, and that should have been the end of it. But, that night, a ninja broke into the first clan’s compound and attempted to kidnap the child heir—her clan’s bloodline was powerful and the secrets it held were much coveted. The clan head caught and eliminated the ninja, rescuing his daughter. The ninja who’d broken in was the same man who’d signed the peace treaty that afternoon.”

Ino folded her hands across her stomach. “It almost went to war again, but the Third and the Raikage, Kumo’s leader, desired peace. The Raikage said ‘a man for a man then, we would have the body of the one who eliminated one of ours’ and the Third was in a quandary—giving Kumo what they wanted would mean giving them the secrets of that clan’s blood. But that clan, the leader and the one who’d killed the Cloud ninja, had a twin brother who bore a seal that, upon death would activate and keep the secrets of his blood to himself. He offered himself in place of his brother—the clan would be protected, their leader still alive, and the blood price for peace paid. Kumo would be unable to protest that they did not get the bloodline.”

“He sacrificed himself for his brother, the clan was safe, and we got our ten years peace.” Ino raised her eyebrows at him inquiringly. “PG-13, enough?”

"I'd say you have a Hollywood film in you yet," Mitchell agreed.

A bit wryly and off-handedly, yes, but then he'd seen his fair share of wars.

"Nah," she said, making a face at him. "Most of mine wouldn't be allowed to be made, I don't think. They'd add in some crap 'bout friendship and love interests and gloss over the icky parts."

World Wars and the Media, Tuesday

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