fandomhigh | Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Tuesday

"'All good soldiers crack like boulders'," Kerrigan said. She had her legs crossed and her habitual lean against the desk was firmly in place. "Some of you might disagree with the point of today's lesson; I expect you will, at least." She wasn't looking at anyone in particular. "Blind obedience makes a good soldier. A valuable skillset. Just enough independent thought to come up with the tactics that will bring victory."

She glanced around the class. "Some oppression is obvious," she drawled, "It's thrown in our faces, demarked with guns and barbed wire or the closest possible substitute. 'Us' and 'them' are valuable ideas: we, the marginalized, them, the great big oppressors. One Earthman once stated that religion was an opiate. And anything can be a religion. Military might is the world's second-oldest faith. All good soldiers."

"Let's say a man finds you and draws you out of your oppression," she continued, "Offers you a hand and says, 'You are like me, together, we can take them down'. You take his hand, you take his offer, and you become a good soldier for a new cause." Her mouth twitched up. "All you need to do is let him take control. And if he abuses your trust, if he makes you do things beyond your own moral tolerance, then you can write it off, say that you're simply supporting the cause. Oppression becomes invisible. We struggle, but we keep going, because we keep telling ourselves that we need to be a good soldier."

She pushed away from the desk. "Now, some of you will argue and tell me that being distrustful of our leaders, especially when we've chosen our own cause, is not a good tool to build a community. After all, if we refuse to do what our superiors tell us to, if we have no faith, then there is no society, there's just chaos. Well..." Her smirk got blacker. "I'm not here to make you nice little tools of society, or cogs in the wheel. I'm not interested in the unwashed masses - they'll do as they will. I'm here to give you the tools you might need to rise up and become your own little queen. Not many of you are made for it."

There was a momentary silence. Then:

"I want you all to make a list of everyone you report to," she said, "Military, civilian, ethical, moral, whatever authority you listen to, write them down. You don't have to give it to me if you don't want to. I'm not interested in the specifics. It's your job to be."

She crossed her arms.

"Then ask yourself for every one of them, why do you trust them? What have they done for you, why do they do it? And is there any danger that one day they might abuse your presence as a good soldier for their own ends? Because everyone..." She narrowed her eyes. "Everyone has a line in the sand. I hope for your sakes you'll know when your authorities overstep theirs."

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

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Like a good soldier.

Claire Bennet

Yamanaka Ino

Nyota Uhura

Helen Haras-Uquara

Emma Frost

Tara Maclay

Jonothon Starsmore

Rinoa Heartilly

Leia Organa

Charles Gunn

And sit up straight. She's watching.

The lecture made Claire vaguely uneasy. It hit kind of close to home with the whole trust thing given that her own father had betrayed hers.

Rinoa was concerned. She had a feeling her teacher was right about most of this stuff, which had some really bad implications for Squall being a SeeD.

... of everyone you consider a personal authority, be it military, civilian, ethical, moral, or anything else.

Then define how much you can trust them, what it is they want, and in how much you share those wants -- what their line in the sand might be for you.

Discuss if you want, keep it in secret if you don't; Kerrigan isn't concerned either way.

It took a while for Claire to compile her list and she struggled a lot with defining how much she trusted the various people on it.

Ino had paper, sure. And pens.

But the flowers she was doodling weren't the assignment, no. She already knew who her authority figures were and why she considered them such--writing them down was stupid.

Helen struggled quite a bit with her list. Did she include the priests? Jamie? Uquar? And how much did she trust some of them?

It wasn't easy.

Emma didn't really have anyone she reported to, unless you counted Kerrigan herself since Emma was a TA.

So she wasn't really doing the assignment, since she didn't actually trust anyone as an authority. Instead, she did a list of people who trusted her. It was a good exercise, to remind herself the world didn't completely suck.

The first name on Tara's list was the easiest one:

Mr. Winchester

He didn't exert his authority often, but he was unquestionably her boss. Her teacher's names and those of school administration went down too, under the same logic.

Then she stared at her paper for a while. She wrote Mom strongly and Dad more faintly -- whatever she thought of the man, she was still his daughter, and more than a year away from turning eighteen.

Emmett, Raven & Karla(?) were the next to go on her list, though she supposed (and this scared her) they reported to her as much as she reported to them. And then Tara bit her lip, trying to think of other names to add.

She wasn't looking for anyone to discuss it with, but she also wasn't making any special effort to shield her paper.

Jono furrowed his eyes at the paper that he was writing his list on.

Too small, and too large, all at the same time. Kerrigan's lecture had hit on too many points that Jono related far too closely to, and so it was perhaps no wonder that the first name Jono wrote down was Xavier.

A man he'd never personally met, but it was his letter that had taken him out of London and had made him a member of Generation X.

From there, Emma (from back home), and Sean. Mr. DeTamble, here, because he worked under him in the library. Alice, perhaps, because of the position she'd given him at Groovy Tunes... It didn't really go much farther than that.

Leia had her father -- both of them -- on her list, though trusting them didn't mean she necessarily did what they said. Technically, her list should've included Emperor Palpatine as someone she answered to once she officially took her seat in the senate, but as far as trusting him? Not one bit.

Rinoa tapped her pen on the desk and considered her list.

Zone -- when he is not being stupid. I wouldn't let him do anything crazy like kill people or get us in too much trouble. I can trust him not to sell out the group, because it means as much to him as to the rest of us.

NOT DAD. He's mean, and he'd probably turn me in for being a sorceress, or else he'd just lock me up in my room again LIKE ALWAYS.

Squall -- if I'm evil and he's convincing me to turn back. And I let him overrule me on plans because he has military expertise and I don't. I can trust him because he's in love with me, even if he's pretending he's not.

Edea -- she's an advisor and not an authority but she helps me learn how to be a sorceress. A good one, not evil. I don't know what she wants, but I think I can trust her. I'm not going to follow her if it goes against what I think is right.

Quistis -- she's in charge of Balamb Garden now that Squall stepped down. She doesn't like me but I think I can trust her. Except I don't know if she thinks I should be sealed. She might think it's better, from a pragmatic standpoint.

Angelo isn't an authority but I can trust her with my life so that's good.

When they ping in!

Despite being unsettled by the lecture topic, Claire was around if anyone needed her.

Emma was also there, and available for her classmates to talk to.

Who's sitting at the desk in nigh-unnatural silence, as always.

All good soldiers crack like boulders/
The sun climbs up to a razor/
Violins, new boots and numbers on a chain/
All good soldiers wait like warheads/
When the fighting starts who will be/
Accountable, a cannibal, a cannonball?/

Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Tuesday

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