fandomhigh | Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Tuesday

"We've been talking about allies and oppressors, stratagems and choices, and all of that stuff," Kerrigan began. "But the truth is that the history of 'oppression' and of the shattering of glass ceilings is one of a whole lot of martyrs. Rosa Parks had to refuse to move to get a movement going. Heretics had to burn for their faith, women had to be tried for their convictions, and no one ever earned a single damn right without a sacrifice."

She threw the class an assessing look. "But the thing about martyrs is that they don't usually walk out alive," she said, with a slight hint of scorn in her voice. "I'm not going to teach you to be martyrs. I'm not going to encourage you to become one, either. What we're talking about today is the Chaos and Enemy Dealing Stratagems. You've got to break a few eggs to make an omelette, that kind of stuff."

She let her fingers trail along the desk as she moved. "'Obtain safe passage to conquer the State of Guo', the Chinese called it, charmingly enough. Borrow resources from an ally, then screw them over once you've defeated the enemy." It was... one thing that Kerrigan had perfected herself. "No one ever crawled on top of the heap by becoming a martyr. The people using the martyrs do. This is a little... roundabout in terms of connection, but bear with me."

With a roll of her shoulders, she continued. "'Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree' is another one. A little more poetic take on our omelette. Sometimes someone needs to suffer the short-term consequences so you can move in and improve things at your leisure." She glanced at the class from the corner of her eye. "Don't get squeamish," she said, idly. "In my experience, half the time, your allies'll screw you far ahead of time if you're not careful. Anyway. 'Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbour'. From your point of view, a better analogue would be to say... make friends in another field. Those'll be less likely to screw you over when you hunt down your nearest competitor. After all, they don't want your spot."

A beat. "'Shut the door to catch the thief'. Whoever is oppressing you, hound them. Get the press against them. Get the police against them. Get politics against them. Sometimes it's better to wait to finish them off when they've already thrown themselves into ruin and there's nowhere else they can appeal to. 'Catch a fish while the water is disturbed' - also one to keep in mind when dealing with martyrs. They can throw public opinion into disarray, send people running and gossiping and basically create a perfect field of chaos for you to jump in and... rearrange the heirarchy."

"'Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief'. Their side can have heroes and martyrs, too. Discredit them, capture them, and suddenly you own a hell of a source of command presence. Get them in your pocket, blackmail them, whatever. And that brings us back to full-circle with our martyrs: 'Stomp the grass to scare the snake'. Cause a big uproar, even if it isn't exactly your agenda, and watch everyone fall all over themselves to get at whoever's at the center. Make it big, make it grand, and you can insert your more... subtle ideas into the collective mindset like it's some big gracious effort on your part."

With that, she took her seat on the desk again. "'Borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul'. You don't always need to believe exactly in your own cause as writ. Just make sure everyone else does. If you have to, blanket it in past issues. Something that gets people going, something that gets people involved. And finally... 'Slough off the cicada's golden shell'. Pretend your spiel is one thing when it's another, if you've got a lot of people on your back. When you shake the fake ideas, it's going to really throw them off balance. Which is what you want."

Her heels ticked against the floor. "But let's back up to the State of Guo," she said. "To our lists of authority figures and allies and who to trust and who not to. All of these strategies are very... useful, but if you balk at the last second, you're in a load of shit. So here's the ethics part of this course, children. I want you to pair up and discuss where your personal lines are." A beat. "And no moral absolutes, please. Everyone's got a breaking point. Let's not pretend like anyone, let alone the world, can pull off black-or-white."

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"Well, it might be fore you one day," Triela pointed out. "I mean, not any time soon, but..." It could happen. Ino was, after all, competent enough to have a shot at promotion.

"To a degree," Ino said, frowning slightly. "But that's not--I'd never be, like, Hokage-sama."

Triela nodded in agreement. That wasn't really the way Ino was wired, after all. "It's been my observation that the higher your rank, the vaguer your orders, you know? The more they trust you, the more likely they are to just tell you the outcome they want and let you figure out how to get it."

Hilshire got some rather vague orders, after all.

She couldn't really disagree with that.

"Pretty much," Ino said. "I mean, you still get things like 'this mission you absolutely cannot have this happen', etc. But that's 'bout it, you know? Otherwise it's just 'get this done. go to it.'."

"Right," Triela nodded in understanding. "I suppose we could discuss lines for when you're in charge, but... it's still going to be 'whatever makes sure the mission gets done'..." So not a lot of lines to discuss...

"I think we kinda suck at this assignment," Ino said, sighing.

"Or we're the best ever," Triela countered. She didn't sound like she believed that, though.

Ino arched an eyebrow.

"As comforting as that would be to say..."

"Yeah. Not true at all."

Triela shrugged. "Well, we can't be good at everything, and considering how awesome we are at what we do, I suppose it has to balance out somewhere."

"I like that sort of thinking," she said, grinning. "We're so awesome already that we can't be awesome at this."

"Precisely." Triela actually sounded mostly serious about it, too. "It wouldn't be fair to everyone else for us to be too awesome, right?"

"Definitely not," Ino agreed impishly. A bit less serious than Triela about it but, well, not un-serious either. "And 'sides, we're still learning. We could get awesome at this in time."

"I suppose anything's possible," Triela admitted. "I'm not sure I'd want to be, but..."

"Me neither," she confessed. "But who can say what the future holds, yeah?"

"True enough. And to make things worse: this is Fandom."

"Yeah," she said dryly, something blacker in her voice. "I know."

Did she ever know.

Triela frowned slightly. "Want to grab tea sometime soon?" she asked. Because this didn't sound like the sort of conversation either of them would be super-comfortable having in a classroom.

"My room. Or yours."

"We're in the cabins right now," she pointed out idly.

Which wasn't her saying she wouldn't show. But. You know.

Triela grinned just a bit. "Which means that no one will bother us if we use the dorms."

"... True," she had to admit. "You got a time you wanted to meet?"

Triela's grin widened. "You're the one with the busy schedule," she pointed out. "When's good for you?"

"Thursday mornin'?" she suggested. "I'm busy later."

With a daaate.

"Thursday morning sounds fine," Triela agreed.

"And... busy?" There might have been a curiously teasing note in her tone there.

Ino wasn't going to blush for Triela.

"Busy," she said loftily.

"Too busy to spend time with a friend?" Triela asked, trying to sound hurt and innocent.

She wasn't really good at either of those.

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