fandomhigh | Practical Diplomacy, Friday, March 3, 2017

Practical Diplomacy, Friday, March 3, 2017

Today, they met in a regular classroom, with one small difference: each desk had been pointed towards another desk, creating pairs.

"Today, we shall talk about lying," Obi-Wan said, "Which is a terrible sin one should never engage in, of course."

"And he said that with a straight face," Anakin said, "which tells you just how often he's lied to a crowd."

Obi-Wan ignored him. "However, sometimes, there may be reasons why you cannot speak the truth. Perhaps because it will anger your hosts, or make matters worse. In those cases, one must know how to speak... carefully."

Anakin nodded. "Without people realizing immediately that you're not telling them the truth."

"The trick lies in never telling a genuine lie," Obi-Wan said. "Always ensure that whatever you say has a kernel of truth to it."

"Say, for instance, your negotiations were pointless, long, and ended in a shouting match," Anakin said. "Seize on the part where no one actually died and praise them for being honest, open, and peaceful."

"To practice, today, we would like you to team up," Obi-Wan said lightly. "We will give one of you an opening question to begin with. Assume the answer to it is 'yes', but you cannot say so. The rest is up to you."

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Lying through your teeth, but with style!

Hyacinthe

Mara Jade

Peridot

Ada Miller

Ahsoka Tano

Isabela

Gratuity Tucci

Tali'Zorah

Yay, lecture!

Pick one of the following subjects and find a partner:

"Did you take the last cookie from the jar?"
"Did you kiss that man?"
"Do I look bad in this sweater?"
"Did you talk to that girl who you know I hate?"
"Is there something spicy in this dish?"
"Do you think your roommate is a bad person?"

Hyacinthe looked around to see if there was anyone willing to partner up. Not that he'd ever lie.

Mara gave Hyacinthe a little wave. "Ready?"

And Hya returned it with an appreciative smile and a wave of his own. "Most definitely," he said. "Are you ready to tell me if you kissed that man?"

"A lady never kisses and tells," Mara replied promptly. "It's tacky."

"But if she did not kiss someone, she'd be able to say so freely, would she not?" Hyacinthe asked. "'Tis only when she kisses that it becomes impolite to say."

"But if she doesn't kiss someone, that starts almost as many rumors," Mara said. "That makes her an uptight prude. Kissing someone makes her easy. It's better to just not say anything."

Hyacinthe was truly confused by that. Because he was D'Angelline and being easy was a way of life.

"What's wrong with being easy?" he asked. "Is there some kind of merit in being difficult?"

"I find there to be much more merit in being difficult," Mara said with a little laugh. "It keeps things interesting."

"Then you and I must have very different ideas of interesting," Hyacinthe said, with an utterly shameless grin. "I find quite a great deal of enjoyment in being easy."

Mara laughed. "Oh, really?"

"I meet all the most charming people that way," Hyancithe said said, giving her a wink. "And get to know them very well."

He paused and then added, "Speaking of, how do you do?"

Mara laughed even harder. "Does that work for you?"

"Of course not!" Hya said, laughing with her. "I usually need to say more than hello."

"I'm glad," Mara said. "I pride myself on being slightly difficult, and if that's all it took for everyone else, I'd have to recalibrate."

"Nay," he assured her. "That is mere politeness. I need to at least work my way up to friendly first."

Pause.

"...Though if you wish to recalibrate down to be less difficult, let me not stand in the way."

Mara laughed. "No, I like being difficult, but thank you."

"In what ways are you difficult?" Hyacinthe asked, not at all caring that they'd left the purpose of the group activity far behind. "You seem not at all unpleasant or impolite."

Mara smiled sunnily at him. "Well thank you for saying so. I'm just...not exactly as instantly chummy as some of the other people here."

"That's hardly being difficult," Hyacinthe said. "That's being...selective. Hardly an ill quality."

Peridot squinted at the questions while she waited for a partner. This ought to be easy enough. Most of these wouldn't even apply to her in a normal situation, after all.

It was very easy to say that no, she hadn't taken the last cookie.

"So, Peridot, dear, do dish on the roomie situation, how terrible are they?" Isabela said, blissfully unaware said roomie was in class with them.

Peridot, meanwhile, glanced thoughtfully toward Ahsoka.

"Oh, I don't know," she said, reaching a finger up to scratch thoughtfully at her chin. "I don't actually spend enough time in the room to really be able to say."

Lying was much easier when it was actually the truth. Who knew?

Isabela followed Peridot's line of sight and grinned. Across the room Ahsoka suddenly had a bad feeling about something.

"It's that bad?" Isabela deliberately misinterpreted. "You feel you can't even be in the same room with her?"

No, Isabela, bad.

Peridot blinked and tilted her head a little at that.

"No, I simply find other things to occupy my time. Oh, like I built a duck once!"

Apparently that was somehow relevant to the conversation at hand.

Spending time with Merrill meant Isabela had practice following odd turns of conversation. She shook her head. "Building ducks, always a bad sign."

Isabela, stop.

Peridot blinked. Peridot tilted her head to one side.

Peridot squinted.

"A bad sign of what?"

"Roommate issues."

Isabela, no.

Peridot was well aware that she probably shouldn't give Isabela the opening, but this was a train of logic that she couldn't resist following to the end of the line.

"How do you figure?"

It was a train of deliberate troll logic.

"Spending time with fake waterfowl instead your roomie," Isabela tutted. "Never good."

The only reason Ahsoka wasn't facepalming in the background was because that would reveal she was eavesdropping.

"I only made the duck so that it would eat my bread," Peridot replied, sounding faintly perplexed. "And getting that right took a few tries. Then Lucille pointed out that ducks lay eggs, so I had to figure out how to get it to do that."

She blushed a faint blue.

"Only mostly it lays egg-shaped bread."

Whatever Isabela was going to say next was lost as a completely mysterious and coincidental gust of wind slapped her upside the head.

Odd that.

And Peridot just blinked and tilted her head.

"Anyway," she said, tentatively, a moment later, "Ahsoka's okay. I think. If you're concerned that I'm not spending enough time with her... perhaps I could spend less time wandering and try to... connect."

At the end of the day, Peridot's absence from the room was less about not liking her roommate, and more about not wanting to keep her up all hours of the night while she filled her own time with reruns of Camp Pining Hearts.

Both of whom are accomplished liars, let's be honest.

This class was in no way inspired by Jeff Sessions yesterday. Really.

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Practical Diplomacy, Friday, March 3, 2017

Sign in 3/3

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Listen to the lecture

Pair up and lie!

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Talk to Anakin and Obi-Wan

OOC