fandomhigh | Diplomacy, Relationships & Tactics: the Art of War [Monday, Period 1]

Another semester, another batch of bright and shining students. Ghanima sat on her desk, hiding her smile behind her tea as they filed in; mentally cataloging the new and familiar faces.

The moment the bell rang, her eyes snapped from the door to the children seated around the room. "Good afternoon and welcome," she said in a clear voice that carried effortlessly. "This is the Art of War, and I am Lady Ghanima Atreides. You may address me as Miss Atreides, Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or some variation thereof. If you are in the wrong class, please feel free to leave at this time. For those of you whom I have had in class before," she smiled suddenly, looking far less severe. "Welcome back."

"The Art of War." Scooping up her two piles of handouts off her desk, Ghanima began wandering up and down the rows of chairs as she talked. "A Chinese military treatise that was written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time. It is divided into 13 chapters, or P'ien, and the collection is referred to as being one Ch'üan, or chronicle."

"The book is not only popular among military theorists, but also among political leaders and those in business management. The book addresses strategy in a broad fashion, despite the title, touching upon public administration and planning. The text outlines theories of battle but also advocates diplomacy and cultivating relationships with other nations as essential to the health of the state."

"Sun Tzu himself is a bit of a mystery, and historians debate whether or not he was a real historical figure. Which, really, is par for the course with anyone truly interesting." Ghanima smiled at the class brilliantly. "If you're larger than life, they'll never believe you were real."

"For our first lesson," Ghanima moved to the front of the room, picking up her chalk to write quickly;

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

"Know thy enemy, know thyself. We'll cover it more in-depth later, but for today I would like you to go around the room and introduce yourselves. Give us your name, class, and some random fact about yourself. Pay attention to what your classmates have to say, you never know when such information could come in handy."

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Hell, that wasn't a flat out no. In fact, it was pretty close to what Ino would trot out herself if someone asked her for secret ninja techniques.

"Okay," Ino said, nodding. "So I'm more likely to fail and I ain't likely to be as good as he ever was at him. How bad can the injuries be? What other risks are there?"

"Physical injury is the most common, especially repeat physical injury if you keep at your lessons. Convincing your body that your brain is correct and you are in two places at once can be...strenuous. Should you master your brain and your brain master your body, you'll still run into walls or sprain things, while you work out the kinks. Even I run the risk of a sprain or a broken bone, should a maneuver go poorly or my attention falter from what I am doing," Ghanima answered.

"Mentally... you are attempting to teach yourself to rewrite reality on a fundamental level. Depression, from realizing everything you thought was true about the laws of universe can be twisted by someone with a strong enough will, is not uncommon in young initiates. Brain hemorrhage in those utterly unsuited is also not unheard of, nor is a stroke if your body and mind cannot handle the load." She regarded Iris dispassionately. "Total brain death, should you be unable to reconcile What Is and What Could Be and What Is Now. Physics bites back, when you try to make it dance to your purposes."

"Is this a risk you're willing to take, Iris? I have no doubt you are already a more than capable Turk--" because yes, she knew that suit. "--but can the world risk losing all that you have to offer, just for more speed?"

It wasn't just speed the Weirding Way offered, it was a momentary perfection of Self. But Ghanima did not want Iris to have any illusions about what was at risk in pursuing that perfection.

"I don't know," Ino admitted, since it was the least flippant thing she could think of to say and while she was absolutely taking this seriously--she had to remember to act like she was too. "But I ain't doin' the world much good here playin' babysitter to Zack either."

Because that's what it was, really, and it was slowly driving both of them mad.

"Um, the mind thing, does it help if there's prior experience in the whole two places thing?" She smiled slightly, sideways. "Did I ever tell you I'm a telepath whose family specializes in possession?"

"It might have come up at some point," Ghanima acknowledged ~~because her player does NOT have a photographic memory unlike the character~~. "We do not have telepathy in our universe, at least not like that, so I do not know if it would be a help or a hindrance."

"What is it you feel you're meant to be doing, Iris?"

"It probably says more about me than you that that question makes me feel like I'm about five," Ino grumbled, leaning against one of the desks for a moment before perching on it instead. "I don't know, shit, when Reno got here his world was crap already. Now it's my world only it ain't broken yet. I want to keep it that way, but I ain't never been that sort of hero."

But she still wanted to be better, stronger, faster--maybe then she'd be a little more help.

"Not wanting your world to break doesn't make you a hero, I think it makes you quite sensible. It's where you live," Ghanima pointed out. "Everything Leto and I do is towards the greater goal of keeping our universe from breaking eventually. Doing what's right isn't always 'heroic,' at least not in the way you're thinking."

Sometimes, it was truly terrible.

Ino grinned slightly.

"Ain't like I got a problem with doin' terrible things," she noted. "But when there's a big bad in there with the power to destroy things I think it does become a matter of heroics to stop it. It's too late now for me to just plink around and alter minds until I get an outcome I like."

A beat.

"Besides, I ain't much of one to rule the world either and if I started altering minds I'd basically have to be."

Diplomacy, Relationships & Tactics: the Art of War [Monday, Period 1]

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