1. Know when to speak and when to hold your silence. – Everyone wishes to be heard, especially in the midst of confrontation and the careful negotiations surrounding a conflict. When you are in the role of a diplomat, it is best to say less than necessary. So many statesmen seem to get a thrill listening to the sound of their own voices without the slightest notion that the more they say the more common they appear. And the more that they say, the more foolish they appear. When this happens, any hope to manoeuvre the situation, let alone control it, is lost. It is a far more dangerous thing during negotiations to say foolish things than to actually do them. Silence and the appearance of interest often renders the other side unable to read you and to judge your intentions. Humans especially like to have a clear notion of where you stand on any given issue. When you can control exactly what you wish them to know and nothing more. Silence is mysterious and so many cannot stand the suspense of that mystery.
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Tag Archives: power
TM #246 -What are the five steps to a successful negotiation?
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June’s Prompt
OOC: This post that has been crossposted to is admittedly a compilation of answers that Fanny has written elsewhere in this journal. This is a charcter development exercise, so feel free to skip it if you like! 🙂
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What was/is your childhood ambition?
“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires”
~ “The Prince”, Nicolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527
hey say that who we are is a product of the events of our childhood. I imagine that my life would offer no exception to that particular adage. I decided at a very young age that I would never be the victim of someone else’s power and control. I suppose it could be said that it was always my ambition to rule, if not over others certainly over all aspects of my own life. I daresay that I have achieved both of these things.
I learned first hand how the powerful could either take the power they had and could give great benefit to those around them, or cause incredible pain and suffering. As a child, it was Morgienne, the woman who was then the High Lady of the Fortunate Island who took my mother from me. It happened when I was very small and I did not learn of her treachery until I was on the edge of womanhood. When I did learn of it, it became an all consuming passion; an obsession. I made it a point to study all forms of Power, its Laws and Mysteries. I committed them all to memory and I used them and turned them on upon those who would choose to exploit me and mine.
Even as a child, my ambition was to rule. To be successful, I learned the art of duplicity, which at any court is absolutely essential. With Morgienne, I was unmerciful as she in fact was unmerciful. Constantly over the course of my life, I watched, I observed all the while discreetly insuring that I would take my revenge as well as the throne of High Lady of the Fortunate Island. All that need happen was for nature to take its course. At last, the people saw her for what she truly was, her star began to fade and she was weak enough to be struck. If I had been convinced to be foolish enough to let her live, the viper would have reared up and bit me once more. Morgienne would not have been merciful, and so the viper was destroyed, swiftly, without hesitation and all remnants of her regime swept away. My childhood ambition was at last realized, my desire for vengeance had at last been exorcized.
Muse: Fanny Fae
Fandom: Original Character / Folklore Mythology
Word Count: 380 (Michavelli quote not included in count)
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O’ Fortuna
Fortune. Some people have it, some people seek it, some claim to predict it, and some say that it favours the brave. Write a ficlette inspired by the word ‘fortune.’
O Fortune,
like the moon, you are changeable,
ever waxing and waning;
hateful life. first oppresses
and then soothes, as fancy takes it;
poverty and power
it melts them like ice.
Fate – monstrous and empty,
you whirling wheel, you are malevolent,
well-being is vain and always fades to nothing,
shadowed and veiled, you plague me too;
now through the game I bring my bare back
to your villainy.
e are all slaves to fortune of one kind or another, whether we will or no. Some view it as fame, that magickal elixir that will insure immortality of a kind. From the great Greek warrior, Achilles, to the meanest scullery maid hoping to catch the notice, if not fleeting, of her Lord, fortune takes many forms. Fortuna, that fickle Goddess is ever changeable. Her insignia, the wheel, is like the spinning wheel of the Fates, and very much like the wheel of mediaeval torture. Sometimes it is torture to endure the turns that the wheel makes within our life. It is at the centre of the Wheel and in our life that balance is found. The Wheel of Fortune also can become like the wheel of a ship, whereby we make it to serve us – rather than being dictated by it and blown about by the winds of Fate.
All who knew Morgienne knew her to be intelligent as well as ruthless. It is perhaps to her that I owe my present position, for so often there is no glory for a woman unless she were to be far more ruthless than any man could ever be. It was I who took the Wheel of Fortune within my grasp and wrenched it free from the hands of the Fates and from Morgienne.
I face the same now as she did then. I know that Fortuna shall cast her gaze from me and affix it upon another. And for their time, they shall rise up and I shall be seemingly plunged down, cast from power, rent asunder. Unlike Morgienne, however, I will remain and rise up again. This I know. You see, I have one thing on my side. That one thing is the gift of incredible age, for even as my enemies who will rise to power, they too will fall and I will still yet live. Though the profane shall pass away, the spirit is constant. It is imperishable. The answer to the riddle of the Sphinx, also found within the symbology of the Tarot, is Time. Time is what I have plenty of. And so goes the cycle of life.
So spins the wheel of Fortuna.
Muse: Fanny Fae
Fandom: Original Character / Folklore / Mythology
Word Count: 369 (Not including the portion of translated lyrics of “O’ Fortuna” from “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff )
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Have you killed anyone before?
ye. I have. More than once and certainly for a variety of reasons. My first kill was nothing so noble as self preservation or self defence. I poisoned my foster mother, Morgienne, former High Lady of the Fortunate Island. I did this in part because she had taken the life of my own mother, and partially because I wanted to usurp her place on the throne of the Fortunate Isle. *shrugs* And why not? She deserved what she got, just as I deserved the throne.
The others that have met death by my hand, it really had less to do with vengeance and more to do with what was in the interests of self-preservation and political expediency. Rarely has there ever been malice behind the taking of a life on my part. One of the great Laws of Power is that you never put too much trust in friends and you learn to use your enemies. And when you destroy an enemy, you need to crush your enemy totally. There can be no chance that the head of the snake can rear up and bite you later on, or that the progeny of the serpent you just slew will in vengeance return to roost where you are. A certain detachment is required, lest you become sentimental and soft hearted and forget that an enemy once smitten and left to live, tends to have a very long memory indeed.
Character name: Fanny Fae
Fandom: Original Character / Folklore / Mythology
Disclaimers warning: Frances Moira MacKay,aka Fanny Fae, aka Faelyn,
et al are based off of one of my ancestors and are therefore sole property of ME!
Challenge topic: Have you killed anyone before?
Rating: PG
Word Count: 238
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Failure…
ailure?
I don’t believe in failure. Defeat and retreat are not synonymous with failure. The only way that a person could ever truly fail is if they gave up, or worse, refused to try. Everyone has setbacks, everyone experiences defeat. But to crumple up and decide that the experience is a failure is to refuse to learn from it. The refusal to improvise, adapt and overcome is where failure lies. I have had my fair share of defeat and dined on heaping servings of crow.
One such incident during the Fae Wars was when the Fortunate Island fell to the forces of Prince Itet. I had thought I would be able to hold the Ancient City against him and his allies. We were an island of Priestesses, though some of us were trained in weapons and warfare as well as the Temple arts, we were defeated – I was defeated.
But from the moment my foot touched the helm of the barge that carried away from home, I looked over my shoulder at the city and knew that I would return to retake what was mine. In the mists, the towers stood imperious and proud, behind them lay the mountains, a deep lapis blue. The banners of my house still flew from the pitched rooftops of the castle, but not for long. By the time that we were halfway across the bay, some of Itet’s army had made their way to the tower and were pulling down the banner.
“Enjoy your victory…for now, Itet,” I whispered. My mind and my heart burned with thoughts of revenge. In that moment such dark emotions often serve to spur us back from the precipice defeat.
The bargeman mearely looked from his pole at me as if I had lost my mind. He was, however, both careful and wise to remain silent.
Muse:Fanny Fae
Fandom: Original Character, folklore, mythology
Word Count: 282
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Fanny Fae 