Special lecture given by fifth generation Hero, Vulper.
Fulcor Military Academy
"'All warfare is based on deception' is both a common phrase and accurate. The question is though, what is deception based on?
It's a simple question and an even more simple answer: deception is based on truth. To be more precise, it's based on understanding, but in order to understand something you must know the truth of it. As it pertains to this topic, knowing your enemy, or your target, is the key to properly deceiving them. What they want, how they act, the people around them, their background, and about a thousand other things all play into how a person acts, and you need to know all of that to truly understand them. Once the understanding is there, you can get them to do whatever you want.
When I say there's a thousand things to know about a person, I mean it, even though it's a bit of an understatement. Even the smallest of things can clue you in on what makes a person tick. You truly can't, and shouldn't, overlook anything, especially if you think it's nothing. Imagine you're painting a picture of a person. You'd likely cover the big things first, like the nose, the eyes, the hair, the mouth, the backdrop, the clothes, et cetera. Then you'd move to the small details, the curve of the eyelashes, the color of the buttons on the shirt, how far the ears stick out from the head, all the things you may not immediately notice, but that serve to really complete the picture. Now, is either category more important? No. Without the major details, none of the little things make sense; you don't have a picture. Get rid of the little things and you're left with an incomplete image, something which doesn't accurately represent what it's supposed to.
When you look at someone, you note their clothes, the way they do their hair, the house they live in, the job they have, and all the other big, easily noticeable things. That gives you the basis for your understanding of a person. From there, you look at the things someone might miss, like their shoes, their jewelry, behavioral patterns, the way they walk, how they talk to people and how that changes depending on who they're talking to. The small stuff comprises a much bigger category and also tells you so much more about a person. The more you interact with people, the more you'll realize that everyone is basically the same, and it's these little tells that truly make a person unique. Learn to read them properly and you'll be able to jerk someone around like a puppet.
Back in my early days, I was tasked with, shall we say, getting rid of someone. I followed them around for a few days. In that time, I noticed many things about them. Their house was very orderly, their clothes were always neat, their morning routine was always the same, they had a pair of shoes they only wore one day of the week, and a bunch of other things that didn't end up being important. Now, to be clear, I'm saying they ended up not mattering, but I kept them in mind until my job was done, and you should do the same. So, one day, I got into their house and moved a few things, took a few other things; not so much that it was immediately noticeable, but enough to really confuse them as they noticed more and more things out of place. Then, the next day, I paid someone to knock on their door in the middle of their morning routine. Some salesmen for something, if I recall correctly. Always pick someone hunger for money and hunger to leave a good impression. This had the intended goal of breaking their routine. Plan B was having a kid throw a ball through their window. I then waited two days, enough for them to start forgetting about it, and nabbed their 'special shoes'. When they couldn't find their shoes, they began to curse the universe for acting against them. They were so out of it, it was all too easy to slip some poison into their drink at lunch that day. Much easier than stabbing him dead in the street.
***
I looked out towards the somewhat recently cleared path out to the edge of the city, very quickly noticing the shape of a person walking towards us.
"Would you believe I forgot to mention it?"
"Yes, actually. You were distracted and, with how fast you were running, utterly terrified, so it makes sense you'd forget about something that wasn't front of mind. Doesn't excuse it though, but luckily for you, your inexperience does."
"But how did you know I had seen him?"
"I didn't. Not with absolute certainty anyway. If you hadn't, you should've, so the argument stands, but you just admitted you did, so there's my certainty. Also, I knew you turned around in a spot where you would've seen him walking up, which also explains why you had your eyes off your charge – do you see how I want you to be thinking now?"
"Overanalyze everything? Yeah, I think I'm getting it."
"It's an adequate amount of analysis, but that doesn't matter right now. There's a short time before he gets here and we need to change the topic, so I'm going to tell you what you missed so you have a template to use in future. I'll start with the point I already told you I disagreed with you on. You said they were argumentative, I said it wasn't surprising, you said it was. Your initial analysis was good, that guy had an iron grip around the metaphorical balls of his whole team, which you were right in assuming would make his team not want to argue with him, but you didn't factor in his ego. He doesn't have the pure strength to keep such a tight grip on them out of fear, and there's more to talk about on that point but that'll come later, and he also doesn't have the charisma and confidence to command in such a way they simply don't want to argue. No, they're scared to argue, but for a different reason than being hurt. You said he argued them in circles, or in other words, bullied them into submission with arguments he never gave them the time to dispute, which he used to humiliate whoever stood up to him.
"But that doesn't give the whole story. No, if he was simply bullying the people in his team, they'd just leave or be respectful and request a transfer, which would result in an investigation if it happened more than once or twice, which clearly never happened since he was sent here. Since people, as I mentioned, leave when they're being mistreated, it means these people had a reason to stay. His sword was damn near ornate. Very high quality, very expensive, and definitely not something he would ever get issued. I do actually excuse you for not noticing this, as a weird looking sword, or at least weird to you, is likely how you'd define half the weapons being carried around by these kids, or 'Specially Authorized Disposal and Reconnaissance Teams' as I'm supposed to be calling them. My gripes aside, the sword means he's from a wealthy family, something the rest of the team probably knew, which means they also knew they could be set for life if they could get a job under him or his recommendation for a different position. Of course, someone like that would take someone leaving him for better prospects to be a personal offense and would also scoff at sharing any of 'his' wealth with them, but again, it's a moot point now.
"And finally, the kid; the wrench in the gears, so to speak. Why abuse the kid if he had his team under control already? One new addition will hardly disrupt anything since the reasons everyone has to stick around haven't changed, which rules out hurting the kid to make him fall in line and not disrupt the order he manufactured. Of course, he is an egotistical idiot, which could very well throw all of my analysis off, but let's keep assuming he's just an egotistical, insecure idiot instead of an insane, egotistical, insecure idiot. The only effects hurting the kid has are on him and the kid. The only reason he would have to hurt the kid is control. Before, he was able to just argue people down and his background took care of the rest, but think about who this kid is. He already has a secure future, which means he doesn't care about offending the guy or not, and coincidentally also means he's too smart to be led around in circles. So, what's the last option available to the guy? Hurt the kid, make him unwilling to fight. He just happened to get lucky the kid couldn't fight back.
"That all brings us to now, or rather, about an hour ago. Six people rock up to my city, I see a misfit in the group, I pluck him out, the group goes on their way. The leader guy is miffed I took his punching bag, and at being humiliated, so he takes it out on the people around him, because why would he just take the loss on the chin, only now, there's another wrench. Normally, his people wouldn't start conflict with him, but that one girl knew who I was."
"And who are you?"
"Don't interrupt me while I'm giving you valuable insights into the human condition. Also, it's not important right now. Anyway, she recognized me, which gave her an out. Someone who she felt could vouch for mistreatment if she decided to ditch the team, thus nullifying any consequences. As I said, them being argumentative was hardly surprising after all that."
"How did you manage to get all of that from an interaction that barely lasted a minute?"
"Oh, that's quite simple. I didn't. I spied on them from the second they entered the city to the second you showed up, and by me, I mean Erin. No internal conflicts, but otherwise she reported much of the same things you did."
"So, you had me watch them to get information you already knew?"
"No, I had you watch them because you had nothing better to do and I wanted you out of my hair so I could ask the kid about some confidential shit that you aren't authorized to hear, and I didn't tell you that because I didn't want to deal with your questions about it. And I still don't, so keep them to yourself and stand up. Our guest has arrived."