hadriel | seventh. text.

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seventh. text.

Consider the following exercise in critical thinking, if you can tear yourselves away from gossiping about each others' love lives long enough to put some actual thought into formulating an answer:

If you had never before encountered a being like yourself before - a human, for example, or however you classify yourself - what would you most want to know about these beings? What are the most important concepts that are fundamental to your existence?

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Good to know. But some people are very good at deception.

True. I suppose I should not completely rule out the possibility of myself being deceived.

But I'm curious. How would you answer your own question? What would you most want to know about these hypothetical beings? And what would you do with the information once you obtained it?

[If Mello were inclined to answer entirely honestly, he'd say that what he would want to know is their weaknesses and how to exploit them, because that is, in his experience, the most efficient way of convincing others to do what he wants. He's far too smart to do so, though.]

I would want to know what's most important to them and the lengths they'll go to in order to achieve their goals. I think you can tell a lot about a person's character by that.

[ An exploiter speaking to a former exploiter. XD ]

True. That knowledge is always the beginning of negotiation.

But what would you do with it? Would you try to negotiate?

If necessary. But it's best to have a better understanding of the other party in any sort of interaction. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat."

[ Chuckle. ]

That sounds almost Elvish. It seems our cultures have something in common.

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