TM 246 - What are the five steps to a successful negotiation?

246 - What are the five steps to a successful negotiation?

Somewhere in the universe, four men sit down at a conference table to discuss the elements of a successful negotiation. Although the members of this unusual group come to the table from widely disparate backgrounds and even realities, they also have a great deal in common. Each man is a leader of others, and has been involved in more than one occasion requiring keen negotiation skills. Four men with unique opinions, strong moral compasses and extensive experiences, they enter the discussion feeling confident in their ability to form an effective response to the question.

( Four heads are better than one )

(1,084 total)

OOC Note: Please consider this a writing exercise including all my current TM muses. It has not been posted to the TM community, and does not count for the community activity requirements.

Other muses referred to are: stoic_slim, knight_flyer and arrow_of_apollo

TM 245 - What's the first thing you remember?

245 - What's the first thing you remember?

That it was a wonderful thing, having not only a place to call my own physically-- in the sense that I would now have a permanent address and domicile-- but a place of my own with Angel and Cordelia. There was something very appropriate in my taking of an apartment the day after Angel asked me to stay on with his agency, and the metaphor hit me as I was signing the lease papers.

( Home Sweet Home )

(400)

QM 79 - "I shall love her until the day I die. That's the tragedy."

79 - "I shall love her until the day I die. That's the tragedy." - 'The Scarlet Pimpernel'

"Would you like me to lie to you now?"

Oh, what a question.

Every step of the way in my life, I had struggled to live up to an ideal, something that had been ingrained into my thinking since childhood: do what is right. Sometimes that meant just, and sometimes it meant fair, and sometimes it meant heartless or calculating or even cruel. Almost never did it mean convenient, or easy or pleasing. Only right.

When I discovered, to my horror, Illyria's uncanny ability to mimic Fred, there was no question at all what the right thing to do was. Even if she had only been able to produce a likeness of Fred Burkle, it would have been unacceptable, but the impersonation-- no, the transformation was so complete and terrifyingly accurate that it pulled at every nerve in my body. I forbade her to ever change that way again.

Did it dishonour the memory of her? Yes. Was it a falsehood and deception? Yes.

But those were not the true reasons I told Illyria to "be blue". It was because I could not stand to have her back and know she would only vanish again. I was not a strong enough man to resist temptation. I would ask her to lie, again and again, and somehow, I knew Illyria would do so at my behest.

It was the right thing to do, forbidding the lie.

"Would you like me to lie to you now?"

I was no longer a living man, facing the remainder of my days as guide and companion to the fallen god-king. I was no longer the former Watcher, the former hunter, the former prodigal son, the former would-be Champion. I was dying, my final mission ending in failure. There was nothing of me left.

I had sinned too greatly to believe there was much left for me on the other side. So why not complete my fall? Why not choose the wrong thing?

Would it be so bad, I asked myself, here at the end?

I would be selfish. I would take what I could from the world before I left it.

I had been wrong about so many things in my life, this one last act seemed a trifle.

The wrong thing to do.

"Would you like me to lie to you now?"

"Yes... Thank you, yes..."

(361, not including direct quotes)