A.N: Holy Writer's Block, Batman! That was awful.
Interlude: School Dominance
It was amazing what a few well-placed words could do, regardless of whether they were spoken or written.
You hadn't gone in with your plans of assuming dominance of the school that fast. The reason for that was understanding that taking over the social structure of the school wasn't really your goal, per se. Instead, it was simply a way for you to train in abilities that would be useful for your future plans.
Observation of the students and their social structures so as to understand their flaws and how to manipulate them. This had broad applications, since the same principles would apply to manipulation of any organized group of people.
So you observed the groups at school, determined their structure and interactions intra and intergroups, and started thinking of a few possible plans.
Very quickly, you realized that your best chance for taking control of the school lay in taking down the original power structures. You could potentially be able to make your way upwards through normal channels, but it wouldn't be as fast and efficient.
So, going back to what you had been thinking before, words were pretty much all you really needed to achieve the first steps of your plans. However, they had to be properly applied. You had to be sneaky about it, because if people found out that a single person was the source of all those rumors... It wouldn't end well.
And not being exposed was only part of your considerations. The rumors had to be at least somewhat believable, or they wouldn't have any effect. But by far the most important part was that they had to be properly targeted.
That was the reason why you spent a long while observing the social structures of the school. Creating general dread was easy, but to actually make those structures implode, you needed to target their weaknesses.
And your observations quickly revealed a possible avenue of attack. The most "popular" group at school consisted of four girls, but there was one of them who was the clear leader (Amanda) and there was another one who had drama with her in the past (Cleo), so there was an obvious place to drive a wedge through.
But again, acting recklessly would not be enough. You took note of the interactions between the members of the group and the other popular groups of the school. The web of relationships was difficult to follow, but with some observation you managed to get a general idea of how it flowed. This let you strategize a fairly good plan.
First, you sent a few anonymous paper messages to Amanda, telling her she should be paying better attention to her friends. Nothing really amazing, just something to spark her paranoia. Of course, doing just that would take far too long, because trying to get a big change all at once would backfire.
So the second part of the plan would be to make a move from the "other side".
You slowly approached Cleo, starting with asking for advice in ballet training, because she was a semi-professional ballet dancer, and took it very seriously. It didn't take long for you to graduate from acquaintances to friends, though not close friends.
And then you started the next phase, by dropping a few carefully selected words while you two were walking through the school together:
"Amanda really is popular."
Cleo looked at you weirdly "Yes, she is, but what makes you bring that up?"
"It's just that yesterday I saw a girl putting a love letter on her locker." You said.
Cleo narrowed her eyes "Really? When did that happen?"
"It should have been around 1:15 in the afternoon, since it was a little after I left chemistry class..." You said, after thinking for a moment "Why? Did something happen?"
"Actually..." She stopped for a moment, unsure "Someone has been sending Amanda threatening notes."
You faked a startled reaction "For real? Damn, that's rough..."
She looked at you with a serious glance "Could you tell me what that girl looked like?"
"Okay... Let me think for a bit..." You put your fingers on your head.
So you passed to her a description of the "girl". You already had someone in mind: One of the friends of Amanda's sister.
You could see in Cleo's eyes that she recognized the person from your description. After that, you two had to go to your classes, but you were able to determine that Cleo had became worried about what that could mean.
It would be difficult for her to talk to Amanda about that, considering that not only it would make things awkward with her sister, but there was also the possibility that Amanda could be the one behind all of that, trying to garner sympathy.
Of course, this would result in Cleo treating her friend differently, even if unconsciously, which would feed her paranoia even further. This was a situation that could be exploited very easily.
Not bad for two weeks of work.
Also, this training yielded good results for your skills, namely:
Cold Reading Level 15
- The skill to gather information on people based on even the tiniest details. At this level, you are capable of picking up information from someone even through the smallest details, and even if they are trying to hide it from you.
Personal Manipulation Level 5
- The skill to understand what makes people tick and how to make them tick your way. At this level, you can manipulate teenagers without a problem, as long as you have a prepared plan.
-0-
A.N: The first part of your mission should be coming soon. It was just this one part that was holding me back.
