fandomhigh | Through a Glass Darkly: Spies and Spying; Week 4, Period 3

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spies and spying

Through a Glass Darkly: Spies and Spying; Week 4, Period 3

Aly was wandering around the Danger Shop, approaching each student to greet them and just happy they'd received her ~~handwavy~~ email informing of the location change. As everyone took a chair, she smiled at them all and perched on the edge of the table at the front of the room.

"Good morning. Today is the first day we're going to talk about - and practice - some of the actual tools a spy uses." She grinned, excited. "Lockpicking and pickpocketing aren't just used by spies, of course. But an agent can end up in a multitude of situations where a little manual dexterity is helpful." She winked. "Some of you already have experience in this." Aly nodded at Briar, Sakurazaki, Skif. "And for you, I have something a bit more difficult planned."

"But before we get into the actual practicing, let's go over the basics of how, exactly, you pick a lock or someone's pocket." With that she took them through a short but information-filled lecture on pickpocketing and picking locks.

She gestured them all to gather around the table. "Now, these are all training tools for learning. Take a turn at them, see what you can do. A third of picking locks is the theory, the other two-thirds is practice and steady hands." Aly smiled mischieviously around the table. "And I don't want to hear anyone complaining this is too hard. I learned how by the time I was four. There are sets of lockpicks on the table. Feel free to try out a couple different ones. And for those of you who want or need more a challenge, I have some much more difficult locks over in that corner." She pointed to where there was an assortment of pretty much any type of lock possible. Including one that didn't actually look like it needed a key.

"Over here," she led them over to another part of the room that was hung with handkerchiefs plus several fitting dummies wearing many-pocketed clothes decorated with bells. "You can practice on the dummies if you like. Steady hands will keep the bells from ringing, though you want to remember that if you're doing this in truth, your mark will be moving more than the dummies will. You also can practice with a partner and handkerchiefs." She winked. "Stealing the handkerchieves. Other partner-related activites are for outside the class. I also have a scenario set up in here with 'real' people if you want to try your skills out."

She came back to the main table with a smile. "Right then, any questions before we start?" She paused to answer any that came up. "Now, I have one last thing for you. Part of being aware of your surroundings at all times is knowing who's near you and what they're doing there." Grinning, she reached into her jacket and pulled out a yo-yo, a cellphone, a deck of cards, and a pen. Looking at the pen more closely, she chuckled. "Ooh, a naked pen. Nice. These belong to four members of your class." She looked as innocent as possible. "You guys can come up and get these at any time. And keep a closer eye on where someone puts their hands."

"Finally, I'll have these tools out in my office whenever I'm in there. If you wish to get more practice, feel free to stop by." Aly grinned. "You don't even have to talk to me if you don't want to. Next week we're back in the classroom, and your homework is to keep practicing. Just don't pick-pocket your classmates."

[OOC: Trying to pick a classmate's pocket is going to make Aly cranky and she will actually give detention for it. Ping me in the OOC thread if this is what you're looking for. Thanks to

bridge_carson,

futurebucs_star,

weissguy_, and

socksofcool for letting Aly pick their respective pockets. Feel free to go nuts modding the locks, lockpicks, handkerchieves, whatever. If you want to try the DangerShop scenario, feel free to mod the people or I can play them. OCD's up! Play away]

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Try the easy locks or teaching tools first. Help each other or shout if you'd like Aly's help.

Anders liked to think he had manual dexterity, and he definitely had steady hands, but his dexterity wasn't so much tuned to this scale of work. He went after the simplest of the basic locks with more enthusiasm than skill, tongue poking out between his teeth as he fiddled with the picks. Eventually (read: half an hour later), he got it open, but not without making enough noise to wake half a household.

"Not bad for a first try," Aly said with a nod. "It's one of those things that comes with much practice."

"I can do practice," Anders declared. "Gotta start somewhere, right?"

"Absolutely," Aly replied. She tossed him a set of lockpicks. "Keep those to practice with if you like."

Anders caught the packet, his expression awed. "Seriously? Wow!"

Aly grinned. "I have sets upon sets," she replied, lightly. "You'll be doing me a favour by getting them away from me."

Anders laughed. "Just don't try and pick any of the locks Bridge makes. That's a really bad idea."

"Really?" Aly asked, immediately intrigued. "Why's that?"

"Well, for one," Anders said, "they're electronic. And when they're working right they give you candy. Plus he's got them set up so if you try to mess with them or get around the keycodes, you get teleported somewhere else."

Maybe he shouldn't have said that.

Re: SAS 9/26: Picking Locks: The Beginners

tricksy-spy.livejournal.com - 2006-09-27 02:48 (UTC) - Expand

Re: SAS 9/26: Picking Locks: The Beginners

cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com - 2006-09-27 02:59 (UTC) - Expand

Re: SAS 9/26: Picking Locks: The Beginners

tricksy-spy.livejournal.com - 2006-09-27 03:12 (UTC) - Expand

Re: SAS 9/26: Picking Locks: The Beginners

cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com - 2006-09-27 03:16 (UTC) - Expand

Re: SAS 9/26: Picking Locks: The Beginners

tricksy-spy.livejournal.com - 2006-09-27 03:20 (UTC) - Expand

Re: SAS 9/26: Picking Locks: The Beginners

cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com - 2006-09-27 03:31 (UTC) - Expand

Re: SAS 9/26: Picking Locks: The Beginners

tricksy-spy.livejournal.com - 2006-09-27 03:45 (UTC) - Expand

The twins worked separatly at a few different easy locks. They'd had a little experience back home trying to pick the locks on their mom's jewerly boxes for fun when they were little but hadn't tried again since. It wasn't very difficult for them and they went about choosing different ones to try out.

Weiss was actually pretty good with basic locks. It wasn't the Houdini genetics -- at least, he hoped it was hard work and practice. He did struggle a bit, but he's probably quicker on the uptake than some.

Blushing and recalling Aly's misguided nod to her at the beginning of the lecture, Sakurazaki sets to the task of working quietly, dilegently, with extreme focus on some of the easier ones.

Aly watched carefully for a minute or two before coming up to Sakurazaki. "Obviously I shouldn't have assumed, hmm? Have you never run into a need to use lockpicks?"

Tongue slightly stick out in the corner of her mouth as she concentrated, Setsuna waited until she'd picked the lock before answering Alianne-sensei. She looked up with a bit of a blush, "Nope. Not since I came here, anyway. Usually, if I needed to get through a door, I used a paper magic charm." She frowned at the locks. "I think they're much easier, but I suppose it's good to know how to pick them, just in case you don't have paper magic resources."

"Tell me about that?" Aly asked, moving a lock out of the way and perching on the edge of the table so she could face Setsuna.

Setsuna's mouth shifted a bit, thoughtfully. "It's a little difficult to explain how it works, but, basically..." She halted, reached for her notebook, and opened up a page; she folded it carefully, and then tore it in half, length wise, so she had a long, narrow piece. She uncapped her pen.

"Paper magic works by writing down certain characters to do what your intent is. It's most potent for protection and barriers than anything else, but...if you write something like this..." She very carefully etched out some neat characters, "which are the runes for 'undone.' You add this," there was a small squiggle at the top of the paper now, "so that it will stick, place it on the lock in question," which she does, "and then give a chant," which she does silently, closing her eyes and lifting two fingers on her righthand to her lips as they move, moving it out over the paper as she mutter a final, "om."

She picked up the lock, and showed Alianne-sensei how it was no longer locked. "And there you have it. It's really some of what little magic I actually can do."

Teddy had hoped some of that inherited memory species thing would help him with the assignment, but like every attempt he's made at the class so far, nothing happened. Damn genetics. So it took him much longer than the others to get his lock open, but when he did finally get it there was a dance of celebration. Quite possibly involving both the lawnmower and the old-man-and-his-walker.

Aly grinned at his enthusiasm. "Nice job. The first one is always the most difficult. Now keep doing it until you can do it half-asleep in the dark."

Schrodinger started to play with the lockpicks. He didn't seem to care very much about them, though.

Locks weren't something he generally concerned himself with.

Hamlet looked the lock over a couple of times before starting to work on it. His first couple of tries were miserable failures, but something finally clicked on the fifth or sixth try, and the lock opened. This likely wasn't something he'd be able to do easily without a lot of practice.

"Not bad at all," Aly said, stopping by with a warm smile. "The first one is the most difficult. After that, it's all practice."

Aeryn starts to say that with the right explosive, you could get in and no one would even hear it. And she realizes that defeats the point of spying, so she doesn't say it. Girl's learning.

She actually doesn't have a hard time at this at all. She wants to know why this class couldn't have been taught sometime before February.

Seely worked at picking the lock. It was fiddly but at least he had steady hands.

Aly nodded when she stopped by. "Just be patient until it feels right," she advised with a nod. "It looks like you're doing well."

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