fandomhigh | Through a Glass Darkly: Spies and Spying; Week 6

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spies and spying

Through a Glass Darkly: Spies and Spying; Week 6 - Period 3

Leaning against the desk at the front of the room, Aly waited for the students to file in as the hour began.

"Good morning. I hope you all had a good, if colorless, weekend. Apparently one of our TAs," she grinned at Bridge, "is royalty now so be sure to bother him accordingly."

Last week, we talked about one of the ways. you can assess other people when you're relating to them. This week, I want to talk about being aware how others assess you - and how you can influence that assessment.

"Why?" She asked, looking around the class. She moved forward to sit on top of one of the empty desks in the front row. "Why do we care how other people look at us? If other people trust us? This class is about spying, right? Sneaking around in the shadows, blowing things up on occasion, outsmarting your enemy. What does making friends and inducing trust have to do with that?" Aly paused, waiting just a second to see if someone had an answer to her question.

"Because the best spies have to be able to make contacts, turn strangers into their agents, and even get other people to do the dirty work. If you're in the field, you're generally going to be getting strangers risk their lives or reputations for you. And there's no reason for a person to do that for someone they don't like." Aly shrugged. "Seems a bit of an oxymoron, doesn't it? Being a spy and worrying about if you're liked? But that's part of actual spywork. Do you know the saying 'a friend will help you move, a real friend will help you move bodies?'" She smiled innocently like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. "That's it exactly. Only hopefully not bodies generally, but information, papers, the all-important schedule of the person you're keeping under surveillance."

Aly turned to the whiteboard in the class and started writing.

11 Ways to Start Off on the Right Foot, or a Guide to Flirting.
1. Remain Still and Composed
2. Smile genuinely
3. Maintain as much eye contact as you can tolerate
4. Employ the same body language you would use with an old friend
5. Your opening statement is crucial
6. Assess then focus on the other person's interests
7. Mirror body language and echo speech patterns
8. Plan in advance what you're going to say about yourself
9. Be prepared for likely topics
10. Maintain unshakeable confidence no matter what
11. Work the silences

Returning her attention and gaze to the class, she gestured to the board. "Everyone likes an easy tip sheet, right? Here you are then, eleven ways you can start to build trust and establish rapport with a new contact." She winked. "Or a new interest. In all honesty, you can look at this type of conversation as flirting without sexual intent. What is flirting other than initiating contact and expressing interest in another person? You want to appear interesting, sincere, confident enough for the other person to think you're worth continuing the conversation with."

She looked back at the board. "Some of these are rather obvious. 'Smile genuinely.' I'm sure you've all met someone who just pulled his teeth back from his lips and called that a smile. It's not and it won't inspire warm feelings or even a smile in return. 'Your opening statement is crucial.' It's all the other person has to reply to, and when you're making contacts or flirting, you don't want to force the burden of the conversation on the other person. So don't box yourself in. Don't say 'wow, sure is hot in here.' What if the other person likes the heat? Ask them what they think and move on from there. Everyone likes talking about him or herself so find out their interests and focus your attention there."

Aly paused then rolled her eyes slightly. "But not to the exclusion of talking about yourself. Don't dodge questions. It's obvious and anyone smart enough to be your agent is smart enough to notice. I realise that sort of thing looks really good in the spy films or novels, but it just doesn't generally work. Give the person a reason to keep talking to you, give them a reason to share information about themselves. That's why you're planning in advance what you want to say."

"So, any questions about this, how you use it, why you use it, anything?" She asked, gazing around the room, meeting each student's eyes. "For today, I'd like you to pair up with someone in class and try these out. It can be someone you don't know or you and someone you already know can see how it works. For your homework, I want you to try this technique on someone you don't know very well at school or in town."

[OOC: Guidelines taken with gratitude from Handbook of Practical Spying. I'll be around all day, and ~~please do wait for the OCD to come up - it'll probably be about 20 minutes as I have to run to work first.~~ OCD is up!]

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Their faces melted a little into matching hurt expressions. "Hikaru.. does that mean we have to practice on eachother..?" Kaoru brought his hand up to his mouth in an exagerated fashion.
"But Kaoru.. we have so much practice already.. we need to try on someone else." Hikaru let Kaoru cling to his arm, giving Setsuna an amused glance that said, "we'll go farther if you don't say yes".

There may have been the small sound of a whimper as Setsuna, terribly red faced, shrunk back under her shoulders a bit. That was so not fair! And what was worse was that they knew it, too.

And what was even worse than that was that now Setsuna was remembering their notes earlier, and, while she had to see it from the two of them, her mind was now adding Alphonse to the mix.

No. Nonononono.

"Fine!" Her arms flailed a little bit. "Fine, whatever. But I can't work with both of you. The assignment is to pair up."

They broke apart from eachother easily and Hikaru raised his hand. "I'll be your partner then~"

Setsuna breathed a sigh of relief. That's right. One boy at a time, and certainly not more than one all mushed together in a blur of flesh and inappropriateness. "Good," she said, with a nod and a smile, her relief making it a little easier to assume some sort of sweetness to her voice. "So, how are you, Hikaru?"

Hikaru turned on his well-practiced charm and gave Setsuna a truly sweet smile. "I'm perfectly well right now. I hope you're feeling better after a stressful weekend. Get plenty of sleep?" He stood close to her without crowding her space, his posture relaxed and non-threatening.

Setsuna did take a moment to marvel at how much more relaxed she felt at the moment, but kept it in the back of her mind that such an effect what exactly what was to be expected for the assignment. And Hikaru just had a knack for it. She knew she did not, but she tried.

"Oh, you know..." She shrugged noncommitedly. "Not particularly, but, hey, I'll get enough sleep when I'm dead, right?" Insert failed attempt to laugh casually.

Hikaru laughed cutely with her, trying to give her the feeling that the comment had been amusing. "I guess that is true. Everyone seems so busy these days. Good sleep is hard to come by."

"Heh, yeah..."

Arg. He was good at this, and here she was, already falling into an awkward silence, not knowing what to do. And the only thing she could think to do was ask about homecoming and she was not going to do that. She bit her lip, her thoughtfulness about the situation leaking out far too much.

He couldn't allow any awkward silences, "Where exactly did you go this weekend? You'd only said out of the country when I last talked to you."

"To Torono? In Canada?" She makes herself conversational by making everything seem like a question, apparantly, as if asking if he knows of the place. "It was Thanksgiving, and Jude wanted me to come with..." She trailed off a bit. Yeah. Mentioning your boyfriend when you're supposed to be pleasantly flirting. That works. Ugh.

"Ah.. so you were with your boyfriend this weekend. That's why you couldn't go with me." He nodded in understanding. "It's cute, that he'd want you to meet his family." Hikaru smiled just as sweetly as before.

Her eyes narrowed a little. This much sweetness from a male was always to be suspect. "I wouldn't say I particularly wanted to," she found herself mummbling before she caught herself.

God, she sucked at this...

"...then why did you?" There was no artificial sweetness behind this comment.

She quirked an eyebrow, a little put off by the sudden shift. "Be..because it was important to Jude that I did. It...it meant a lot to him."

Hikaru shrugged. "It just seems that if he knew you were uncomfortable with it, he'd put it off a little longer. You know, be a gentleman and let you decide." He said it in more of a soft, matter-of-fact way rather than trying to insult Jude. "Unless, you were happy with how it turned out and reconsidered."

"Well, he had given me a choice, and I chose do put aside my own fears and reluctance for his happiness." She lifted her chin, almost defiantly. There was a lot of honour in that, and if Hikaru didn't see it, well, then...too bad for him.

Hikaru sighed. She always seemed to take what he said and twist it slightly. "Well, now that the mood has been successfully ruined... I'm glad your weekend went...fairly well. It went several times better than mine, so I'm happy for you."

Setsuna couldn't be sure if he had meant what he said or if it was just more of the assignment, but she decided to take what she could. She dipped her head in a nod. "Thank you. But..." She faltered a bit, turning slightly pink in the face. "I mean, I have trouble believing yours could have been all that bad." Nervous little chuckle. "Homecoming? With Alphonse?" Bluuuush. It was probably the envy moving her to speak now. "I can't see that being anything but a nice time."

"Actually, last I checked, he's kinda angry with me." Hikaru sighed. "I didn't go with him mind you. Words imply too much. Perhaps saying I asked him to "accompany" me, or rather, "go along" with me would dispell any strange ideas from your head." He half-lided his eyes and looked down.

"Oh."

Okay, why was she suddenly feeling extremely disappointed? Setsuna shook her head. What the hell was wrong with her brain?

"Why would he be angry at you?"

Some guilt had actually started to settle out in Hikaru's brain over the past few days and explaining it to Setsuna would not help the feeling. "Just something about Kaoru. That's all. I left pretty early though."

Again, she just gave a quiet "oh," lowering her head, but she found herself quickly adding, "I'm sorry that I couldn't go. Maybe we could have had a really good time together. Or, at least, perhaps you could have had a better one..."

Was she trying to go back to the assignment? Or did she really mean what she said? You know it was bad when you yourself aren't entirely sure...

"Well, I asked you because I thought we might. I mean, I know you have a boyfriend, but it was worth a shot." He shrugged and looked back up from the floor.

Setsuna really couldn't help but smile a little bit at that. Keeping in mind, of course, in the back of her head, that they were supposed to be flattering each other, and everything said should be taken with that in consideration.

"Huh. Well, I guess it ended up civily after all, right?" His face brightened a bit with it's normal mischeivious glimmer. "Thanks for the chat." He grinned and bowed, considering taking her hand and giving it a kiss or something. But that was for the host club, or at least not for Setsuna...

Re: SAS 10/10: Pair Up and Try it Out

bound2blade.livejournal.com - 2006-10-11 06:44 (UTC) - Expand

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