Look Like You Belong: Week 5, Period 3

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"Afternoon, everyone," Aly said, smiling once all the students were present.  "You all did a good job last week blending into the tavern.  If anyone was wondering, that's a tavern from my world.  The Dancing Dove was the Court of the King of Thieves for a long time.  And Rispah was the Queen of the Ladies."

"Today we're going to look at what you can do if you have a little bit more time to prepare."  She pointed towards the board where two lists had already been written.

• Develop your legend - your backstory.  Keeping details close to your actual life - at least at first - can help you remember and sound truthful.
• Decide on a current cover: name, job, purpose
• Choose an appropriate look or disguise.
• Gather pocket litter or other props to support the disguise.  Each item needs to be appropriate to the persona. 
  
• Learn local customs, accents, slang. 
  
• Match your vocabulary/language to your character's education.

Five Tips for Maintaining Consistency

• Use correct jargon for your assumed profession/role
• Know how much travel and life experience your character has. 
  
• Avoid personal discussions about your pretend family.
• Close questioning sessions quickly.  Avoid the questions by giving the information before it's asked for and by giving enough information to shut down further questions.
• If you think you're about to be exposed, get out of the one on one conversation.  Invite someone to join the conversational group or suggest a coffee or trip.  Anything to give you a chance to lower the pressure and get back into character.

"These are the guidelines I use when I'm teaching how to go undercover in a spying situation.  What I want you to do today is plan a disguise and a background for blending in in oh, say, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro to be exact.  Work with a partner if you like, and make sure you consider not only what you'll wear, but also your backstory and how you're going to keep it consistent.  There are moddable materials on Brazil throughout the room, feel free to use those as well as this handout for research."

[OOC: OCD is a comin' up!]

Comments

Sign in!

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

As you do.

Re: Sign in!

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hyuuga Hinata

Listen, Take Notes

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

or Chatter before Aly comes in.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

She made sure to take careful notes as she listened. This class was definitely a useful one.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Dōjima quickly started jotting down the notes on the board, grinning. Most of that she already knew, but it was a good refresher.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[withoutverona]

Romeo was new to this, other than the last four classes, so he took careful notes.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Somehow it was a lot easier to pay attention to these things here; Jen's instructor at Time Force Academy had been one of those pedantic droning types who went on at length with unnecessarily technical words and generally made your eyes cross instead of getting the information into your head.

. . . maybe that was why she'd been kind of bad at it before.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir took notes and took the time to consider his previous performance on this score. Had he blended in properly and Shell's familiarity with him had cost him? Or had he stuck out like a sore thumb?

Or perhaps there was something about him that stuck out. He wondered if there was something odd about him, considering.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[im-afrog.livejournal.com]

Adam was taking detailed notes. If only he'd had this knowledge before he and his friends had been sent back in time to Angel Grove in the 1800s.

Oh, well.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[futureclone]

Alex took copious notes and reflected that he was so screwed.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

Michael copied down the lists on the board. Never knew when they might be useful - that was why he was in the class, after all.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[ambassadorinara.livejournal.com]

Inara took notes, wondering how she could adapt being a Companion to something other than a street prostitute.

Re: Listen, Take Notes

[harrydresden.livejournal.com]

This was bound to come in handy some day, Harry figured, so it was worth writing down.

Pair Up, Ask Questions

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Plan a disguise!

Re: Pair Up, Ask Questions

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hinata glanced around for a partner, hoping that this wouldn't go too badly.

Re: Pair Up, Ask Questions

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir looked around for a partner, still pondering his past experience.

Re: Pair Up, Ask Questions

[im-afrog.livejournal.com]

Adam looked around for a partner, wondering what his backstory was going to be.

Re: Pair Up, Ask Questions

[futureclone]

Alex looked around hopefully for a partner.

Re: Pair Up, Ask Questions

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

Michael wanted a partner.

The TAs

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

So they can lurk

Re: The TAs

[thebluespirit.livejournal.com]

Zuko was wondering why anyone would want to go undercover in Rio de Janeiro. He might wonder about that for most of the class.

Talk to Aly

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Because she's around.

Re: Talk to Aly

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Aly-sensei!" Dōjima did her best to look perfectly angelic, except for that bit where her grin was positively impish. "Ano, I am assuming there are security cameras in the school, so I was wondering how one would go about obtaining footage from last week's class?"

Re: Talk to Aly

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Professor?"

He thought he might ask the question, even if he couldn't think of what it could be. After all, he knew some of his mother's history (if only from mutterings and Nanny) and it posed an interesting problem.

"I had a question about all this."

OOC

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Like an OOC thing!