fandomhigh | Living With Difficult Women [Tuesday, Period 5]

When Max arrived for class today, he wasn't alone. "We've discussed a number of generalities, and talked in pretty broad terms about what we're doing in this class, but today I wanted to delve into things a bit more concrete. So, as you've probably noticed, I brought an assistant. Some of you might know Sophie already. She's an accomplished actress, and she's generously agreed to play the part of a difficult woman for today's class."

Sophie was looking at this as both helping a friend, and a demonstration exercise in manipulation. Because really, students shouldn't let themselves be taken in by someone trying to play them, male or female... but she felt young female students should have every advantage possible, should they need to use these techniques. She wasn't going to ask Max if he'd realized that.

"Thank you, Max. It's lovely to be here." She shot him an amused look. "How quickly do you wish me to become difficult?"

Max chuckled, flashing her an amused grin. "Would you be willing to wait until I explain today's class activity?" he asked.

"Nooo, I don't think so. I'm the guest. Really, you should be catering to my whims already," Sophie said, looking pensive. Then she blinked. "No, I've changed my mind. Go ahead. I'll wait. I can do that." She sighed long-sufferingly.

She was already doing a great job! Max resisted the urge to beam as he nodded. "Thank you. I appreciate it." He turned to his students. "With Sophie's help I'll demonstrate a couple of different techniques. I won't be pointing them out, so you'll need to be paying attention. After that we'll split into groups, one lead by me, and another by Sophie. You'll each pick one of the groups to join for some discussion of the techniques used and what else might have been done instead."

With a grin, Max turns back to Sophie. "Whenever you're ready."

"Keeping in mind that you have every right to be 'difficult', and that not only can it get you lovely things, it can also preserve your safety, I will now demonstrate one of the most important techniques: evasion." She smiled sweetly at Max. "Hello. So lovely to meet you. I'm Catherine D'Medici."

Really, you'd think it was her real name.

"Catherine," Max repeated thoughtfully. "Ah, forgive me, I thought you were someone I knew." See that? He didn't contradict her there.

"Is she prettier than me?" Sophie asked, giving him another coy smile.

Then she gave him Crazy Eyes. "She is, isn't she."

"What? Don't be silly," Max shook his head emphatically. "It's clearly a ridiculous idea that anyone could be prettier than you." Outrageous flattery. A particularly dangerous technique since it was so obvious. If you misjudged your target and she didn't find it amusing...

"That's adorable of you to say so." Sophie smiled brightly. "Where shall we hold the wedding? I'm partial to gazebos."

"Oh, er... yes." Max blinked a couple of times. Wow... he hadn't had to deal with that particular question in years. "I've been meaning to bring that up... You see, I'm... um... being relocated. For work." It was a terrible lie, but if you'd really found someone who was truly crazy, often you could get away with those.

"You will write every day though, won't you?" Sophie looked mournful. "I'll treasure the special time we had together."

"Of course I will!" Another outright lie, but one that wouldn't be revealed as such until he was a long way away.

Sophie turned and smiled at the class. "And he has now utterly forgotten that he intended to buy me a drink."

Max blinked. Then laughed. "Layers upon layers of difficulty. Well done!"

"Now," he turned to his class. "You've seen a couple of different techniques. Both from Sophie, which gives you some examples of, admittedly extreme, behaviors you might have to deal with. And you've seen a few of the ways to do that. Now, there are always other things to deal with, and other ways to deal with them."

"So, those of you who want to discuss my technique, join me over here. And those who want to get some pointers from Sohpie, well, she's right there."

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"That'd mean talking and giving some of the game away, right?" she said, frowning a bit thoughtfully. "To make allies. Or else spinning more and more complicated lies."

"Part of it. It would depend on the person; some would understand that you can't tell them everything, and be satisfied, as long as they knew what to expect," Sophie said, wondering if this girl was already in the Game, and where. "You can make allies through lies, but then, as you said, you have to track the lies. As an actress, I've created, oh, hundreds of identities. There's an enormous amount of work that goes into creating a believable person for someone else to believe in, someone separate from yourself."

Ino tapped her fingers absently with her pen. Contemplating. Turning things over in her head. Lining up dots and seeing what she got.

And making a guess.

"So," Ino said, going the bold route with a voice that was lilting and eyes that were inquisitive. "Got any tips for that?"

"I might," Sophie said, amused. "Mostly it's a great deal of imagination and practice. Rather more than we can get into in detail here, I suspect." She cocked her head. "I run the gallery in town, and I'm usually there on Thursdays and Fridays, if you'd care to discuss it further."

Ino smiled, the first one she'd smiled all day.

"I might do just that," she replied. "It might be handy."

Living With Difficult Women [Tuesday, Period 5]

Re: Sophie's Group

Re: Sophie's Group

Re: Sophie's Group

Re: Sophie's Group

Re: Sophie's Group