Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Tuesday | Period 4

[charming_thief]

So. Teaching.

When the Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles students arrived for class today, they would find their teacher ungodly attractive standing at the front of the room, clad in an expensive suit with his ankle tracker left deliberately visible on the outside of his pants. Some might argue that that would hurt his credibility as a teacher. Neal saw it differently. 

“Welcome to Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles,” he said once everyone was seated. “I’m going to be upfront with you and tell you that teaching isn’t something I ever planned to be doing. But you’re here and I’m here, and it’s my job to teach you all a little something about being wily and persuasive – and most of all, successful.” 

“But first,” he continued, “I’m going to challenge you all. A lot of teachers might have you introduce yourselves on the first day. I want you to bullshit me.” He doubted this was the kind of school where he could come under fire for using bad language, but if it was, it wasn’t like he’d ever gotten a high school diploma or sufficient experience in a high school environment to teach him that. “Introduce yourselves and try to convince me you’re someone else. Your classmates and I will be free to ask you questions to try and trip you up. Starting now.”

He pointed at someone, then gestured to the front of the room and took a seat on top of an empty desk in the first row. “Go.”

Comments

In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

Try to be convincing! Others can comment trying to test their classmates' authenticity.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Hi," Kenzi waved nonchalantly. "I'm Ryan Clark. First time here in the U.S. First class, even! It's really great to be here."

Kenzi shone with so much innocence she practically sparkled.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

Oh, she had had practice before. Neal was impressed.

Still, that didn't mean he was going to go easy on her.

"So where're you from?"

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[wheeler-360.livejournal.com]

"Vaughn Pearson," Marshall 'introduced' himself. "My dad runs Pearadyne Industries."

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

Uh-huh. So he was starting small, then.

"Which is...?"

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Ooooo. There was a scam to try in the future: Someone's heir.

"So are you going to fun the company when you graduate college?" 'Ryan' asked.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan hadn't even thought of a story for himself. He was just gonna let it flow. Leaning back in his seat, he crossed his arms and looked nonchalant about the whole thing.

"Seamus O'Sullivan, at your service," he said, giving Professor Caffrey a brief nod. Hey, at least he had the authentic accent, right? "This is me first time in a public school, sir. Back in Ireland, me mum had me enrolled in an Irish Catholic school and I must say, I never knew public school was like this."

Nathan could do wide eyed and amazed very well, thank you. He considered himself an excellent bullshitter.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

That was one hell of an accent. Neal was impressed.

"You seem to have picked up the public school attire pretty well for a first-timer," he observed casually. "Perfect slacker uniform."

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

Caroline usually loved class introductions, but she tended toward the terrible with lying so she actually had to work to seem relaxed about this one. Maybe it was wrong to play an actual person, but whatever, it wasn't like anyone here could know her.

"Hi, I'm Aimee Bradley," she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and smiling smugly at the group like she knew something they didn't. "Seventeen and a senior, recently of Fredericksburg. So far, I'm finding Fandom to be an excellent second home."

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

The fact that she left very little to be questioned about that introduction didn't stop Neal from questioning her.

Maybe the place of origin was the lie?

"Fredericksburg, Virginia? Great town," he replied. Then, eyes twinkling, he asked, "Favorite historical landmark?"

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[cursedconman.livejournal.com]

"I'm Kevin," Cassel said, waving a gloved hand. "Just transferred in from New York."

He figured nonchalant would work best here since he had established himself on the quiet side on Saturday, which was already a lie in itself. New York seemed like the easiest place to go with since he already had Jersey going for him and that accent could work just as well in some of the boroughs.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

Except that Neal was a New York native and could interrogate the hell out of him. Ha.

"New York, huh?" A faint trace of a smirk teased at the corners of his mouth. "What part?"

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"Hi," Quinn said, twirling a strand of hair in a way that drove Quinn crazy when she saw other girls do it. "I'm Brittany? I'm almost 18 and I like dancing, rainbows and cupcakes."

She was a decent liar, but -- maybe because half the class knew who she was anyhow -- somehow this didn't sound entirely sincere.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

The lack of sincerity and the fact that something about her just looked devious kept Neal from buying it. And, you know, the fact that the point of the lesson was to lie.

"So you're probably in that cupcake crimes class, right?" he asked innocently.

Which, okay, as a professional criminal, he totally didn't know any crimes you could do with cupcakes. Except poison, but that got old fast.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"Hi Brit! I so missed you last session!" Caroline said, totally willing to go along with Quinn's lie. Hot blondes unite and all that. "There was a whole class on cupcakes that you'd have died for."

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Surreal had been wary walking into this class, and now that wariness had served her well, since it was often a part of Tersa's normal demeanor. She'd lived with the mad witch often enough to be able to imitate some of her less-strange quirks, anyway.

"Tersa," she said shortly, keeping her eyes fixed on her desk. "Don't know how old I am, started at the beginning of the summer."

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

Neal, of course, hailing from Normal World, had no idea what that was about.

"You don't know how old you are?" he repeated. What, was she playing crazy? "Is this a born-again thing?"

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[mathletenomore.livejournal.com]

"Kim Kelly," she said, feigning disinterest. "From Detroit."

She figured giving short, nondescript answers would help her get away with this at least for a few moments.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

Well, the accent was right, anyway.

"Yeah?" Neal asked, leaning forward a little "Tell me about yourself, Kim."
Sorry, Lindsay.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[angelo_wings]

So, right away, Rinoa picked who she was going to be, figuring it was okay to use someone she knew, and unable to resist the idea. Okay, the question was whether she could pull off somewhat that SERIOUS or not. Maybe if she tried pretending she was using some of her Sorceress gravitas or whatever?

"My name," Rinoa said, trying to sound official, above-it-all, and somewhat bored, "is Quistis Trepe. I was the headmaster for Balamb Garden, but I got sent here instead."

Did she sound like she had groupies and carried a whip? She wasn't sure.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

Well, she sounded like maybe she had groupies, but once you knew Alex Hunter it was hard to imagine any other woman pulling off the whole whip thing. Still, she was doing a decent job.

"Really?" Neal asked. "And what were your responsibilities as headmaster?"

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

"Jerome," he said with a nod and a grin. "I'm from an island not too far from here. Father sent me to get my education, as my older brothers are due to inherit the family business and I'd just be underfoot." He looked at the other students, as if daring them to go next, or ask him questions.

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

Now that was an alias Neal could get behind.

"Why don't you get to inherit it?" he asked, boredly, examining his nails. "Seems a little unfair."

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[richieryan.livejournal.com]

Richie never really had much luck pretending to be other people. He could keep it up for a few minutes, but the details always got to him. So today he'd decided to be Mac, because then he wouldn't have to make up the details. Probably.

"I'm Duncan," Richie said. "Duncan MacLeod. Most people call me Mac." Start small, right?

Re: In-faux-ductions!

[charming_thief]

"Okay," Neal said, because there wasn't much he could contest there. "Mac. Ah, tell me about yourself, Mac."