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fandomhigh2011-10-19 09:29 am
charming_thief) wrote in fandomhigh2011-10-19 09:29 am
Entry tags:
Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Wednesday | Period 1
Neal had only gotten back to Fandom half an hour before class today was supposed to start. Which meant he hadn't yet seen his office, so he was still in a reasonably good mood. Lucky students.
Becase he had spent a grand total of no time planning today's lesson, and because Peter Burke had a habit of making sarcastic suggestions that actually sounded like really good ideas, class met in the Danger Shop. Where students would find a dark room without any furniture, but with two red buttons on opposite walls.
"So part of pulling off a good con is stealth," Neal said, which would've sounded much cooler except that he was kind of exhausted and had to yawn on that last part. Oops. "You have to be fast and move very carefully to avoid being seen or caught. So we're going to work on that today."
He hit a switch, and suddenly the room was filled with bright green laser beams, starting just feet away from where the students were standing. "The object is to get all the way from here to the other side, and hit that button there, without touching any of the lasers," he explained. "Meanwhile, for every twenty seconds you spend past a certain time, five more lasers will go up near the back wall. So you want to be fast, you want to be precise, and... you probably want to take off any jackets or loose jewelry you have."
If asked, he would run through the maze wearing the fedora and still not touch a single laser. But that was just bragging.
"The board up there will keep track of high scores," he added. "You can run through as many times as you want to to beat your time. Oh, and guys? Don't zap the lasers for your classmates while they're going through. That's just obnoxious."
Becase he had spent a grand total of no time planning today's lesson, and because Peter Burke had a habit of making sarcastic suggestions that actually sounded like really good ideas, class met in the Danger Shop. Where students would find a dark room without any furniture, but with two red buttons on opposite walls.
"So part of pulling off a good con is stealth," Neal said, which would've sounded much cooler except that he was kind of exhausted and had to yawn on that last part. Oops. "You have to be fast and move very carefully to avoid being seen or caught. So we're going to work on that today."
He hit a switch, and suddenly the room was filled with bright green laser beams, starting just feet away from where the students were standing. "The object is to get all the way from here to the other side, and hit that button there, without touching any of the lasers," he explained. "Meanwhile, for every twenty seconds you spend past a certain time, five more lasers will go up near the back wall. So you want to be fast, you want to be precise, and... you probably want to take off any jackets or loose jewelry you have."
If asked, he would run through the maze wearing the fedora and still not touch a single laser. But that was just bragging.
"The board up there will keep track of high scores," he added. "You can run through as many times as you want to to beat your time. Oh, and guys? Don't zap the lasers for your classmates while they're going through. That's just obnoxious."
Re: Run Through the Maze!
He reached back and tapped the button and... jogged at a relatively normal pace to the lasers. He was actually going a little slower than his classmates.
Stepping very deliberately over one of the beams, he twisted under another and was clearly concentrating very hard on getting this right. Grife. Max had better be proud.
When the extra lasers started going up, he was almost within reach of the other button. He almost fell on his face, narrowly missing one of the laser beams, but managed to roll under a third one. Finally, he reached up and tapped the button.
He looked up at the board to see his time. "Two minutes thirty three seconds," he panted. He looked across the room and leaned against the wall to catch his breath. "Tim would be laughing at me about now."