Public Speaking, Tuesday, January 8, 2013

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"Hey there," Josh said, standing behind a rostrum at the front of the room. "I'm Josh Lyman. You may all be suitably impressed now."

Yeah, it never worked in Fandom, but a guy's gotta try, right?

"Before I returned in glory to Fandom High School to teach you fine students, I was the Chief of Staff to President Matt Santos," he continued, "and before that I was the deputy chief of Staff for President Josiah Bartlet, and before that, I worked for various House and Senate members on the Hill. And before that, I got degrees from Harvard and Yale."

Be impressed, dammit!

"And in all of those places the ability to be articulate in front of large groups was absolutely crucial," Josh added. "If you can't make your point in a way people'll remember, there's no point in you even being in the room. This class will teach you how to be remembered."

He reached onto the shelf on the rostrum and pulled out a bullhorn, then tossed it to the nearest student. "And the first part of being remembered is making a good first impression. You each have fifteen seconds to get me to remember your name. Go."

Comments

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[glacial_queen]

After a few minutes of thought, Karla took the bullhorn. She had to use just the right words, because fifteen seconds wasn't long and just speeding through everything to make the case she wanted wouldn't make a good impression.

"I'm Karla," she announced. "I'm in this class because when I graduate in the spring, I'll be initiating a civil war in my homeland. I figure if you're going to ask people to fight and die on your behalf, you should at least be able to sound damn good when you do it."

Done! With four seconds to spare because I'm crazy and timed it!

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

Civil war would get his attention, yeah.

"Civil war?" he repeated.

See?

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[glacial_queen]

"My name is...?" Karla prompted.

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"Karla," Josh said. "Civil war. Go."

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[glacial_queen]

"When I was nine, my uncle had my parents assassinated and set up a puppet-Queen that he could rule through her," Karla said with a casual shrug. Because it was either pretend to be casual or give more of herself away than she liked. "In that time, he's managed to outlaw an entire caste of witches, bring back slavery, break any number of young females, bankrupt my Territory, and declare me dead. After I graduate, I'm going home to fix all that."

With war, because no one gives away power for free. Especially not after going to such lengths to get it.