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]

[notalender]

Hopefully someone nicely set the bullhorn down on Arietty's desk, rather than threw it. There was absolutely no way she'd be able to catch it.

It would probably serve to get her heard a bit better than her own little paper megaphone, at least.

Arietty jumped once and waved, to make sure folks could tell where she was, then shouted into the bullhorn. "I'm Arietty Clock!" she said. "I rode to class today on the back of a pet rat."

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

It took Josh a moment to find her.

"You usually this size or is this a Fandom thing?" he checked.

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[notalender]

Well. At least he didn't call her short.

"Are you usually that size?" she returned, her eye roll apparent in her tone. "Or are you a Fandom thing?"

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

Josh almost said he usually had more hair but then remembered that was just asking the island to have him wake up with a mullet.

"No, I'm normally this size. Sometimes I'm more handsome, though."

There, that couldn't hurt, right?

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[notalender]

"Uh huh." The tiny teenager was not impressed, Josh. "I'm a Borrower," she said, taking pity on him. "We're all this perfectly reasonable size." And then, 'cause everyone else seemed to have political stuff and really, who was going to check? "My father is the king of the Borrower Underground. He raised me in secret so his enemies couldn't kidnap me and try to take over."

That sounded waaaaaay better than "my father has survivor's guilt and is terrified I'll die just like my cousin Eggletina so he kept me hidden away under a clock for most of my life."

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"Is he a member of the United Nations?" Josh wondered.

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[notalender]

Arietty frowned. "Like that class the pony taught last semester?"

That would be a "no".

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"Right," Josh said, nodding. "I just want to be sure I didn't miss meeting him the last time I was at the General Assembly."

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[notalender]

"He doesn't like to be seen," Arietty explained. "Most borrowers don't."

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad you've made an exception for this class," Josh replied.

Re: Introductions [1/8]

[notalender]

Arietty shrugged. "I've already spent my whole life not being seen. I think I'm done with it."

Unless she was actively borrowing. People didn't react well to actually seeing you take their stuff.