How to Win Friends and Influence People | Friday, period 1

[nuclear_snide]

Kanan had a techinicolor dalmatian with him today. He seemed less perturbed about that fact than even he felt like he should be, but he couldn't quite shake the thing, and he hadn't managed to nerve himself to dragging it back off the island and leaving it with its own kind again before the island had moved on.

That, and it cried whenever he left it behind in the apartment.

"How to win people to your way of thinking," he began, and then set the book down on the desk. "This chapter is full of things like 'avoiding arguments' and 'let the other person talk a lot.' Oh, and my personal favorite, 'let them think that your idea was their idea.'" Or something like that, anyway. Kanan was paraphrasing. He shook his head a bit. "And yeah, I guess people do love listening to themselves talk, but the amount of seeding you'd have to do in a conversation to make a person have the exact same idea as you while they're doing all the talking seems less like work and more like some kind of top spy espionage or something."

"Things like that tend to work best in arguments," Bob said. "Get them really annoyed, and they'll agree to things before they know what they're doing. Emotions are your tools." He grinned.

Kanan shook his head.

"A little pleasantness can go a long way. And actually taking into consideration the person you're talking to. You want to win someone over, engage them in a situation where they're comfortable and not on their guard. Ask 'em out for caf. Coffee." He gave Bob a side-eye, and then sighed. "Or you could bribe them."

That seemed to be an answer that came up a lot this semester already, okay?

It was a time-honored tradition! It worked!

"Trickery's a great way, too," Bob offered. "If they're not the sort to be won over by pure logic - if they are, well, there you go, just find a logical argument - get them to feel sorry for you, or as I said, annoy them, or just get them up in arms about something unrelated. Overly emotional people are less likely to accurately judge the worth of what you want. Get them on your side or violently against you, and they're easy to manipulate."

Which he'd actually learned from hundreds of years of manipulating people with talking, and not simply from watching politicians.

"So, pair up again, and pick something interesting, then try to get your partner to agree to your point of view. Any questions?"

Comments

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"I bet he will," Tip said, giving the dog a broad, goofy grin. "He's a good dog. Yes he is!"

Then she blushed faintly when she listened to herself. Still, she'd dare anyone to look at a little puppy face and NOT be compelled to tell it what a good dog it was.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan wasn't going to judge. Kanan talked to The Great And Powerful Dog like that whenever he thought nobody was looking.

"He's pretty much the best dog around," he decided, smirking as he leaned back against the desk. "Not that I'm at all biased."

This from the guy who wasn't going to keep him, honest.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"I'm inclined to agree with you," Tip said. "But only because Lincoln is on another planet. And I haven't really met any of the other dogs around here, just yet."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"Well, there we go," Kanan said, chuckling. "That's two. I think that makes it pretty much unanimous. Doesn't it, Dog?"

The puppy barked an excited little bark, and then wagged his purple-spotted tail so much that his green-and-blue-spotted butt was wiggling again, too. Which more or less seemed to be his default state. Either that, or napping.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

Well. He was a puppy, after all.

Tip giggled and gave the puppy one last pat before standing straight again. "Guess so. Is he going to come to all your classes, now?"

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"I suppose that depends on what I end up teaching in the future," Kanan replied. "And whether or not I can get him to stop crying whenever I leave him on the opposite side of the apartment door."

Hey, look. Kanan was a bleeding heart.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"Haven't started training him yet, huh?" Lincoln had been clingy too, right after the Chief died. It was a bit more charming when you had a tiny puppy and not an enormous great dane, though.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"I wouldn't even know where to start," Kanan admitted, a bit sheepishly. "Now that I guess he's going to be sticking around, I'm going to have to look that up."

This would probably call for a pit stop in the library.

Possibly with the dog.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"Um. Yeah." Sorry, Kanan, you were now getting Tip's patented 'why are adults idiots' expression. "It's kind of a big part of having a dog. If nothing else, so you can go places where dogs aren't allowed."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"Because of course there are places where dogs aren't allowed," Kanan sighed, looking down at the puppy. "Remember, buddy, I wasn't planning on bringing you home."

There was no heat in that at all, really. He had just declared the dog to be the best dog around, after all.

"The last few days have sort of been a rush, looking up what dogs even eat. They're nothing like the dogs where I come from, I was a little more concerned with not accidentally poisoning him or something."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"Not poisoning them is good. Though -- I mean, he is an alien dog. He might not be like Earth dogs, if that's what you're looking up." Earth dogs didn't come in those colors. As much as some folks liked to groom them to look like that, anyway. "Lincoln kinda came pre-trained. And you don't really train cats. But I think animal training's supposed to be pretty much the same whatever the species?"

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"I considered that, too," Kanan sighed. "The food thing, I mean. Considering where he came from, for all I know, he's supposed to be brought up on a steady diet of ice cream and pastries. But Earth dogs are closer to this guy than akk dogs, and even akk dogs eat meat."

He shrugged. "I kind of split the difference. He's eating chicken and eggs until I can be sure it's not making him sick. And the training part, I'll be starting right away. I've never really done it before, but he's smart and I'm stubborn. Hopefully that's a winning combination."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"Sounds good to me. I didn't really get a chance to explore the planet at all. Was it fun? It looked fun."

Well, to a fourteen year old girl it did, anyway.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"It was... colorful," Kanan decided, somewhat diplomatically, as he reached a hand up to scratch at his beard. "Everything was pretty friendly, at least. I was followed back to the island by a handful of friendly animals, Dog here is just the one who decided to stick around."

Probably for the best. Kanan really wouldn't have known what to do with a bear.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

Other than maybe eat it?

"Yeah, that's what I got from radio. That's why I didn't try to go. I've . . . kinda already accidentally adopted enough aliens, you know?"

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

Or try to pawn it off on Doctor Lecter. One of those things.

"Your friend back home and your bubbly pet, you mean?" Kanan smiled faintly. "I didn't know there was an upper limit on aliens, but growing up in a different galaxy might have colored my view a little."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"Aliens in general, nah," Tip said. "Aliens I bring home that Mom eventually might have to take care of?"

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"Okay, that's a bit different," Kanan allowed. "Probably. Unless your mom doesn't mind, I suppose."

He really had no idea what moms were and weren't supposed to do. He didn't exactly have memories of his own mother, after all.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"She's trying this whole 'responsibility' thing out," Tip said dryly. "I'm trying not to overwhelm her."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

Well... that certainly painted a picture.

"Eesh," Kanan said, so very eloquently. "Right, no more strange aliens than one mom can handle at once it is, then. Or unfamiliar living things in general, I suppose."

After all, even Val was alien by Kanan's standards. It as all a matter of perspective.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"That's the plan. Though at least with J.Lo, she has someone at home now to remember me by."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"So there's less room for... what's the phrase? Empty nesting?"

Seriously. No experience with parenthood in any form whatsoever, right here.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

". . . I guess?" That wasn't a phrase Tip had encountered much in her fourteen years so far, either. "I mean, me being here means we fight a whole lot less, so that's probably a relief. We've never had the most traditional mother-daughter relationship."

Actually, the fighting part was perfectly traditional for a mother and teenage daughter, but Tip still didn't entirely believe it.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"I... have no idea what a traditional mother-daughter relationship is supposed to look like," Kanan confessed. "But if this is working out better for the both of you, then I guess I can't knock it, either."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"Your ten year old daughter's not supposed to be the one who makes your doctors' appointments for you," Tip advised.