Cafe Fina, Monday Morning, Stealth and Deception Workshop #1

[badassbutler.livejournal.com]

Alfred had sent out a handwaved e-mail that informed his students that their first class would be held in a private room at Cafe Fina.

When they arrived at the Cafe, they were led by Wadsworth to a back room where a long table with a delicious Cafe Fina breakfast spread lay. They were then informed that, due to unforeseen circumstances, Alfred would be a bit late this class.


Time goes by, and Alfred still does not show up. Fifteen minutes pass and the students, while enjoying their breakfasts, are possibly starting to wonder where the hell their teacher is.

Eventually, in one of the sudden silences that comes during meals, the students hear the scratching of a pen on paper.

Alfred stands up from his seat at the head of the table and flips closed his notebook. "For the curious, I've been here for quite some time now." He places the notebook down on the table, takes a sip of tea, and begins his lecture.



"Welcome to Stealth and Deception. Many of you already know me from coming to my restaurant, but for those that do not, my name is Alfred Pennyworth. In my younger and wilder days, I worked as an agent for British Intelligence before retiring to take up a position as family butler for the Wayne family of Gotham. Currenly, I'm on sabbatical and run a restaurant here in Fandom.


"Now, stealth and deception. As weapons, there are few in your armory more powerful than these simple tools. Sun Tzu himself could not state enough times the importance of knowing more about your enemy than he knew about you. With the proper application of stealth, you can win a thousand battles without ever having to resort to violence. Indeed, should you have to fire a shot or throw a punch or even dice someone to pieces with monofilament wires while using the techniques I intend to teach you, I'm afraid to say that you have failed."

"Unless, of course, your mission is an assassination," he added, giving Walter the slightest of nods.

"Now, many of you may be wondering how it was I escaped your notice for so long while you ate your breakfasts. The answer to this is the most basic tenants of stealth, and is the main lesson for today.

"The reason I escaped your notice today was that I had the proper mindset. Yes, mindset. By adopting a position of not wishing to be seen, by almost willing myself to become unimportant, unnoticeable; my body naturally follows suit, relaxing the muscles and becoming easier for the eye to pass over, easier for the brain to ignore." He smiled. "Generally this technique only works on people who aren't actively looking and who are in a generally relaxed state. Such as a bunch of students eating breakfast."

"Despite this, this mindset, along with one other, is essential to stealth. The other, is a state of paranoia. A belief that, at all times, someone is actively looking for you and you must take steps to insure that that person doesn't find you."



He smiled and refilled his cup of tea. "Well, that's enough of me lecturing you, which, if I remember my school days correctly, is always fairly boring. Why don't you all introduce yourselves. Tell us your names, a little about yourselves, and why you joined this class. Then, I want you to practice deception. Get up in pairs or groups of threes and play two truths and a lie. Tell your partner three statements, two of which are true, one of which is a lie. Your partner must guess which is the lie or face a penalty of your choosing."

He gave them a very serious glare. "And please, keep the penalties to the mildly uncomfortable or mildly embarrassing. I would not enjoy having to rescue you from angering one of the local monsters."

_{[[Wait for the OCD! OCD up!]]}

Comments

Truth and Lies

[badassbutler.livejournal.com]

How much do you really know about your friends?

Re: Truth and Lies

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana looked around to see who might like to pair up with her. She figured she and Phoebe knew each other too well for it to be fair to play together.

Re: Truth and Lies

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

Pip moved next to her, still munching on his croissanwich. "Ladies first," he said.

Re: Truth and Lies

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana smiled at him. "Okay, let's see... Both of my parents are dead, I was raised by my uncle, and I've never seen a zombie."

Re: Truth and Lies

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

Pip tapped his fingers against a table. "Well, I've never actually heard of zombies around here... so that's totally possible.

...You weren't raised by your uncle?"

Re: Truth and Lies

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia relaxed and looked around for people to team up with, going over what truths and what lies to use.

Re: Truth and Lies

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe decided that pairing up with Nadia had all kinds of chances for misinformation, fun and mischief.

Re: Truth and Lies

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia would certainly agree with that.

[ooc: headed to work. SP?]

Re: Truth and Lies

[sensethevisions]

Because this was the Best Idea Ever.


[[OOC: Being sick, sp is also my good friend. ;) ]]

Re: Truth and Lies

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

Pippi is sipping some orange juice and looking for somebody to play Alfred's game with.

Re: Truth and Lies

[bound2blade.livejournal.com]

Sakurazaki considered rather deeply who would be a good person to pair up with, and figured that Pippi would be excellent. They'd worked together before, but did not know enough about each other to make the game too easy. And to allow Sakurazaki to think of some truths that wouldn't have to be so drastically revealing.

So she sidled up to Pippi, still sipping her tea, and asked, "Care to pair up for this?"

Re: Truth and Lies

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

"Okay!" Pippi said. "Would you like to go first?"

Re: Truth and Lies

[bound2blade.livejournal.com]

"Sure! Let's see..."

What would be particularly good truths, and what would be a particularly good lie? And how to properly structure them all?

"All right. I've been nearly fatally wounded on my chest in the past, I've never been bowling, and I have donned a bunny suit, complete with floppy ears and bushy tail, before."

Perhaps not the best statements, but, around Fandom, she was sure a lot of her truths would be taken as every day stuff and not get the general outrageousness dismissal as they would in other conditions.

Re: Truth and Lies

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack finished his toast, licked his fingers clean, and looked around for someone to play with.

Re: Truth and Lies

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter looked around and spotted Jack. "Good morning. It looks like it is you and I."

Re: Truth and Lies

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Morning, Walter." Jack grinned. "This is the second class we've been partners in on the first day. You want to go first, or will I?"

Re: Truth and Lies

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Funny how that works," Walter said and smiled back. "I can start off. I am seventy-six years old, just returned from destroying a Nazi installation with the assistance of a vampire and his walking coffin, and the hardest part of being Alfred's student is keeping my shoes shiny enough."

Re: Truth and Lies

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

Seras looked around to see who still needed a partner.

Re: Truth and Lies

[greenmagebriar.livejournal.com]

"Need a partner?"

Re: Truth and Lies

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

Seras nodded.

"I'm game if you are."

Re: Truth and Lies

[greenmagebriar.livejournal.com]

Briar fingered one of the vines on his hands. "I made these tattoos move on purpose. I grew up on the streets of Hajra. My adopted sisters and I stopped a wild fire."

Re: Truth and Lies

[dude-its-jude.livejournal.com]

Is this the face of a liar? Huh? Come on, look at him. He's all cute and mellow.

Re: Truth and Lies

[bound2blade.livejournal.com]

Sakurazaki had already ran through a few rounds with Pippi, but there wasn't anything in the rules about trying the game with more than one person. Besides, she was dying to see how this would play out. She was definately a little more than surprised to see that he was taking this workshop, but she could only see it being a rather good thing, for several reasons.

Bashful smile firmly in place, she approaches him. "So," she grins lightly, "think you can, um, decept me?" She realizes that she probably made up that verb, but she doesn't particularly care.

Re: Truth and Lies

[dude-its-jude.livejournal.com]

Eeep.

"Uh, maybe?" he replied, wondering if it would be a good thing if he succeeded.

Re: Truth and Lies

[bound2blade.livejournal.com]

Awww, Jude didn't sound too confident. Confidence was important for decepting. So Sakurazaki gives him an encouraging grin. "Want me to go first? Or would you like to?"