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

Current Location: cafe fina

Entry tags:

stealth

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

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!]]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

"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.

"I don't believe you when you say you've never been bowling."

Well, Sakurazaki had been hoping she still seemed like the non-bowling type. She looks a little crestfallen, but then grins at Pippi with an incredulous arch of her eyebrow. "But you'd believe I'd wear a bunny suit?"

"In my defense, the never been bowling thing would have been a truth until just recently, buuuut...good job! Your turn."

"Why wouldn't anybody want to wear a bunny suit?" Pippi asked honestly puzzled.

"Okay um.... I once flew through a volcanic eruption in a wooden plane I made with my friends out of crates and parts of an old bike. I enjoy eating nuts and bolts just like my granny. Aaaaand... My totem animal is a horse."

It takes a moment to slip back into her mind after a bit of blinking and staring at Pippi. But Sakurazaki shakes her head to focus. Right, okay, let's see...

There were good ones... The slight absurdity of the first two made Sakurazaki consider them first, but then the simplicity of the last one made it too obvious. Meanwhile, the specifics of the first one confirmed it in Sakurazaki's head as a truth. So...

"I don't believe the one about the nuts and bolts. Your teeth are too nice. Either that, or it's a trick question and you actually do enjoy eating nuts and bolts, but your granny does not. Either way, I choose that one as the one containing the untruths, where ever it may be."

"You're right!" Pippi said. "Both Granny and I actually prefer nails! ... Would you like to go again?"

So her logic didn't quite match up, but Sakurazaki takes pride in at least guessing correctly.

"Sure!" There's a slight chuckle. This could get really fun, although she was doubting she could come up with things to beat Pippi's statements. Those were might good ones. "Okay, how about these? I won the last big Mahorafest Martial Arts tournament, my first kiss was with a ten year old boy who was also my teacher, and I got to live in a temple-palace when I was little."

"I'll go with the first one. Not because I don't think you could win, but there may have been one since you won."

Sakurazaki smiles. "That would be correct. I took second place to Negi-sensei, which is an honourable placing despite not being a win. Your turn."

"I once had to beg in the streets for money to buy clothing for my friends. My favorite candy is caramel. And I've had tea with the Queen of Araby."

Sakurazaki couldn't imagine Pippi begging so much as convincing in the streets, but she wasn't going to get herself tripped up on a potential technically. "The caramel one?"

"Nope!" she said, "Though I do love all candy, caramel is especially nice I think."

She looked around and thought about a penalty.

"Um... Dance."

"D..dance?"

That didn't sound like...too bad of a penalty, except for the fact that Sakurazaki had no idea how to dance. Face flushing a bit red and looking around quickly, she makes her best and quickest attempt, though. Which is mostly just a lot of wiggling of her hips, shoulders, and head.

Pippi applauded Sakurazaki's dance.

"What's that dance called? I've never seen it before."

The applause only seems to make Sakurazaki blush more. "Uh, it doesn't really have a name...But I guess I'd call it the 'Okay, Ready to Die Now'."

Pippi frowned a bit. "That doesn't sound like a very happy dance." she said. "Is it for sudoku?"

Pippi doesn't speak much in the way of Japanese.

"More like seppuku," Sakurazaki deadpans. "But I hear they're quite often associated."

Pippi nodded seriously, not quite getting the joke.

"So, do you want to do another?"

One of Sakurazaki's eyes slide shut as she considers the possibility of other tricky truths and lies she could possibly tell. She was running out of safe ones. And dancing sobered her up quite a bit.

"No, I think I'm good. If you don't mind, of course."

"Okay!" Pippi said. "Did I tell you how much I liked your movie last night?"

Sakurazaki grins. "Not directly, but your cheering said it well enough. I really enjoyed yours, too, you know."

"Thank you!" she said. "That was fun... I wonder if they want the cameras back..."

"It would be nice if not," Sakurazaki muses a little wistfully. "But I have difficulty imagining that they'd let us keep them for too much longer if we aren't putting them to practical use."

"I know I've been using mine." Pippi nodded. "I kinda figured maybe the price of the tuition included stuff like this?"

Re: Truth and Lies

bound2blade.livejournal.com - 2006-07-12 19:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Truth and Lies

strongestgirl.livejournal.com - 2006-07-12 19:26 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only